As a younger BYU fan (especially relative to the average CB user) that has grown up watching perennially middle-of-the-pack BYU teams, this season has been absolutely thrilling. I imagine this is what it was like to watch Lavell's BYU team.

Also, again as a younger BYU fan (especially as one who's played competitive sports), I am shocked by the unwillingness of this community to raise expectations for our team's performance. What the freak do you mean you would be happy if our team goes to a bowl game this year?

Aside: To the people who are still saying that any bowl game would still be a strong outcome, have you heard of Bayesian updating? If not, please read about it and consider how you should change your expectations of the team given their performance to this point.

I think that both fans and team leaders (captains, coaches, admin, etc.) should aim higher from this point on.

Here's my case for letting our emotions lead us towards some monster BHAGs:
1 - The program needs to prove its legitimacy and history to young fans. I'm not sure whether this will upset some of the old heads, but for those of us who are <30, I don't think that we've ever seen a BYU team that felt like what Utah seems to have felt like in the last ~7 yrs making consistent runs at the Pac-12 title. I always hear about the BYU program's dominance in the 80s and 90s: pause for a second and realize that 1) this period was literally in the late 1900s (the same century as WWI, WWII, and the invention of the freaking radio) and that 2) within a decade (maybe two) the majority of BYU fans will likely have never been alive during this period. This matters because strong performances are conversion experiences for new fans; programs need to continually win to nurture their fan pool (see point 3).
2 - The portal and NIL offer some increased form of parity. Implication here being that competition with the big dogs is more realistic, all other variables controlled for. I don't have any data to back this, but it feels like since NIL started to mature, the nature of player development, team culture, and the notion of intra-season-dominance have changed: any team can win on any given week. Not to say that there are no longer dynasties, but I think it's indisputable that now is the best time within the last ~20 yrs for mid-tier P4/5 teams to win against fabled programs.
3 - Success drives fan engagement and donations. Feel like this is self explanatory, but if raising expectations translates into more wins (it does) and wins feed the program more donations, then, in at least one way, expectations are a second order driver of program success. Wins = BYU fan conversion experiences.
4 - It's now or never (kinda?). It's much harder for a team who is 5-7 than a team who is currently 9-2 to believe that they are serious BXII title contenders. Our current team can count on a single hand the number of mistakes holding them back from a perfect record and can use this as a starting place for the moxie and confidence required to dominate the BXII. Not using this season as emotional leverage while articulating goals is an effective sacrifice of our momentum.
5 - Jake Retzlaff is a case study of the effects of high standards. I see a lot of faults in Jake as a player, but one thing he crushes is the whole "aim high" thing. If I had to guess, a lot of the team's change in attitude, cohesion, and energy stems from his willingness to be brazenly optimistic. I don't get the impression that Jake is someone who is ever satisfied and I think that this has translated into success for the team. Still, @jake just be safe with the ball, please.
6 - BYU and its present staff have historically been slow to find problems in mediocre performance. I think that A-rod will be fired, and when this happens, that it will be yet ANOTHER example of how necessary and effective structural changes can be delayed by resisting pressure to win.
7 - BXII competitive landscape could be a massive (+) or a massive (-) depending on how we set our expectations / TX and OK left a void at the top of the conference. If the CFP committee views the BXII as a group of dog**** teams that beat up on each other, then it is critical for us to build the reputation that we are the cream of the crop in order to remain competitive for future at large bids. Further, TX and OK left a leadership void that hasn't been filled yet (many assumed that Utah or OKST would step into that position), creating a massive opportunity to capture a type of "first mover advantage" by asserting dominance quickly. Connecting to point 4, this upcoming season presents unique timing benefits that we will not see again within the next decade bar another conference restructuring.
8 - How can we expect the committee to take our team more seriously than we take ourselves? Not going to try and illustrate connections between the two, but it's undeniable that one might be a signal for the other and vice versa.
9 - MOST IMPORTANTLY: God said, "Be ye therefore perfect." This one was so important it made its way into the Book of Mormon and the Bible.

This set of arguments does assume that raising expectations is a causal variable in the team's success, which might deserve its own, long and rambling post. But, it's late on the East Coast and I start finals next week lol so I am not going to elaborate further.

Here's where I think we should start:
1) Our program beats Utah each year. Are we big brother, or not? Also, Mark Harlan is a clown.
2) Our program is in BXII title contention each November. Not saying that we have to control our own destiny, but no reason that we shouldn't be walking into our last game with a ~10-20% chance of making the CCG.
3) Our program is competitive for an at-large CFP bid each November.

For the record, and as you probably guessed, I am 100% onboard with Tyler Batty's halftime speech.

Thoughts? And, Happy Thanksgiving!