BYU, Utah Begin MWC Farewell Tour
by Graham Watson
BYU and Utah open their final Mountain West Conference campaigns this weekend with games against Air Force and UNLV respectively, but neither BYU coach Bronco Mendenhall (right) or Utah's Kyle Whittingham is getting misty-eyed about the prospect of potentially playing their eight conference foes for the last time.
"I'm not a sentimental guy," Whittingham said in an interview with FanHouse earlier in the week. "My wife can attest to that. That's not in my makeup. You just move on. That may sound a little bit callous, but that's my mentality. Just take care of your business and move on."
Utah will be a member of the Pac-10 next year and BYU recently announced that it was going independent beginning in June 2011, a move that didn't sit well with the other members of the Mountain West.
Nothing either team does this year will count toward the Mountain West's attempt to gain automatic qualifying status, which is disappointing considering both teams are among the three current Mountain West schools ranked in the latest coaches poll.
by Brett McMurphy
FanHouse national college football writer Brett McMurphy shares his weekly Associated Press Top 25 ballot along with his next 15 best teams for FanHouse's Fab 40.
LANDOVER, Md. -- Minutes after Boise State's thrilling 33-30 victory against Virginia Tech Monday night, Kellen Moore would not answer my question.
"If you had a vote in the AP or coaches poll, where would you rank Boise?" I asked him.
"I'm not going to answer that," Moore said.
That's fine, Kellen, I'll tell you where I would rank Boise State: No. 1 with a bullet. The Broncos are ranked No. 1 on my Associated Press ballot this week.
Why Boise State?
Week 1 Coverage: Full Scoreboard | Latest Stories
by Milton Kent
Brigham Young's football independence is already paying dividends for the school, as it reached agreement with ESPN to televise its home games.
BYU and ESPN announced Wednesday an eight-year agreement where the Worldwide Leader will get first dibs on the Cougars' home games and any neutral site games that the school is designated the home team, with an ESPN option to extend the pact to 2019.The deal pledges at least three games per year on either ESPN, ESPN2 or ABC and one game on ESPNU. 
BYU athletic director Tom Holmoe
So this is how it all ends: or at least the beginning of the end for college football as we knew it and, mostly, loved it for decades.
A Mormon school that 26 years ago went undefeated to win the last national championship by one of the so-called "have nots" -- i.e. a school not from a BCS power conference -- is basically killing the rest of the non-automatic qualifying BCS schools with a lead pipe in the library. Or is it a knife in the study?
Doesn't matter. Actually, BYU isn't to blame for what's going to occur within the next 5-10 years, or, these days, 5-10 minutes in college football. The Cougars, by announcing they are going independent in football to chase the gold pot at the end of the BCS bowls' rainbow/double rainbow, are just the latest domino to fall in making an even greater gap between the "haves" and "have nots."
The Cougars didn't start the fire -- blame the Big Eight for raiding the Southwest Conference, or the ACC for picking off the Big East, or the Big Ten, or the Pac 10, OK, OK, everyone's to blame. The Cougars didn't start the fire, but they just poured a few gallons of nitroglycerin on the blaze by going independent. 
by Graham Watson
There was no time like the present.
That's what BYU athletic director Tom Holmoe (right) said Wednesday as he officially announced BYU's move to football independence, a move, Holmoe said, was years in the making.
"We knew that we could not let this window of opportunity pass us by," Holmoe said. "After years of consideration, we determined that there was no time like the present to chart a path toward independence in football."
BYU will break away from the Mountain West Conference on June 30, 2011 and 12 of its other sports, including men's basketball, will begin playing in the West Coast Conference during the 2011-12 season. Holmoe said the school was working on opportunities for softball, track and field and swimming and diving -- sports not offered by the WCC.
Western Athletic Conference commissioner Karl Benson held a somber teleconference after BYU's announcement. The WAC, which had been in play as the destination for BYU's 18 other sports, earned the consolation prize of BYU playing a total of nine WAC games during the 2011 and 2012 seasons to get their football scheduling jump-started. Benson also said the WAC was in preliminary talks with BYU to be the home for the leftover Olympic sports.
More BYU: From Mountain West to Mountain Top