Questions and answers: BYU football gets full taste of Big 12 media attention

When BYU head football coach Kalani Sitake and his group of selected players — linebacker Ben Bywater, defensive lineman Tyler Batty, wide receiver Kody Epps, punter Ryan Rehkow and quarterback Kedon Slovis — settle in for interviews on Wednesday at Big 12 media days in Dallas, in a general sense it won’t be anything new. All of those individuals have fielded hundreds if not thousands of questions during their time in football. What will be new, however, will be the venue. For the first time in more than a decade, the Cougars will be at a conference media day where reporters who cover other schools will get the chance to know a little bit more about the guys representing BYU. On the flip side, media members who focus on BYU coverage will get the chance to see what other conference players and coaches will say about the new league and the Cougars. It’s unlikely that there will be too much that is truly noteworthy, since the teams have yet to actually play, but there may be some interesting tidbits sprinkled through the festivities. There is certain to be plenty of expansion talk, since the league will only be at 14 teams for one year before Texas and Oklahoma leave to join the SEC. Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark has publicly said that he would like to add at least two more teams to stay at 14. “With what he has said publicly, you can only imagine what he is saying privately,” BYU director of athletics Tom Holmoe said last week. “I think there is no question that is one of the key elements of moving forward for conferences. When you see the impact that schools like UCLA and USC and Texas and Oklahoma have on the total landscape of college athletics, the domino effect is amazing.” Holmoe said that leagues have to be paying attention to the possibilities and he complimented the efforts Yormark has put in to keep on top of things for the Big 12. “That allows us to stay focused on what we have to do to be great and not be distracted by the ifs or the possibilities,” Holmoe said. “I feel he brings us the perfect amount of information so that we aren’t distracted but we know what’s going on.” Holmoe didn’t speculate about what programs the league might be looking at, although there has been buzz about Colorado and Arizona State possibly becoming part of the Big 12. It’s likely that the athletes and coaches who talk at media day will be respectful when discussing the other programs, since few want to provide bulletin-board material for future opponents. What happens behind the scenes, however, is far more intriguing. While politicking isn’t usually necessary for teams (either they win or they lose), it’s not as straightforward when it comes to institutions, presidents and athletic directors working with the commissioner and the conference officials to decide the course of the Big 12. That’s a new reality for Holmoe and BYU, who have spent more than a decade with no one (except ESPN, of course) to answer to. “It’ll be different,” Holmoe said. “In the West Coast Conference, I would go in and the only thing I talked about was basketball. In this conference, football is king. Our priority at BYU is football and I’ve said that 1,000 times. I don’t think that’s a question.” While that is generally understood, he also knows that everyone won’t always have the same goals. “As ADs, the closer that we are together as partners, the better off the conference is going to be,” Holmoe said. “We have to figure out ways where we can fight each other, have those backyard brawls like brothers, but still continue to work together. If there’s politics, it’ll hurt us.” He explained that he has been in meetings with his peers in the Big 12 for over a year and a half and he likes what he has seen to this point. “It seems like the collaboration with the schools has been very strong,” Holmoe said. “I would not expect that to change. It’s a great time to be coming in the Big 12 because when Oklahoma and Texas left, those other eight schools and the conference office did some amazing work. It wasn’t me. It wasn’t BYU or UCF or Houston or Cincinnati. They not only kind of kept it alive, they asked us to join and then they brought us in like we were really part of it.” But while he doesn’t think there are a lot of politics now, he said he has to be ready “to protect our sport and the other sports.” While Holmoe, Yormark and the other athletic directors and school presidents make the big decisions, it will be up to the football players and coaches to make sure the league continues to compete at an elite level. And although that will only happen on the field in the fall, the conference media days are a milestone, indicating fall camp is just around the corner and the games themselves will be here before you know it.