But y'all are missing my main point in an attempt to make this some sort of contest between BYU and Utah. Arguments can absolutely be made to strengthen or weaken Utah as compared to us

• Utah played better opponents (OOC and also apparently in-conference according to some...despite us playing the biggest names in the Big 12)
• Utah's games were further West, so often later
• Utah was a better team and ranked most of the year so got a bump
• Utah only had 7 rated games (due to PAC Network) instead of the 11 that we got 

But that's not the point! The point is that if we're arguing about whether BYU or Utah is the biggest viewership draw, then we're clearly not in a great overall situation as a conference. And if we're arguing Utah benefitted by playing good PAC opponents and we didn't, what happens when we lose the two biggest names from our schedule?

Utah got 18M viewers, which is #2 among future Big 12 teams (against remembering that Colorado at #1 was a huge anomaly). Ohio St got 19M in a single game.  So if you're arguing that the 18M number is artificially increased and undeserved, then the Big 12 is even weaker compared to the B1G/SEC.

Maybe Utah goes down to 15M and BYU goes up to 17M. Definitely possible. And then will we all feel good about being ahead of Utah or will we be concerned by the reality of our pond continuing to (relative to others) shrink.  

There was a lot of talk here of the Big 13 being that 'third conference' and it's hard for me to believe that with these numbers.  We're fine for this TV deal, but by the next one, I worry we'll be the USFL to the AFC and NFC