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Provo • Perhaps sensing that their chances to join a prestigious BCS conference were slipping away, Brigham Young University officials finally confirmed their flirtation with the Big 12 Conference rather late in the game last month.
The Big East is now knocking on BYU's door, asking the Cougars to join their beleaguered, less-prestigious league in football only, and school officials are apparently more willing to acknowledge that mutual interest than they were with their original suitor.
BYU football coach Bronco Mendenhall confirmed in his weekly news conference Monday that the Big East is making a push for BYU and trying to "convince" the football independent to join a still-forming Western division of that conference, along with Boise State and Air Force.
"There is a push," said Mendenhall, who generally referred all conference realignment questions to athletic director Tom Holmoe or school president Cecil Samuelson on previous occasions. "There are conversations that are in place for the Big East to convince, or to have BYU join the conference."
Mendenhall said he has been informed by school officials that "we have been approached" by the Big East, but reiterated he is not involved in the negotiations and did not offer an opinion on whether he wants his football program to join. He said he trusts that Holmoe and Samuelson will make the best decision regarding BYU's intentions, but does not believe "the time frame [for making a decision] is relevant at this point."
However, neither Holmoe nor Samuelson would comment regarding their head coach's revelation on Monday, an athletic department spokesman said.
"No, [there's] nothing more to say other than we've had some conversations with the Big East," said Duff Tittle, BYU's associate athletic director for communications.
Mendenhall, whose team is preparing to face Idaho on Saturday at LaVell Edwards Stadium (7:15 p.m., ESPN2), said the main reason BYU would be interested in joining the Big East is to be a part of an automatic-qualifying BCS league. The Big East will have BCS status through the 2013 season, but it is losing Syracuse and Pittsburgh to the ACC and TCU and West Virginia to the Big 12, and will likely need schools such as national college football power Boise State and perhaps BYU to retain its BCS status.
"Certainly, plenty of questions on our part are in place," Mendenhall said. "But with the [college sports] landscape changing, the main benefit that I could see on a short-term scale would be inclusion into the BCS system. That is up in two years. If the Big East is able to hold that spot, with the new teams going in? My guess would be yes [it would]."
Last week, leaders of current Big East schools gave commissioner John Marinatto permission to invite Central Florida, Houston and SMU in all sports and Air Force and Navy in football only.
Friday, the Idaho State Board of Education gave BSU president Bob Kustra authorization by a 7-1 vote to join the Big East. However, the Mountain West Conference has said the Broncos will not be allowed to keep their non-football sports in the MWC. It is believed that Boise State is looking to land its Olympic sports in the WAC, Big West or West Coast Conference. Most of BYU's non-football sports are in the WCC and would presumably remain there if the football program joined the Big East.
One of the major issues BYU would have to work out with the Big East is how to utilize its own television network, BYUtv, which is able to air all of its football games — live or on replay — through BYU's current TV deal with ESPN. The Salt Lake Tribune reported last month that concerns over television rights and BYU's demands to incorporate BYUtv was one of the primary reasons the Big 12 — at the behest of its television partners — backed off BYU and went after TCU as a replacement for Texas A&M.
Twitter: @drewjay