Would it be BYU?

BYU, if not in numbers than in just overall interest and willingness to get invested long term. Same size-ish schools so alumni base numbers are probably about the same, but BYU's alumni system is one of the most robust in the county, owing in no small part to the fact that in many parts of the US it's the only sizeable Mormon network alumni have to connect with.

As much as Baylor serves as an extension of the faith held by the overwhelming majority of its alumni, BYU in many ways is Mormonism. There is a connection there that's hard to quantify.

There are over 450,000 living BYU alumni..There are 250,000 Ute alumni.

I think BYU also has more of a national following while Utah is more localized. However, I could be wrong.

gobears20 said:

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Would it be BYU?

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BYU and it's not even close

BYU, and it's not close.

I kind of view BYU as a national brand. They survived pretty well as an independent. I'm glad they felt the B12 was a good fit. They were the pick of the litter of the 4 we got, I think.

It is almost church doctrine to go to BYU and if you don't be a fan.

Reverend said:

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I kind of view BYU as a national brand. They survived pretty well as an independent. I'm glad they felt the B12 was a good fit. They were the pick of the litter of the 4 we got, I think.

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There's no doubt that among the 4 newbies, BYU brings the most to the table by far, although as far as the future goes it's also possible that UCF could prove to be a sleeping giant.

Glad to have them here in the Big 12
Out of all new teams I was most excited about this team

Gang – Of the four new adds to the B12 BYU was the most important of the group. The former ESPN executive who I spoke to stated that BYU was a factor in the B12 getting the higher end of their media deal we now know $31.7 per team. What was lost in the conversation was BYU, who…

— Jim Williams (@JWMediaDC) July 11, 2023

The cool thing is that each of the four has something g cool about it: UCF had the undefeated season a few years ago, Cincy was in the playoffs, BYU was a successful independent for years with plenty of great wins over traditional powers, & Houston is a MBB powerhouse.

The big questions for all are:
Can they compete at a high level in multiple sports?
Are their recent successes primarily because of a coach? Coaches come & go, having long term success is more difficult.

BYU and Cincinnati have longer histories of success. Up and down for sure but plenty of successful years with different coaches.

Houston has high highs with the right coach. Mostly known for basketball nowadays.

UCF is still a young program overall. Massive student population in a growing state. If they get some boosters willing to fund athletics and a legit fan base(many older alums probably consider themselves more Florida, FSU, Miami, or NFL fans) then they could turn out to be a sleeping giant.

The U owns Utah. Byu may have a national religious following but the Utes own Salt Lake City (which is utah).

PacificBear said:

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The U owns Utah. Byu may have a national religious following but the Utes own Salt Lake City (which is utah).

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Salt Lake City (pop 202k) isn't Utah (3.4 million). University of Utah is the most popular college team in Salt Lake County (1.2 million), but even that is 60/40 or so. For the rest of the state, it is BYU.

So, BYU is the preferred team for about 70% of the state. Utah's students mostly come from Salt Lake, while BYU has a global student body, so Utah has few fans outside of Salt Lake City, while BYU can bring 15k or more locals to any venue in the country.

https://www.cougarboard.com/board/message.html?id=28749765

Yesterday I mentioned that the @BYUCougars addition to the @Big12Conference was a factor - NOT THE ONLY FACTOR to the conference getting the high end of their media deal range. Some questioned the comment b/c they said BYU's TV numbers were not that good. Since 2011 the Cougars…

— Jim Williams (@JWMediaDC) July 12, 2023

https://medium.com/run-it-back-with-zach/which-college-football-programs-were-the-most-watched-in-2022-94eca4f6acbd

National Brand: Utah Utes are a much stronger brand in college football. I don't understand the debate unless this is a Big12 vs Pac12 thingy.

BYU has a much bigger church following.

Ford vs Ferrari: Ford may be bigger but Ferrari is the better brand

In this car scenario Ford(BYU) has more drivers(eyeballs) and therefore brings more revenue to the table for its shareholders(Big12).

BearBall said:

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https://medium.com/run-it-back-with-zach/which-college-football-programs-were-the-most-watched-in-2022-94eca4f6acbd

National Brand: Utah Utes are a much stronger brand in college football. I don't understand the debate unless this is a Big12 vs Pac12 thingy.

BYU has a much bigger church following.

Ford vs Ferrari: Ford may be bigger but Ferrari is the better brand

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Weird Viewpoint.

If you offer 1,000,000 informed investors all of the stock in Ford or all of the stock in Ferrari, each of them pick the Ford stock. Ferrari makes more elite cars but Ford has the far greater company value [brand].

