BYU and the PAC-12. It has been a prickly, complicated, and long relationship between one of the biggest private religious football programs in the country and a conference that differs completely in political and social matters, despite being in BYU’s backyard.
Several times it seemed like BYU was the obvious choice to be added to the PAC-12 conference during eras of expansion, given their geography and, of course, their relationship with current PAC-12 program Utah. However, the Cougars did not receive the official invite for a number of reasons. Whether that be the “Sunday play” rule or the differences in political stances between the school, as a result of its affiliation with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and the PAC-12 conference, which mostly resides in California, Oregon and Washington, and their predominant political climates.