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Provo • It's almost as if the Brigham Young Cougars just pulled their football team out from under the bed.You know, to where everyone can see it.The team that for years has viewed itself as a prestigious "national program" has assured that fans from coast to coast will be able to follow it better than ever before, by signing a landmark eight-year television contract with powerhouse sports network ESPN as part of its move to independence from the Mountain West Conference in 2011."We have some great partners who really wanted this to happen," athletic director Tom Holmoe said. "If everybody hadn't have been totally in, it wouldn't have happened."The deal rekindled an age-old relationship between the school and the network, and illustrated just what kind of influential partner was lurking behind the scenes during the Cougars' stealthy pursuit of independence over the past few months.Not only will it vastly expand the potential audience for Cougar games — every home game will be televised nationally, on either an ESPN channel or the school's BYUtv network — but it also will help the Cougs fill their annual 12-game schedule by enlisting ESPN as a partner to help arrange matchups.The network also owns a handful of postseason bowl games where the Cougars could end up, and could help influence negotiations to establish criteria for the Cougars to earn an automatic berth into the Bowl Championship Series.Holmoe said the Cougars are working on both those things."Once BYU decided to chart an independent course for football, we both recognized it is a good opportunity to build and grow our strong 30-year relationship," network senior vice president Burke Magnus said in a statement.Boy, did it show.Many skeptics wondered how well the Cougars could hope to fare in negotiating their own television deal, especially considering that independent Notre Dame — with its older tradition and much larger fan base — is the only other college football program in the country to have its own.Yet ESPN showed that it sees tremendous value in the BYU brand and the Cougars' national appeal.Under the terms of the deal, the network will televise at least three Cougar home games every season on either ABC, ESPN or ESPN2 — all available in the basic plan of most cable and satellite television services — with at least one other home game on ESPNU and all the rest on BYUtv.That means most home games will be televised nationally on stations far more accessible in more homes across the country than the Mountain West's television channel or its partner networks, where most Cougar games have been broadcast over the last four seasons. Fans frequently complained about finding games on networks such as The Mtn., Versus and CBS College Sports, which were not always available on every cable or satellite system, or without added expense.That won't be a problem with the ubiquitous ESPN — available in nearly 100 million homes — or even BYUtv, which the Cougars said is available in 55 million homes and more than 500 cable systems, as well as on the basic tier of both Dish Network and DirecTV satellite systems.Though financial terms were not disclosed, sources indicated the Cougars could reap between $800,000 and $1.2 million per home game — considerably more than the $1.3 million to $1.5 million they earned annually from the Mountain West's television arrangement.Many away games figure to wind up on an ESPN channel, too, since the network also has broadcast deals in place with most of the nation's top conferences whose teams will host the Cougars, whom ESPN credited with helping "put ESPN on the map" when it was growing throughout the 1980s and 1990s."It is a tremendous day … to be back in business with BYU," said Dave Brown, the network's vice president of programming and acquisition. "We've had a great relationship with BYU over the years."The Cougars beat Pitt in the first live college football broadcast on ESPN to begin their national championship season in 1984, and their upset of No. 1 Miami in 1990 remains the network's eighth-highest-rated regular-season game.Now, the team hopes to forge some new memories with its old partner."I'm excited about it," said former football coach LaVell Edwards, who said the Cougars "kind of grew up" with ESPN. "I think it's going to be interesting to see how it goes."mcl@sltrib.com —

The ESPN deal

• All home games will be televised nationally for eight years, from 2011 through 2018 seasons.

• At least three games on ABC, ESPN or ESPN2 each season, with at least one other game on ESPNU.

• ESPN gets first choice of games to broadcast. Games it doesn't choose will be shown on BYUtv.