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BYU is in big trouble.

It needs big help.

It needs a big benefactor, a big advocate with a big mouth, a big wallet, with big plans and big clout in order to get into the Big 12.

It's a big reach, a big deal, requiring big intentions, big connections and, more than anything else, that big, big money.

Know anybody or anything that could give BYU that kind of big push?

Memphis has it, with FedEx chairman Fred Smith, according to a recent report from ESPN, promising that his company would become a major sponsor of the Big 12, including its football championship game, if Memphis were admitted.

Smith wrote in a letter: "We believe the University of Memphis and the Big 12 are a great fit and hope our support will contribute to the University of Memphis becoming a member of this storied athletic conference in the near future."

Boom. Money matters. If Memphis gets in, FedEx will be a huge reason why.

The University of Houston, too, has a powerful billionaire that popped off this past week about the school, his alma mater, not just running down all the particulars why Houston should be in the Big 12, but also issuing a challenge to conference leaders.

Tilman Fertitta, chairman of the school's board of regents, owner of Landry's restaurant corporation and centerpiece of CNBC's reality show, "Billion Dollar Buyer," forthrightly told CBS Sports, and, by extension, Big 12 school presidents, that Houston belongs in the Big 12.

"I'm kind of disappointed it's not even an automatic — that they're even considering other schools," he said. "Houston's come a long way."

He also said: "Do you think … Texas fans are going to get excited about playing … Connecticut or Cincinnati? Or are you going to get more excited about playing Houston? … The thing about it is, you want to be an SEC conference. You want every team to be powerful, where one of your teams is in the final game every year. By adding Houston to the Big 12, all it does is make the Big 12 a power conference."

Fertitta talked about how Houston used to be in the old Southwest Conference, with some current Big 12 schools, the success it had there, and the advances Houston football has made in recent years, the eyeballs that are watching the Cougars, and his fear that the Houston market is slipping off to the SEC, away from the Big 12.

"I just don't understand the Big 12 not wanting to own Houston, Texas, which is soon to be the third-largest populace in the United States," he said. "To me, it's a no-brainer."

He chided Texas, and talk that the Longhorns don't want the competition Houston might bring to the league, saying: "That's kind of disappointing that Texas, with their big budget, fears the University of Houston. For other schools in the Big 12 to keep them out because they're scared of them, men need to be men. … I've never feared competition. It's disappointing schools in the Big 12 fear competition."

Fertitta told CBS Sports that he has no issue with big-money powers involving themselves in the process: "Money talks. … I don't have a problem with people stepping up and doing whatever it takes."

So, who, if anybody, with power and money could step up for BYU?

Bill Marriott and Jon Huntsman are wealthy Mormons, and there are others, but who knows if they'd want to help the Cougars get into a P5 league? J. Willard Marriott helped pay for BYU's basketball arena, but who knows how far the Marriott tradition would go from there. Huntsman's name is on Utah's arena, and he's a big-time Ute basketball booster, but he's busy now donating hundreds of millions to a little matter more important than even football: curing cancer.

Maybe the LDS Church itself, which reportedly is worth billions and billions of dollars, should put up a strong move, making an offer from church leadership — its own version of the Big 12 — to the other Big 12. It could sponsor the league's football title game. Call it "The Book of Mormon Bowl," or the "We Thank Thee Oh God for a Profit" Bowl.

I dunno. What is plain to see is that BYU needs a big boost, a big benefactor.

Like Fertitta said: "Money talks."

GORDON MONSON hosts "The Big Show" with Spence Checketts weekdays from 3-7 p.m. on 97.5 FM and 1280 AM The Zone. Twitter: @GordonMonson.