One of the biggest upsides to BYU football’s independence is the diverse scheduling.
In a conference, around two-thirds of the schedule is the same year in and year out. It builds great rivalries, but beating up on the same team over and over again (or losing to the same team over and over again) can get pretty monotonous.
That’s not to say there aren’t disadvantages to independence as well, but let’s focus right now on scheduling.
Since going independent in 2011, BYU has played 48 different teams, with 42 of those being FBS opponents. That’s more than one-third of all FBS teams.