I’ve been a BYU Football fan my entire life; however, for the first time in my life, I find myself searching for and reading basketball stories more than football at this point in the year. We are 89 days away from the BYU Football season kickoff when the Cougars will host FCS foes Southen Illinois, yet the season still feels 189 days away, at least for me.
And I’m not alone.
After looking at messaging boards (yes, I got on Cougarboard), seeing what the general interest is on social media, and listening to what podcasters are talking about, the consensus is the same: BYU sports fans are still obsessing about BYU Basketball, and football is an afterthought.
Reasons BYU Fans May Not Be As Engaged
Normally, at this point in the season, there are tons of season previews, team-by-team analyses, and endless depth chart projections. However, this year, we’re just not seeing that much. The easy reason to give for this is that BYU Basketball is coming off a great season and is reloading at a pace we’ve never seen before, but there is much more to it, and it goes much deeper.
Here are a few reasons fans may not be as excited as normal:
- BYU Football is coming off a 5-7 season, and pieces weren’t added through the transfer portal or recruiting, making fans feel like things will improve. The biggest transfer being talked about is Weber State transfer Jack Kelley. This is nothing against him, but fans hoped for some proven P4 talented transfers, and they just didn’t get that.
- For the first time since perhaps the Tanner Mangum/Zach Wilson season in 2018, there isn’t a ton of optimism for the quarterback position. Jake Retzlaff showed flashes last year but ultimately was 0-4. Gerry Bohanon hasn’t proven anything for three years, and no other quarterback is really making a push to start. For BYU, this is unacceptable and turning a lot of fans away.
- The novelty of the Big 12 is wearing off. Don’t get me wrong, fans are still super stoked that BYU is in the Big 12, and the additions to the league are making things fun, but the 2023 season felt like a finish line. For decades in the Mountain West and being Independent every year felt like a tryout, or proving BYU was a P5 caliber team. Now that they are in the P4, it kind of feels like there isn’t as much to prove. I don’t like that mindset, but it is real.
- NIL and the transfer portal are turning away fans. This isn’t just at BYU; it is across the sport. College fans loved the amateurism of the game, and that is just lost now. College Football is becoming the NFL-lite, and many fans don’t like it.
Will Fans Reach Normal Pre-Season Levels?
No matter how much basketball improves, BYU is always a football school outside of the 2011 Jimmer Fredette year. Heck, that was the last year before the Cougars went Independent, so even then, there was buzz around the team. Football is king, and that isn’t going to change after just one season.
My prediction is that once we get through June and the BYU Basketball roster and coaching staff are completely set, fans will once again turn their attention to football and get behind the team, just as they have every year since the Lavell Edwards era.
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