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Provo

How long before BYU moves on to the Big 12?

That one question hung thick like a cumulus cloud over Wednesday's otherwise sunshiny news conference here officially announcing and addressing BYU's declaration of independence in football and move to the West Coast Conference in basketball and other sports.

Even before the first comment from any BYU administrator about the initial step, after weeks of waiting for definitive information from the Cougars, the second step strode into the minds of nearly everyone on hand.

How long would this new getup last?

Independent status in football, it seemed, was a quaint, liberating notion, in a temporary sense, a get-out-of-jail card played by BYU to extricate itself from a paltry, limited Mountain West Conference television deal that gave it neither the exposure it wanted, nor the cash.

An eight-year arrangement with ESPN suddenly smoothed that over, a partnership that will put all of BYU's home football games on one of the channels owned and operated by the World Wide Leader.

And what about Dave Rose's team to the WCC, a conference that plays decent enough hoop at the top, but that is made up of schools that range between 3,000 and 9,000 students, all against BYU's 33,000?

How good a permanent fit is that?

Rose, who was at the news conference, was pleased to be playing on ESPN, again, in that league, but he knows, we all know, that the WCC is a marginal long-term solution for Cougar basketball. When you can simultaneously load all of the University of Portland's, all of St. Mary's, all of the University of San Diego's, all of Pepperdine's, and nearly all of Gonzaga's current students into the Marriott Center, what does that say?

Something really good, if you believe all the wonderful things that were spoken at Wednesday's presser in the bowels of LaVell Edwards Stadium, a building big enough to seat the combined enrollments of all the schools in the league, all at the same time, with 10,000 seats to spare.

"The WCC is a great fit for us and we are a great fit for them," BYU athletic director Tom Holmoe said.

Yeah, those schools are all private, faith-based institutions. And that part really is a terrific match. It's a league centered around three states: California, Oregon, and Washington, and now a fourth in Utah. That makes for convenient travel, for nice destinations, and for miniature venues in which to play. Outside of NCAA sweetheart Gonzaga, the big time, it's not.

And a hitch that for so long was obvious to decision-makers at BYU, continually delaying this kind of move for independence in football — namely, secondary status for all the other sports, stuck now in the WCC — could not be polished up amid the faux celebration Wednesday.

Almost everybody associated with BYU football was stoked about its new status, although the point can be debated regarding whether they should be, but coaches in the other sports? Give them truth serum, and then ask how they feel.

So, even as BYU put on a happy face here, you had to wonder how long the whole thing will stay together like this. Holmoe expressed his excitement at the new opportunities for football, and they do exist — potential big-time opponents, easier access for BYU fans, targeting specific recruiting markets, among others — but admitted the independent route is an arduous one, what with having to constantly put into place a good schedule, one that has just enough worthy competition without killing his program.

"It's hard," he said, calling the entire endeavor a "leap of faith."

If the Big 12 or some future super-conference comes calling, BYU will be gonzo. Holmoe wouldn't come out and say that. In fact, when he was asked about any escape clauses that allowed BYU to get out and go when such an invitation comes, he danced like Baryshnikov, answering neither directly nor definitively, placing such considerations "out in the future" somewhere.

Gonzaga athletic director Mike Roth had already told The Spokesman-Review in Spokane on Tuesday that BYU had "given us assurances and backed that," that the Cougars would not simply step on the WCC like a rock in a stream to keep their Nikes dry on their way to another major conference. But he nodded to conference commissioner Jamie Zaninovich, saying the commish needed to address that issue.

Zaninovich was having none of it Wednesday, when he was confronted with questions about it.

"It's hard to predict what the national landscape will look like," he said. "I anticipate [BYU] being with us for a long time."

We'll see.

A lot of people believe the Big 12 will eventually look to BYU for expansion. And if and when it does, or if and when any super conference bats its eyes and turns its heel at the Cougars, everything that happened at LES on Wednesday will be washed out.

It will take little faith to make that leap.

GORDON MONSON hosts "The Gordon Monson Show" weekdays from 2-6 p.m. on 1280 AM The Zone. He can be reached at gmonson@sltrib.com.