BYU craved entry into a power conference for decades. Now in the Cougars’ second year in the Big 12, who can deny that the Cougars belong?
Kalani Sitake lives his dream as the ninth-year coach of BYU, his alma mater that he grew up cheering for during the LaVell Edwards glory days.
BYU quarterback Jake Retzlaff inspires ‘competitive edge,’ while Cougars win with complementary football.

Inside a Dallas hotel, Brigham Young athletic director Tom Holmoe, football coach Kalani Sitake and others from the Cougars’ delegation pitched their case to the Big 12 for a much-desired invitation.

The year was 2016. The Big 12 sought proposals from multiple schools while evaluating expansion. BYU had yearned for entry into a power conference for decades, with no luck.

This time felt different. The pitch went well.

“Quite frankly, when we walked out of there, I thought we had done a great job,” Holmoe told USA TODAY Sports. “I thought, ‘If they’re taking a team, we’re in.’”

Perhaps, BYU would have been in, if the Big 12 had taken a team. The Big 12 passed on expansion.

The Cougars became briefly crestfallen, but their mood rebounded. 

Holmoe sensed the Cougars were close. Keep pushing, and their day would come.

“We got together and said, ‘Let’s just keep going,’” Holmoe said. “We came out of there stronger than when we went into that presentation. I think that was a turning point in BYU athletics.”

BYU’s has moment finally arrived.

Now, in its second Big 12 season, No. 9 BYU (8-0) enjoys pole positioning to represent the Big 12 in the inaugural 12-team College Football Playoff.

The Cougars, who will play rival Utah on Saturday, join Indiana as college football’s biggest surprises.

The media picked BYU to finish 13th in the Big 12. Joke’s on us.

Forty years after BYU won its only national championship in program history, the Cougars could claim a bye into the CFP’s quarterfinals – so long as they keep winning inside the conference that awarded BYU an invitation, five years after that initial pitch in Dallas.

“We’re all excited to keep turning heads,” senior defensive lineman Blake Mangelson said.

They’re turning heads by playing complementary football, backed by what players describe as a deep-rooted program culture, fostered by a coach who loves BYU as much as any fan.

“This team feels like a family,” Mangelson said.

Kalani Sitake revives past tradition to deepen BYU’s bond

BYU defensive coordinator Jay Hill came to Sitake before the season with an idea: How about a team trip into the great outdoors?

The Cougars went camping earlier in Sitake’s tenure, but they hadn’t gone the past few years. Sitake embraced Hill’s suggestion, and so, for two nights in August, BYU’s players and coaches camped in Provo Canyon.

Inside crowded cabins that housed small twin beds, BYU’s veterans got to know younger players and transfers. Bonds strengthened, while sleep proved elusive.

“The cool thing about it is, there’s no service,” Sitake said, “and when there’s no service, no one is looking at phones. They’re actually interacting and talking to each other. I saw our guys just enjoy each other’s company.”

The Cougars spent a day at the lake, enjoyed meals together, sat around campfires and swapped stories before piling into cabins at night.

“We had a blast,” Mangelson said. “I made so many good connections.”

The only downside: Cabin twin beds aren’t made for tall, beefy linemen.

“It wasn’t the most comfortable experience,” said Brayden Keim, BYU’s 6-foot-9, 315-pound offensive tackle, “but it was a good team bonding experience.”

The strongest bonds often emerge from navigating uncomfortable situations together.

Sitake operates from a “love and learn” leadership style. That traces to Sitake playing as a BYU fullback for LaVell Edwards, BYU’s respected coach of 29 years who inspired Sitake’s career.

The Cougars needed some love, and they had much to learn, after last year’s 5-7 debut in the Big 12.

BYU played a grab bag of Power Five opponents throughout 12 seasons as a football independent, but its schedule eased later in the season, when Power Five teams were knee-deep in conference play.

BYU lost five consecutive games to conclude last season. It failed to qualify for a bowl game for the first time since 2017, Sitake’s second season.

