Santiago is always a lightening rod on the board (he's not everyone's favorite flavor) but the more you read about him and how involved he was in laying the ground work for ALL of this, the KY hiring, etc, the more you have to tip your cap to him.

The blurb from the ESPN article:

BYU DEPUTY ATHLETIC director Brian Santiago made a call one day in 2016, when Smith was still running Qualtrics. He said conversations between him and Smith ranged from morning basketball games to ideas about the university. They became close friends, he added, bonding over sports, their families and life in Provo.

Smith told Santiago he wanted to help BYU, given the university's stated interest in joining a Power 5 league. Presentation time was at hand. Smith immediately said he was in. The phone call cascaded into a group of high-level influential people in the business and sports world brainstorming plans for a vision of what BYU could look like in a power conference and what the presentation would need to be.