On DJ and PK the other day, a guy came on (can't remember his name...) and talked about why BYU football is having a hard time getting into a major conference.

Reason #1: They are hard to deal with and very entitled.

They won't play on Sunday which is a big deal for sports other than football. They have ticked a lot of schools and conferences off because of this. When they are rejected for their not playing on Sabbath day rule, they play the "persecution card" which again ticks schools and conferences off.

They also are very demanding with their television rights. They demand rights and money that they won't share with other conferences with their ESPN contract (which they will probably lose after this season) and they want the games to be rebroadcast on BYU TV which annoy conferences as well.

Reason #2: Location

The Pac-12 has already said, "no" and they really want to get into the Big-12 or Big-10. It takes time away from sports to travel, and a lot of these other programs don't want to fly out and spend even more travel time to come all the way to Provo to play a school they really don't respect.

Reason#3: Religion

These schools and conferences really don't want to be associated with a school with a controversial religion. The "honor code" is a huge turn off for a lot of these schools. Thousands cried foul when Brandon Davies was suspended in the NCAA basketball tournament by BYU saying it was unfair and it is his life. Kids are getting suspended enough by the NCAA and they don't want a school with really strict requirements making the situation worse. They want BYU to be competitive. Suspending athletes makes them less competitive.

BYU athletics is in trouble, just like the rest of the church. They can either remain independent, which they will probably do. Or go back to a lesser conference like the MWC or the WAC. Tom Holmoe has run the whole athletic program into the ground. Recruiting is getting worse and worse for them every year.

As a side note, they also touched on the fact that many BYU fans feel that Bronco Mendenhall is inspired of God and runs the team like a mission president runs the mission.

Tom Holmoe tweeted "Kudos Jeremy Guthrie on winning World Series game. Blessings continue from serving church mission."

So why isn't God blessing BYU football whose team is full of return missionaries???

A local kid I've known since he was 8 (and I used to be his little league coach) is now a high-school senior, and has already committed to BYU with a full scholarship.
His family was long-time inactive mormons, and his dad had a reputation (as the little league president) of favoring his kid at the expense of others, and pulling nasty little tricks.
Three years ago, when he was a sophomore, his dad got the baseball coaching job at the local high school, so he could shape his kid. The first year he had the job, three seniors quit two weeks into the season because dad played his sophomore kid instead of them. The second year he coached, there were rumors of "financial irregularities" in the baseball program -- and then the rumors turned fact when the dad was fired for embezzling over $20k from the baseball program for himself, and was charged criminally (he took a plea and avoided jail).
Now I'm told the family officially went "reactive," attending the local ward regularly, mainly because being active would increase the kid's chances of a full scholarship at BYU (which apparently it did).

Such putzes. All of 'em.

So... when looking for a university to join your conference, would this higher education school fit the criteria you'd be looking for?

http://aims.byu.edu/

The (then) Pac10 didn't think so. I'd bet others see it the same way.

BYU is obviously NOT like the others, but it cries foul when the others won't accept them.

The second point is silly. The location is not a problem for the Big 12 and was not the reason BYU was not accepted into the Pac-12. The Big 10, like the Pac 12 is not considering BYU under any circumstances. The Big 12's problems with BYU stem primarily from the fact that Texas and Oklahoma don't want to deal with BYU being a constant pain in the butt.

Religion is an obvious issue but the absolute biggest issue with BYU and religion when it comes to sports is no Sunday play. The NCAA member institutions all sallied forth to BYU's defense on the no Sunday play issue back in the '80's and BYU uses that as a club to maintain that antiquated position.

That's what I was thinking. The Big 12 added West Virginia which is pretty far from the other schools. BYU would probably be closer than West Virginia.

they aren't going to reach back to the west. There are more eyes for TV sets east than in the Intermountain West.

Big-12 is enjoying splitting their share of the pie only 10 ways instead of 12. Any more additions at this point would probably dilute the funds, but if they were to happen they'd probably come from the east.

Saw a poll of coaches the other day that had BYU top of non power conference teams that deserved to be in a power conference. Don't recall which school came second but Boise State was third.

not AD's or administrators.

So maybe that's unfair to athletes and coaches, but if the administrators want to know why, just look in the mirror.

Also I know a couple academic issues are important to the Pac-12 1) research effort and status, 2) academic freedom issues
http://www.aaup.org/our-programs/academic-freedom/censure-list