Members

[Matt]

Scott went to Springville, not Spanish Fork. I was a sophomore at SHS when Scott was a senior.

[Matt]

As a zoob fan (yes, I can call byu that since I’ve called us that since the early 80s)I love espn+. You’ll get 1 FB game on ESPN+ is all and that will be SUU. The rest will be on ESPN, ESPN2, ABC, Fox, FS1.

So I guess you could put off getting it until basketball season. However, if you like the minor sports like girls volleyball, Soccer, Mens Baseball, Girls softball, they will ALL be on ESPN plus. The Big 12 is a great league for these sports and well supported by the schools. I’ve been amazed that byu girls basketball games on the road have 10k plus fans. BYU has never had high attendance for girls basketball.

I’ve enjoyed being able to see EVERY B12 mens basketball game. I care now about BYU basketball where I had checked out for the past 10 years in the WCC. This is the funnest it’s been since the early 80s to late 90s in the WAC. Those will always be my favorite basketball memories since I was a teenager during the 80s and BYU, Utah, Utep, N Mexico, Wyoming, SDSU and others were fun close rivalries. It was a good league and we were usually in the top 3. You guys were a basketball power and had great fan support from the 70s to early 2000s? What in the hell happened? The special events center as I still call it was one of the best environments in cbb.

[Matt]

LES is actually a very nice stadium. This last season they got a new head groundskeeper and the quality of the playing surface was the worst I’ve seen it. Usually the natural grass field is one of the best looking in the country. I’ve never like the disconnected stands, but it is what it is. My family had season tickets in the SE endzone about mid way up from 1982 when it expanded until around 2010 when BYU moved the student section to the south. It is a gorgeous setting with Mt Timp to the north and the mountains directly east of the stadium The disconnected stands actually give a better view. Much better than RES.

It’s an old stadium, but I have too many great memories there to see it blown up and start over. It used to be really Plain Jane, but compared to the 80s when first expanded, it has so much better atmosphere now. No longer skittles stadium like in the 80s to late 90s. I always used to envy the Utah crowd since they did wear Red even though they had a small stadium. Now I’ll put our crowd up against Utah any day as far as wearing school colors. And now that we’ve gon back to Royal blue, the color really pops. By the way, I know my profile says Utah fan, but I don’t know how to change that. I’m a BYU fan than doesn’t hate the Utes.

One thing I like about the stadium is you can instantly recognize it when people tune into a game. All these newer stadiums are so similar, especially in the NFL and NBA. LES would look better with filled in corners, but I don’t see them ever doing that simply because the angles of the seats are different from the sidelines to the endzones. You’d have to blow up the east and west stands and rebuild to match the steeper angle of the end zones, and I don’t see BYU (church) spending that kind of money, even though they have the funds.

[Matt]

You know nothing about how good the Big 12 is after one week. I’ve seen Power 5 teams lose to 1 AA (FCS, but I refuse to call it that. I’m old school) and go on to win the conference. Washington lost to Montana a couple of years ago. Pac teams have lost to Portland St, Sacramento St, and others over the years.

I didn’t watch Baylor, but some of these Sunbelt, CUSA type teams are sneaky athletic. That is what BYU found out last night. It’s difficult to get up for game like this. BYU is used to opening their season vs P5 teams so this is new to them. Their schedule in Indy had to be front loaded with 4 or 5 P5’s because once conference play started, it was difficult for them to schedule anyone decent after September. You watch, BYU will have another unimpressive win against SUU next Saturday and then will be huge underdogs to Arkansas on the road the next week, and then they will play out of their minds and pull off an upset. Kalani is famous for this.

In any case, the new Big 12 next year will be fine. 16 P5 teams and there will be 5 or so really really good teams. I assume Utah will be in the top 4 as long as Kyle coaches.

[Matt]

The Utah crowd got really quiet when the Utes were on offense. Second half was really quiet when the game was in the bag. Hell of a first half though.

[Matt]

I have my surround sound on and it sounds loud to me. Especially the first half where there was something to cheer about. Fowler and Herbstreit are at the stadium. For big games like this, they are always on site. During Covid it was ridiculous and you could totally tell they were in an ESPN studio in Connecticut. It is especially obvious with some of the G5 games and FCS. They don’t break the budget for those types of games.

[Matt]

I think white cleats look so much nicer and cleaner than black cleats. Only teams that should be wearing black cleats are Penn State, Michigan, USC, and Notre Dame. Teams in the NFL that wear black make the uniforms sloppy. White has come back into style. In my high school days in the mid to late 80s, ever high school, college, and NFL team wore white cleats except those 4 schools listed above.

[Matt]

You have the years wrong.  It was 2020 that was the covid season.  BYU played 11 regular season games and a bowl game.  Only 3 original games scheduled were played.  Navy, Houston, and San Diego State.  BYU had a solid schedule that year including Minnesota, Utah, ASU, Michigan State, Missouri, Stanford, Houston, Boise St.  That is a P5 level schedule.  It’s not BYU’s fault the woke PAC decided to puss out and not play the season.  BYU was loaded in 2020 with Wilson, Algier, Milne, and a great Oline.  

Utah is going to pick their academic snobbery over playing in a real football conference.  So stupid not to join the Big 12 with Colorado and the Arizona schools.  Enjoy having your program not seen on TV.

[Matt]

I didn’t even think about how I phrased it with Mens/Girls. I’m 53 so to me these young ladies aren’t women yet. Just girls. Being a BYU fan, most of our players are older so I put them into the men category.

[Matt]

Where have you been?  Colorado left a week and a half ago.  Hope this is sarcasm.