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Provo

Chad Lewis could not stop grinning as he watched highlights of BYU's 1996 football season, featuring himself as a playmaking tight end, joined by a bunch of talented, productive teammates. The Cougars annually turn their Football Media Day into an observance of the past, and this program has produced a lot to celebrate, including the 14-1 season that began with a home win over Texas A&M and ended with another rally to beat Kansas State in the Cotton Bowl.

The present also is fascinating for BYU, with enthusiasm surrounding offensive coordinator Ty Detmer and coach Kalani Sitake, probably in that order. The future is where it gets tricky. BYU's independent status raises questions about the Cougars' ability to keep playing at the highest level of college football, as members of Power 5 conferences keep generating huge revenue. The Big 12 may expand at some point and include BYU. Otherwise, the competition could become overwhelming.

"Pretty soon, the war chest that other teams and other conferences have is so enormous that you're playing two different games," said Lewis, a BYU associate athletic director. "You're recruiting two different ways. So that's got to give, right there."

That's an honest, if foreboding, statement. Yet this discussion would be happening even if the Cougars had stayed in the Mountain West. Independence may not be the long-term solution for BYU, but it is not the problem in itself. Anyone who suggests the move has failed for BYU has to suggest the Cougars turned down a Power 5 opportunity or that they would have played in a major bowl game as MW members.

No evidence exists for either argument. BYU's independence stemmed from ambition, not arrogance, and it has been worth the effort.

BYU is just as well or better positioned as a Big 12 candidate from this platform. And the independent schedule has created some high-profile games around the country, serving the school's built-in following. Three games with Texas, two vs. Notre Dame and visits to Wisconsin, Nebraska, UCLA and Michigan could not all have happened if BYU had remained in the MW.

The only case that could be made for BYU's having lost anything in independence involves the LaVell Edwards Stadium ticket-holders, asked to support unattractive home schedules and inconvenient kickoff times. That's not insignificant, considering the average commute of BYU fans from around the state.

The payoff eventually is coming for those people, though, with better opponents coming to Provo. UCLA and Mississippi State will visit this year and the 2019 home schedule features Utah, USC, Washington and Boise State.

BYU fans missed a 2015 home game vs. Utah, in the traditional rotation. Blame the Utes. Notre Dame never came to Provo, as was supposed to happen twice in this decade. Blame the Fighting Irish. BYU's first three home games in 2016 will kick off at 8:15 p.m. Blame ESPN.

BYU athletic director Tom Holmoe should have foreseen some of those problems, and labeling those 10:15 p.m. starts in the East as "prime time" — as Holmoe and ESPN analyst Trevor Matich, a former BYU lineman, did during Media Day — is just silly. Holmoe deserves tremendous credit for piecing together BYU's schedules, the biggest problem being that they're annually front-loaded with the best opponents.

Fans inevitably have lost interest in November, but that's not true of the players. As quarterback Taysom Hill said, "We've got too much pride to say we've got nothing left to play for."

They've kept competing in November, even with no opportunity to play themselves into a bigger bowl than their predetermined spot. Only in 2015, hypothetically, could BYU have done anything more glamorous as an MW member.

Suppose the Cougars, after beating Nebraska in the season opener, had played only one of the other three Power 5 teams that beat them (UCLA, Michigan or Missouri) and gone unbeaten in the MW. They may have absorbed one loss and topped Houston for the Group of 5 slot in a New Year's 6 bowl, although there's no guarantee of that. In 2014, BYU lost badly to the MW's Boise State, which played in the Fiesta Bowl. And in their first three years of independence, the Cougars lost to Utah teams that went a combined 9-18 in the Pac-12, so there ends that discussion.

The Cougars have lost ground locally to Utah — mainly because the Pac-12 chose the Utes, not because of anything BYU did wrong. Even so, the Cougars have enhanced their national image via independence. Reflecting on '96, Lewis said, "Not [only] that season, but several seasons, have proven that we are a national player."

Matich said, "BYU is still a brand that people want to consume." He cited the challenging 2016 schedule as "a great sign for where this program is right now."

Where it's headed is problematic, just because a Power 5 conference must expand to include BYU. That part is out of the Cougars' control. The issue has nothing to with where BYU has spent the past five seasons, though. Regardless of what happens from here, independence has advanced BYU's cause, not hurt it.

Twitter: @tribkurt