Did that 5-7 record emanate from BYU adjusting to being in a conference?

“I think it had a lot to do with it,” Sitake acknowledged, “and I don’t mind looking at the past, because I think there’s a lot to learn from it.”

Sitake wouldn’t describe BYU’s debut as a misfire. He offers a more nuanced narrative. He highlights the five victories, including two within the Big 12, references close losses, and reframes the 2023 season as a premier opportunity to “love and learn.” 

“There’s always opportunities to learn,” Sitake said, “whether you’re winning or losing, and when you learn you get better. I’ve been focused on that the entire time.”

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Kalani Sitake: ‘Since I was born, I loved BYU.’

Inside Sitake, lives a Cougar’s spirit.

Coaching BYU rates as his dream job, but how close did he come to the alarm going off?

Last year marked just the sixth losing season for BYU since Edwards became coach in 1972.

BYU’s stumble out of the Big 12’s gates served a dose of fan angst. A preseason CBS Sports article positioned Sitake near the hot seat.

Holmoe, BYU’s AD who played for the Cougars, monitors the pulse of the fan base, as well as media perceptions.

For his part, Holmoe says outside perception did not match reality.

“At no time was he on the hot seat,” Holmoe said.

Would Holmoe have predicted this 8-0 start? Probably not, but he anticipated the Cougars would rebound.

What about Sitake? Did he feel any heat?

“I don’t really function on fear,” Sitake said. “I love doing what I do. I’m all about appreciation for the opportunities.”

Sitake won’t begrudge fans for their opinions or emotions. He gets it, because he’s a BYU fan, too. He has been for as long as he can remember.

Born in Tonga, Sitake’s family immigrated to Hawaii. He became a BYU fan living on Oahu’s North Shore, and his childhood coincided with the Cougars’ glory days.

He was 9 years old when BYU went 13-0, won the Holiday Bowl and got crowned national champs under Edwards, the coach for whom Sitake would later play, a man he calls “a legend.”

“Since I was born, I loved BYU,” Sitake said. “I was in Hawaii growing up. There were people in my neighborhood, in the North Shore and Laie that played for BYU. I wanted to be just like them.”

No two teams are alike, and no one should directly compare this era of college football to that which occurred four decades ago.

But, this BYU team, like the undefeated 1984 squad led by quarterback Robbie Bosco, a third-place Heisman finisher, succeeds on both sides of the ball.

The Cougars are among 11 teams that rank in the top 25 nationally in scoring offense and scoring defense, and they, too, have an exciting quarterback. Jake Retzlaff wears a Star of David necklace, and he maintains the unique distinction as the Jewish quarterback thriving at this flagship university of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Retzlaff personifies BYU’s improvement. He struggled last season after taking the reins of the offense throughout a winless November. Now, he’s among the Big 12’s top-rated quarterbacks, but his teammates tout more than his stats.

Keim says Retzlaff inspires BYU’s “competitive edge,” and Mangelson credits him as “a passionate leader.”

“I just love the guy,” Mangelson said.

BYU positioned for a CFP berth, despite committee’s snub

If Sitake ever fell out of BYU fans’ good graces, he ought to have earned his way back. This season could go down as the best of his nine-year tenure.

Sitake’s past peak occurred in BYU’s final years as an independent.

The Cougars totaled 21 victories across the 2020 and 2021 seasons. In each season, the Cougars would have narrowly missed at-large selection to a 12-team playoff, if it had existed.

Entry into the Big 12 unlocked another avenue to the playoff.

The CFP committee showed the Cougars little love in their first rankings, released Tuesday. They’re the lowest-ranked team among four Power 4 unbeaten teams, even though BYU touts a strength of schedule superior to No. 8 Indiana. Five one-loss teams rank ahead of BYU.

None of that will matter if BYU keeps winning.

Win the Big 12, and the Cougars would be in the bracket as probably no worse than the No. 4 seed.

That’s the beauty of competing in a conference like the Big 12, within this playoff structure.

