BYU 1-on-1: Looking toward the future for Cougar sports and the Big 12 (2024)

Daily Herald sports writers Darnell Dickson and Jared Lloyd give their opinions on the hot BYU sports topics this week:

1. Will the transfer portal and NIL be the end of college athletics or will they ultimately have a positive impact?

DICKSON: How long do you have? I feel like I could pontificate on this topic for hours.

I believe the transfer portal and NIL will end college sports as we know it. There will still be college athletics, but it will be barely recognizable. I like my professional sports and my college sports separate, and college sports seems to be doing everything it can to become pro sports junior.

I’ve said many times that I’m not against athletes making money. It’s just this way of doing things is so out of control. And I still feel like there should be limits to how often a player can transfer.

Maybe we’re headed to college athletes becoming employees, or some kind of profit sharing. Whatever it is, it won’t be the college athletics I fell in love with as a kid and that makes me sad. Call me old fashioned or a dinosaur, I don’t care.

LLOYD: Here is the harsh reality: College football and basketball have reaped what they sowed.

Those sports found themselves in the perfect position to capitalize on the evolution of media consumption, resulting in skyrocketing payouts thanks to television contracts. In an era where media companies are desperate for eyeballs on advertising, live sports programming is something people watch live.

So, flush with cash, many institutions created lavish sports shrines and paid coaches obscene amounts of money — then continued paying them after firing them while paying buyouts to get the next coach. Those same coaches would come and go almost at will.

Is it any surprise that the players looked at their scholarships (not an insignificant sum but certainly not the astronomical amounts being tosses around elsewhere) and said, “I want my share.” They looked at coaches moving almost without penalty and said, “I should be able to do that too.”

So while I agree with Darnell that many of the best things in college sports are being lost to the ravenous demands of greed, that ship sailed many years ago. It’s just that thanks to NIL and the transfer portal, now the reality is more obvious.

2. What do you think of the roster Kevin Young is putting together for BYU men’s basketball?

LLOYD: I’m trying to figure out just exactly what he’s going to do with it.

You have some experienced veterans in Trevin Knell, Fousseyni Traore, Dallin Hall, and Richie Saunders who are accustomed to the style Mark Pope employed the last couple of years.Then you add in some intriguing pieces like Dawson Baker and Keba Keita but most likely lose Jaxson Robinson and Noah Waterman.

Does Young want to run? Does he want a 3-point shooting team? Is he looking to be strong inside? Will defense be the focus? Will he emphasize NBA-style pick-and-rolls?

I don’t look at this roster and see an obvious answer. He has a variety of ways he could go, plus more holes to fill. I like the flexibility but I’m still looking for the identity.

DICKSON: The best part of the roster is still the returning players. In a college basketball world where athletes are transferring at an incredible rate, the Cougars have a very strong core of returning players and that’s a really good thing. Just like it was last season, BYU’s continuity and experience will be a big reason for their success.

Young still has four scholarships to fill and this is where things get really interesting. How big of an impact can a big-time transfer have on the group that’s returning? Could that be the difference in having a good season or a great season?

Young is still after some intriguing prospects, including several foreign-born players. Keba Keita is a terrific addition as well. The next few months are going to continue to be very interesting for BYU basketball.

3. What do you think of men’s basketball starter Noah Waterman entering the transfer portal?

DICKSON: I just can’t get used to the suddenness of the transfer portal. One minute a guy seems perfectly happy where he is and then “Bam!” he’s in the portal.

Now it’s not uncommon for a player to have been to three or four different schools by the time he’s a senior. Marcus Adams Jr. recently transferred to Cal Northridge. That’s his fourth school and he is still a redshirt freshman. That’s crazy to me but it’s the new normal in college sports.

What I end up telling myself is that a college athlete has to explore his options in the current climate to find his best situation. I suppose the way things work now if he transfers and it’s not the best situation, he can just jump back into the portal. That leaves me a bit unsettled, to say the least.

As for Waterman, he is a very skilled four-man who should be pretty attractive to a lot of schools. BYU is still in the mix and Waterman would have a big impact if he stays.

