D'oh! I was deathly sick yesterday. Kind of dulled my senses.

A lot of BYU fans are fans, but not what I would call avid fans. Two of my sons have Dish. They would watch the BYU games if they were on TV, but neither of them would call and complain or even think about changing to Comcast.

If they were missing road or home games against BCS type opponents, I am sure they would feel different.

Watching BYU play USU, UNLV, Northern Iowa, CSU, SDSU, Wyoming, UNM, is not compelling for them. AFA and TCU are marginal. They know they will get to go to the Washington and UCLA games. So why would they switch because they will miss one game, BYU vs Utah. If they want to see it bad enough they can come to my house or their Uncles house.

Sad, but for a lot of BYU fans, the on the field product isn't good enough yet.
It may be that BYU doesn't need those marginal fans. It appears they don't need them in order to fill LES. However, as far as TV demand, maybe they do.

Here's what I don't get. A BCS game is great because we get to play a good BCS opponent, with more national exposure. Right? So why don't we schedule those games during the regular season, when we have the chance?

Am I crazy to think that we are better off taking the guaranteed vs. BCS game versus taking the div 1aa and utah states in hopes of the unlikely BCS bowl?

Here are the number of BCS teams we've played by season since ASU and UA went to the PAC10.

I think it is a good debate. The shot at the ring (money) argument makes sense from the aspect of getting money. If your attendance at LES doesn't drop and you get ranked in the top 15 as a reward for playing a weak schedule, then why not.

On the other hand there is the argument you are getting fed at McDonalds. Does there come a point where the fan base becomes tired of McDonalds. One could argue the enthusiasm for BYU football started to subside in the late nineties even before the Crowton era.

'96 was a big high. Winning on New years day. What followed was a let down.

please redo this, only including BCS teams played in the regular season. TIA.

I would like to see that statistic without Bowl games included.

I doubt anyone would seriously contend we are playing the calibre of BCS teams now as we did back in the day.

Back in the day? I think you are remembering a handful of seasons that were the exception, rather than the rule.

You might be right. For some reason the home schedules just seem to suck more than they used to in the 70's, 80's and early 90's.

That may be because my expectations were lower for BYU. It may also be that some of the teams we played were better than they are now. For example AFA, USU, CSU and San Diego St.

From 1978 through 2007, we had 2 regular season BCS opponents 16 out of 30 seasons (53%). In the last 15 years, we've had only 2 regular season BCS opponents 10 times (67%).

Here is the season by season breakdown.