…and sort of a clean start at it too which is nice. There’s not much we could do to mend fences with some of our old MWC neighbors if we were still in conference with them. It’s nice to have had a clean break and a fresh start in the Big12. I think our time on our own as independents helped some of our old neighbors have change of hears towards us and I think it also allowed us to get a fresh perspective on being part of a conference.
I don’t think we were bad conference members per se but it takes 2 to tango and so there was a part we played in all of the hard feelings that nearly everyone in the old MWC had towards us. They can own their own part of it (bitterness, envy etc). I think the years being Indy has awoken a strong appreciation of being part of a bigger community and we’re seeing a pretty cool version of BYU trying to be a good neighbor and give more than we get.