I saw an amusing blog post by a Ute fan tonight. In that post the author, D. MAC, seems confused about several things related to BYU football and BYU fans. I can't speak for all BYU fans of course but I can speak for myself so I'll do so here quoting his post in italics and responding below.
Do you want to be an Independent national power? Because quite frankly that isn’t realistic. Notre Dame can’t even do it anymore.
Here Mr. Mac provides an assertion that no independent college football team can be a "national power". However he doesn't provide anything close to sufficient evidence or argument to support his outlandish claim. Further, it is unclear what he even means when he says "national power". Perennial top 25 team? BYU is already that. Perennial top 15 team? There is nothing about independence that precludes BYU from achieving that goal. The fact that Notre Dame hasn't been a perennial top 25 team in recent years is no evidence that they or any other independent team cannot be. Correlation is not causation.
But to answer the first question, sure, BYU football no doubt wants to be a "national power" (which I will assume means a perennial top 25 team). I am pretty sure every college football team has the same aspirations.
Do you want to be in the Big XII? Because you had a chance and blew it, hard. And not in the good sense of that.
Sure, if the Big12 invites BYU and the terms are good BYU would likely accept and fans would be pleased. But if they don't BYU is already in a great position currently. And while it is a popular to spout off about how BYU "blew it" with the Big12, it is also baseless and unsupportable speculation.
I don’t get your obsession with BYUtv. I quite frankly don’t get your obsession with ESPN even.
What's hard to understand about the value of massive TV exposure? Unlike state schools (like the UofU) who mostly have local interest, BYU has a large national and even international audience. National TV exposure is great for those far flung BYU fans. National TV exposure is also great for BYU's national rankings because being very visible to poll voters helps. In addition, massive TV exposure is a great draw to recruits who want to be seen on national TV.
Because at the end of the day, I ask, so what. What are you playing for? Pride?
Is this a trick question? If not here is your answer:
In other words, that's a clown question bro.
Because what you are right now is the most well funded exhibition team in the history of college football.
This is a ludicrous statement. You seem to be implying that being in a conference is somehow super duper important and somehow it makes games for teams in conferences more super duper special. That assumption is laughably silly.
Look, in the end there is just playing the season and winning as many games as possible. This is just as true for Notre Dame and BYU as it is for teams in conferences.
In BYU's first season as an independent the team got massive TV exposure nationally, won 10 games, and finished ranked in the top 25. What did joining the Pac12 do for Utah that would make Ute fans crow? Despite soundly beating a BYU team that had yet to find its rhythm early in the season, Pac12 University... errr... Utah was hardly seen on TV at all and finished unranked.
I don't mind you being happy with your lot. But it is baffling to me that you can't see why many BYU fans are extremely happy with their own situation as well.