The most significant day in BYU’s 99-year football history was greeted with relative quiet within the program itself.
“It was right before we played Utah,” junior wide receiver Puka Nacua recalls. “That’s obviously a huge game for us, as our in-state rival. It was kind of downplayed in our facility because of how important that game was and how focused we were for that game.”
Nacua is referring to the September 2021 announcement that the Cougars will play football in the Big 12 Conference, beginning with the ’23 season. The move will end 12 years of independence for one of college football’s most consistent winners outside the Power 5. More importantly, it will give the most recent program from outside a major conference to win the national title automatic access to a true championship framework for the first time.
