There are three turning points I see in BYU Football for the worse. They are;
Capitalizing on 1996 Cotton Bowl
This is, along with the success a decade earlier, should have made money, professionalism, and semi-autonomy for the BYU Football program a priority for both the school and Church.
Realizing the NCAA shake-up was not an anolomy, but a trend. The BCS and Mountain West should have been seen the way nations views alliances and interest...
Replacing LaVell
Again, the Church usues fincial professions and firms to mange it's captial reserves. BYU goes throught a strict auditing process. All of these use the best and brightest from both the Church and outside the Church. Why not do the same with Football!?
Replacing a legacey should have been something that was years in the making, planned for, and done without micromanagment.
MountainWest Sports Network, kill it with fire!
This should have been fought tooth and nail. No one thought it was a good idea. Making the Mountian West viable and relavant should have been priority #2, right after resources for Football itself.