“This is a dream come true for us,” Sitake said. “I’m happy for our players, and I’m really happy for our BYU fans. They get to (connect) with all these other amazing fan bases that are in the Big 12. It’s pretty cool.”

How BYU joined the Big 12

BYU’s interest in joining a power conference predated Sitake’s playing career, when the Cougars competed in the Western Athletic Conference and later the Mountain West.

BYU officials, throughout the mid-1990s, engaged in conversations with the Southwest Conference, the Big Eight and later the Big 12, according to published media reports from that timeframe.

No dice.

BYU left the Mountain West and went independent in football in 2011 and began competing in the West Coast Conference in other sports. BYU gave the WCC transparency about its intentions: If the Cougars received an invitation from a power conference, they probably would accept.

BYU had discussions with the Pac-10 and later the Pac-12, but, as Holmoe recalls it, that conference was always “kind of lukewarm” with its interest in BYU.

“We were looking for every opportunity,” Holmoe said.

The Big 12, in contrast to the Pac-12, felt like a tangible destination.

After BYU’s 2016 pitch in Dallas, Holmoe could almost feel an invitation at his fingertips.

Years passed, before news broke in 2021 that Texas and Oklahoma would bolt the Big 12 for the SEC, kick-starting the realignment carousel.

Holmoe sensed opportunity.

Now, finally, BYU could have its turn.

“It was like the writing was on the wall,” Holmoe said.

After all that waiting, who now can deny BYU belongs.

Blake Toppmeyer is the USA TODAY Network’s national college football columnist. Email him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter @btoppmeyer. Subscribe to read all of his columns.

SAN ANTONIO — It was nearly a quarter-century ago, just a five-hour drive away, when Alex Rodriguez and agent Scott Boras shocked the baseball world by signing the richest contract in the sport’s history with the Texas Rangers.

Now, here we are deep in the heart of Texas at Major League Baseball’s GM meetings in San Antonio, where Boras and Juan Soto are trying to re-create another historic deal, hopefully this time with a price tag of about $700 million – dwarfing Rodriguez’s 10-year $252 million contract at the 2000 winter meetings in Dallas.

The comparisons are eerily similar, with Soto just turning 26 years old two weeks ago and considered the best pure hitter in the game, while Rodriguez was 25 when he signed with the Rangers.

Soto has a career .285 batting average with 201 homers, 592 RBI and a .989 OPS. Rodriguez had a career .309 batting average with 189 homers, 598 RBI and a .934 OPS when he hit free agency.

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Rodriguez was considered perhaps the finest young free agent to ever hit the market. Boras believes Soto is one of the greatest players in the history of the game at that age, comparing his career to Hall of Famers Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Ken Griffey Jr., as well as Rodriguez.

The vital difference, Boras says, is Soto’s track record of excelling on the biggest stage.

Rodriguez had played only with the Seattle Mariners, and regularly in only two postseasons, never advancing to the World Series.

Soto, who has played with three different teams, has already been to two World Series: winning in 2019 with the Washington Nationals and losing this past year with the New York Yankees. He also helped lead the San Diego Padres to the 2022 NLCS. He has 11 homers, 30 RBI and a .927 OPS in his postseason career, compared to Rodriguez’s three homers and eight RBI in the postseason before he hit free agency.

“The one thing that I’m really happy about is that Juan has played in World Series,’ Boras said, “he’s known championship moments. I mean, other than the Dodgers and Astros’ players, Juan has got the most bats in the postseason. So, he’s been seen and understood much more than A-Rod was when he was a young player. Obviously playing in New York City and in the platform of New York, his character, working with the biggest media markets, everything about Juan Soto is pretty well known.

“So for a free agent at this age, being around great players, being in big markets, being in championship situations, all of those things. It’s like every box is checked, where with A-Rod, he didn’t quite have the resume of championship play, big-city play, all of those things that Juan has.’

Soto informed Boras that he wants to meet face-to-face with the ownership group of each team that covets him, even Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner, whose stiffest competition could come from across town with the New York Mets and owner Steve Cohen.

