What if the BYU Cougars and Utah Utes were both winners?
That's surely an unfathomable thought to many people who are diehard fans of one school or the other, but on Thursday, The Athletic's Chantel Jennings detailed how both institutions' football programs improved after leaving the Mountain West Conference.
For the Cougars, Jennings wrote, the move to independence allowed them to have a wider audience, while Utes' membership in the Pac-12 Conference carries with it greater opportunities to be nationally relevant on the field.
As Jennings pointed out, both schools at times since leaving the MWC have wanted what the other one got by departing that conference.