LLOYD: To wait as long as he did tells me this isn’t a situation like Dallin Hall and Richie Saunders who were trying to keep their options open with the coaching change. Waterman had the opportunity to get a taste of what Kevin Young wants to do and decided it might not be right for him.

Or he got a big NIL offer elsewhere. Or both.

There were things I really liked about Waterman and he particularly impressed me with his improvement on defense and rebounding this past year. But I felt there was more there. I hope wherever he goes he develops even more.

Will it hurt BYU? Maybe. But maybe not.

The bottom line is Young needs guys who want to play for him as Cougars and if that’s not Waterman, he needs to move on.

4. We’re coming toward the end of BYU’s first year in the Big 12. What are your thoughts about the Cougars and a look ahead to Year 2?

LLOYD: It’s ironic to me that while most of the BYU programs did basically what I expected them to, the most high-profile were the two outliers.

It was a fun year for Cougar men’s basketball. Any year you are ranked for most of the season and get a win at Kansas is one to be appreciated. Sure, the ending was disappointing, but that happens. BYU was a force to be reckoned with in the league.

On the other side was the disappointment of Cougar football. Their league performance featured two good games (Cincinnati and Texas Tech), four solid performances in losses (Kansas, Texas, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State) and three complete disasters (TCU, West Virginia and Iowa State). That’s not enough good games and too many bad games.

The bottom line to me, though, is that BYU fits here. They are capable of competing in most sports, and bring fans and ratings with them. The move has brought and will continue to bring the opportunity to compete at the elite level, which is what the Cougars deserve.

DICKSON: I think it was a pretty successful start for the Cougars in the Big 12.

The Olympic sports were strong and men’s basketball certainly overachieved. It was a disappointing football season but I think it helped the coaches identify some places they needed to be better to compete. It was a big learning opportunity for every BYU program to evaluate where they are, where they want to be and what they can do to accomplish their goals.

The interesting thing about the Big 12 is that Year 2 will bring even more change with Texas and Oklahoma leaving and Utah, Colorado, Arizona and Arizona State becoming members. The newness of the league will continue and will require more adjustments.

5. Utah football fans are pretty confident the Utes will own the Big 12. Who do you think will win the league in 2024?

DICKSON: With Texas and Oklahoma leaving, it’s going to be wide open. I think there are probably five or six teams in this league (Utah included) that could rise up and win the thing. It’ll likely come down to a fortunate bounce or two, the Big 12 is that competitive.

BYU’s position in all of this is interesting, to say the least. I think the defense will be better this season because the Cougars have more depth and are in the second year of Jay Hill’s scheme. The offense has question marks at quarterback and on the line but I think it will be better as well. That doesn’t necessarily automatically translate into more wins, though. You have to come to play every week in the Big 12.

Who will win it all? Best guess right now: Iowa State wins the regular-season title but is beaten by Kansas State in the Big 12 Championship Game. But I reserve the right to change my mind a dozen times before the season starts.

LLOYD: I love the bravado of all fans, particularly when the facts aren’t exactly in their favor (although to be fair Utah does have some prominent national observers who seem to ignore the same realities).

Look, the Utes were 8-5 last fall in a top-heavy league that has a history of mediocrity in recent years. They played one Big 12 opponent and yes, they managed to rally late for a 20-13 win on the road against a Baylor team that ended up 3-9. Not exactly something to get too excited about.

They also played the other three teams that will be making the move to the Big 12 from the Pac 12, smashing Arizona State (3-9), barely beating Colorado (4-8) and getting crushed by Arizona (10-3).

Could any of those four teams win the league? Maybe.

Could they all struggle in a conference that has had more parity than the Pac-12 in recent seasons? Maybe.

The Big 12 is great because it’s wide open. Frankly I think just about any team could get hot and make a run at the title.

I’ll make my way-too-early pick and take an Oklahoma State team that reached the Big 12 title game, but I don’t give them better than a 25% chance of doing so.

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