“They want to win,” Yankees GM Brian Cashman said. “They are in a large market with us, had a taste of success this year and they want to move the needle even more forward. The best way to do that is import quality players to what you already have… Being the last team standing is what it’s all about, trying to find great players and add it to your mix.”

Cohen may have the deepest pockets, worth around $20 billion – making him the richest owner in baseball, according to Forbes – but it’s not as if Cashman believes it’s only a two-team race.

“Big-market owners with deep pockets aren’t the only ones signing players to big deals,’ Cashman said. “You have seen the San Diego Padres sitting out on the West Coast, they have imported a lot of big-time players and big-time contracts and outcompeted teams of interest for, so it comes in various forms, in various cities at various times.

“The market this time of year is coming this strong from all different aspects of the baseball universe, so we have to do our best to compete with whomever on a year-in and year-out basis.”

While Soto certainly enjoyed his time in New York, according to Boras, the biggest selling point will be a team’s plans on competing on an annual basis and their strategy of building around him.

“Juan loves winning,’ Boras said. “Juan Soto wants ownership that he knows is going to support an opportunity to win annually. It’s remarkable to think of a player from a very modest beginning from the Dominican Republic that for all of his monetary offerings he has received, record offers, that his focus was always, ‘I want to know who my owner is. I want to know that we’re going to be able to win … If I’m going to commit my career to it, I want the owner to commit his resources to it.’

‘And that’s really why Juan Soto became a free agent.’

While Soto certainly isn’t going to provide the same financial benefits as Shohei Ohtani in Los Angeles, whose 10-year, $700 million deferred contract is paying for itself with Japanese corporate sponsorships and ticket sales, Boras insists that Soto’s presence will drastically increase a franchise’s value.

“I think the fact that when you have something that no one else has in the player community and in the talent arena,’ Boras said, “you have the jewel. You have the Mona Lisa of the museum. You have the attraction.

“You also have somebody that allows for owners to win repeatedly, and when owners win repeatedly, their revenues skyrocket. They develop the impact of postseason play, attendance, rights in the streaming world, international branding having one of the greats, and he has literally 15 years more of his prime to offer.’

Boras, who spoke for 48 minutes, also touched on a variety of topics involving several other of his marquee free agents:

Will Astros sign Alex Bregman?

Bregman has spent his entire career with the Houston Astros, has received interest from several teams asking whether he’d be willing to move to second base, which he’s amenable to doing, Boras said. Bregman recently had surgery to remove chips in his right elbow, Boras said, but that he’ll be fine in a few weeks.

While GM Dana Brown is cautiously optimistic about bringing Bregman back – signing him to the richest contract in franchise history – Boras said the Astros have little choice but to re-sign him.

“They clearly understand the rarity of being in four World Series and being in the postseason eight years in a row,’’ Boras said, “and him being a centerpiece of that. They’ve certainly measure me throughout the process that they’ve been actively engaged. As to meeting markets and the demand of this kind of player, you just don’t have many players on the dirt that does what he does. Also that Bregman can play second base, third base, his leadership, it’s a market certainly that the Astors are very aware is very healthy to him.’

Blake Snell, Corbin Burnes are hot commodities

While Corbin Burnes is the top free-agent pitcher on the market, Boras says interest for Blake Snell, who pitched last season for the San Francisco Giants, has swelled after his brilliant second half. Snell, who badly struggled the first half after signing in late March, went 5-0 with a 1.45 ERA after the All-Star break, permitting just 31 hits while striking out 103 batters in 68.1 innings.

“There’s no doubt the ‘Snelling salts’ created a lot of whiffs,’ Boras quipped. “And the market has definitely awakened.’

Burnes’ stock has also risen, Boras said, after going 15-9 with a 2.92 ERA, pitching for the Baltimore Orioles in the AL East last season after spending his first six years with the Milwaukee Brewers.

“He continues to be a ‘Corbin copy’ of his previous seasons,’ Boras said. “He’s the foundation of having a No. 1.’