Yeah that was a weird point he made. Doesn't matter if they have a larger church following. Or a larger Satanic following.. they have a larger national following than Utah

Per Dept of Ed (EADA) BYU's most recent "Grand Total Revenues" reached an all-time high of $95.1M for 2021 ($79.6M in 2017 was prior high)

Holmoe & crew also reported:
$37.9M "Not Allocated Rev" (largely 📈donations?)
$15.4M surplus
<$1M recruiting exp https://t.co/hexTbWscBn… pic.twitter.com/Gt2HpYGZQw

— Jeff Fuller (@jjfuller72) July 14, 2023

State of Utah: 3.3 million people

LDS Church (Mormons): 17 million people (8 million in the USA)

University of Utah: 32,818

Brigham Young University (BYU): 34,390

University of Utah living alumni: 250,000+

BYU living alumni: 440,000+


I think the numbers speak for themselves

Utah's base is limited to pockets of SLC/SL County and Davis/Ogden Counties and even in those counties BYU fans equal or outnumber them. BYU delivers that market in addition to its national base.

BearBall said:

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https://medium.com/run-it-back-with-zach/which-college-football-programs-were-the-most-watched-in-2022-94eca4f6acbd

National Brand: Utah Utes are a much stronger brand in college football.

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Based on what exactly? BYU has the stronger brand by every metric available.

Can the BYU and Utah fans take this dick measuring contest to one of their boards please?

Ummm.... I'm pretty sure neither of us started this thread....

Doesn't matter, needs to be moved

This is all BYU drivel trying to get the B12 to hate Utah.

Utah is by far the most popular team in the state. Those citing 70% in favor of BYU must live in Provo.

Which are the most popular college and pro teams in Utah? A new poll has the answers Deseret News

New poll shows the most popular team in the state of Utah is...Utah - Vanquish The Foe

BYU is to the Mormons what ND is to the Catholics. Both have supportive alumni. Both have even greater numbers (especially ND) of non-alumni who support them just because. Heck, ND adds millions more because of their non-alum Irish following too.

Whether or not BYU declined previous "P" offers prior to their arrival in Big 12 or not… Utah still landed in the ranks a little over a decade before BYU.

Utah is Utah's team. If the year was 2011 and UT was still in the MWC it might be a tie. Utah still had good academics without the price tag. It's like comparing UNC to Duke

I grew up in Salt Lake City and have spent time both in and out of Utah. I also attended Baylor for grad school, so I've got a bit of a unique perspective on this topic. In my experience, I think you're off the mark when it comes to the popularity of BYU vs. Utah.

The idea that every member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is a BYU fan just doesn't hold up. The vast majority of my active LDS friends don't really have any strong connection to BYU.

In terms of national appeal, Utah consistently has higher viewership for their games, even with many of them airing on the PAC-12 network. In 2023, which wasn't an amazing season for Utah, they still averaged 1.5 million viewers per game compared to BYU's 1.2 million.

BYU counts their living alumni as anyone who ever attended the school, while Utah only counts graduates. Both schools have about 35,000 enrolled students and similar graduation rates, meaning their alumni base is likely about the same.

According to Google Trends, the University of Utah dominates Brigham Young University 10:1 over the last decade nationally and 100:1 within Utah.

When narrowing the search to "Utah Utes Football" vs. "BYU Cougars Football," BYU edges out Utah 51% to 49% nationally, but it's closer in Utah with BYU leading 53% to 47%.

VividSeats data shows Utah owning Salt Lake, Summit, Weber, Millard, Sanpete, Duchesne, Carbon, Emery, Garfield, and San Juan counties, representing 1.7 million people, while BYU controls Morgan, Davis, Tooele, Utah, Juab, Wasatch, Sevier, Iron, Washington, Kane, Uintah, and Daggett counties, covering about 1.5 million people.

Social media data shows an even bigger gap, with Utah having the support of 2.1 million people compared to BYU's 0.7 million inside the state.

In terms of raw social media followers, Utah Athletics has 371K followers, slightly ahead of BYU Athletics, which has 342K.

I live in Salt Lake County and I would say it's just as common to see BYU flags, shirts, stickers, etc. as Utah. In Utah and Davis Counties it's not even close, BYU fans far outnumber Utah fans.

Johnny Bear said:

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Reverend said:

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I kind of view BYU as a national brand. They survived pretty well as an independent. I'm glad they felt the B12 was a good fit. They were the pick of the litter of the 4 we got, I think.

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There's no doubt that among the 4 newbies, BYU brings the most to the table by far, although as far as the future goes it's also possible that UCF could prove to be a sleeping giant.

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Colorado pulled in over 4M viewers against NDSU. True, it was at an odd time, but the Prime effect is still impacting viewership.

BearBall said:

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https://medium.com/run-it-back-with-zach/which-college-football-programs-were-the-most-watched-in-2022-94eca4f6acbd

National Brand: Utah Utes are a much stronger brand in college football. I don't understand the debate unless this is a Big12 vs Pac12 thingy.

BYU has a much bigger church following.

Ford vs Ferrari: Ford may be bigger but Ferrari is the better brand

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The article you linked has UU at 1.16M and BYU at 997K. That's not a much stronger brand. That's a bunch of USC, Washington, and Oregon fans tuning in to watch their team play Utah on major broadcast networks.

Sakhr64 said:

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I live in Salt Lake County and I would say it's just as common to see BYU flags, shirts, stickers, etc. as Utah. In Utah and Davis Counties it's not even close, BYU fans far outnumber Utah fans.

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And I think this accounts for high rates of depression in Davis and Utah counties.