What Happens To BYU Football If Only Conference Games Are Played?

PROVO, Utah – No one really knows what a college football season will look like or if there will even be one. Options are all over the place with a spring season, a split season or a condensed season with only conference games.

That third option should give BYU fans a bit of a scare as the Cougars are not affiliated in a conference. Their 2020 schedule features only one game against a team that is not in an FBS conference in North Alabama, an FCS team.

If a decision comes down to college football only playing conference games, BYU would be left out in the cold and scrambling to add games. There are only six other independents including the newbie, UConn then Notre Dame, Liberty, UMass, New Mexico State, and Army.

What will the return of NCAA sports look like?

The NCAA's COVID-19 advisory panel has put together nine core principles to help guide institutions as they answer these challenging questions: https://t.co/tB0rYHqDzM pic.twitter.com/gV0JBKloAN

— Inside the NCAA (@InsidetheNCAA) May 1, 2020

All of those teams will be in the same boat as BYU and that includes Notre Dame who would have to struggle to fill out its schedule.

BYU’s Entire 2020 Schedule Could Look Like November

KSL Sports BYU insider Mitch Harper sees a doomsday scenario for the Cougars if college football ends up playing just league games.

91 student-athletes at #BYU graduated in the class of 2020. Including 18 from the football program. @kslsports https://t.co/li3qo3iUFF

— Mitch Harper (@Mitch_Harper) April 24, 2020

“I don’t think you would see BYU play any Power 5 teams, for sure,” Harper said. “BYU has games against Michigan State and Minnesota and the Big Ten hired its coronavirus task force of their own. I can’t imagine they want to deal with dealing with sending their teams out West.

“If it were conference games only, you are talking probably two games vs. Liberty an FCS game, and you are looking at a schedule that every BYU fan hates in November… and that is what you are talking about if BYU was totally forced to play conference teams.”

That schedule looks and sounds horrendous, according to KSL Unrivaled. Even if somehow or someway they were to get Notre Dame on the schedule that wouldn’t make up for playing the other teams. The Cougars playing well and going say 6-2 of 7-1 would feel nice but the wins would not be against high-quality opponents making it hard to judge the success of the Cougars.

Then there is figuring out when and where to play these games against fellow independents would be a massive headache for everyone involved.

The conference-only scenario seems to be a last resort or doomsday scenario for the NCAA because every other option will be looked at to play a regular 12-game season to make sure to earn as much revenue as possible for their athletic programs.

Tune into KSL’s Unrivaled every Monday through Friday, 7-9 p.m., or download the KSL NewsRadio app to subscribe to the podcast.