Said Boras: “Last year I think was more focused on the relief market. This year, it’s very clear that its; very focused on the starting market. I think the starters will be going quite quickly.’

Should LDS be seven games?

Boras believes MLB’s Division Series should be a best-of-seven like the LCS and World Series – instead of a best-of-five.

“The way this playoff structure is rigored for the first five games,’ Boras says, “we have to go stop burning up our beautiful young arms by pitching them in a manner that we would never do during a season.

‘We have a playoff system that’s really injurious to what teams do with their players in their development and how they manage them during the season, pitching them four, five, six days in a row. This is their future. They bring them up with no service, and they’re throwing 98[-mph], but they’re utilized in the bullpen. … We need to get back to seven [games] so that starters become the uniformity, that we’re not using up our young bullpen arms.

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For those of us who woke up Wednesday feeling sick, devastated and distraught to know that hate is not a disqualifying factor to millions of our fellow Americans, it is easy to feel hopeless. To fear the racism and misogyny and the characterization of so many of us as less than human that is to come.

We cannot change that. But we can make sure we don’t become that.          

By now, many have seen or heard that Jason Kelce smashed the cell phone of a man who called his brother a homophobic slur while the former Philadelphia Eagles center was at the Ohio State-Penn State game last Saturday. Kelce also repeated the slur.

Kelce apologized, first on ESPN on Monday night and on his podcast with brother Travis that aired Wednesday. Angry as he was, Kelce said, he went to a place of hate, and that can never be the answer.

“I chose to greet hate with hate, and I just don’t think that that’s a productive thing. I really don’t,” Kelce said before Monday night’s game between the Kansas City Chiefs and Tampa Bay Buccaneers. “I don’t think that it leads to discourse and it’s the right way to go about things.

“In that moment, I fell down to a level that I shouldn’t have.”

Most of us can relate, having lost our cool and said things we shouldn’t have. In fact, most people have come to Kelce’s defense, recognizing both that the heckler crossed a line and that he was looking for Kelce to react as he did so he could get his 15 minutes of fame.

But we have to be better. All of us.

When we sink to the level of someone spewing hate, we don’t change them. We might even be hardening their resolve, given that more than 70 million Americans voted to re-elect Donald Trump despite ample evidence of his racism and misogyny.

We do change ourselves, however. By going into the gutter, we lose a part of our own humanity.

“I try to live my life by the Golden Rule, that’s what I’ve always been taught,” Kelce said. “I try to treat people with common decency and respect, and I’m going to keep doing that moving forward. Even though I fell short this week, I’m going to do that moving forward and continue to do that.”

That doesn’t mean we should excuse the insults and the marginalization of minorities. Nor does it mean we have to accept mean spiritedness. Quite the opposite. We have to fight wrong with everything in us, denounce anyone who demonizes Black and brown people, immigrants, women and the LGBTQ community.

But we can do that without debasing ourselves.

And we’re going to have to, if we’re to have any hope of ever getting this country on the right path. If we want this country to be a place where everyone is treated with dignity and respect, as our ideals promise, we have to start with ourselves.

“The thing that I regret the most is saying that word, to be honest with you,” Kelce said on his podcast, referring to the homophobic slur. “The word he used, it’s just (expletive) ridiculous. It’s just off the wall, (expletive) over the line. It’s dehumanizing and it got under my skin. And it elicited a reaction.

“Now there’s a video out there with me saying that word, him saying that word, and it’s not good for anybody,” Kelce continued. “What I do regret is that now there’s a video that is very hateful that is now online that has been seen by millions of people. And I share fault in perpetuating it and having that out there.”

On a day when so many of us are feeling despair, it’s worth remembering that hate has never solved anything. Be angry, be sad, be confused, be despondent. But do not become what you have fought against; do not embrace what you know to be wrong.

If you do, more than an election has been lost.

Follow USA TODAY Sports columnist Nancy Armour on social media @nrarmour.