BYU AD: School intends to play in Power 5 in 'near future'

BYU athletic director Tom Holmoe says it is his intention for his school to join a Power 5 conference “sometime in the near future."

BYU athletic director Tom Holmoe says it is his intention for his school to join a Power 5 conference “sometime in the near future."

BYU is currently an independent in football and plays in the West Coast Conference in men's and women's basketball.

Holmoe said the school has considered a scheduling agreement with a conference, similar to the deal Notre Dame has with the Atlantic Coast Conference.

"We’re an independent team playing an independent schedule,” Holmoe said to the Deseret News. “That’s what we’ve got and that’s where we are. We’re not really looking back, we’re looking forward because there are possibilities, and I have to do my due diligence on that.”

Holmoe says his intention is to put the football program in a position to earn a College Football Playoff berth. BYU could be looked at as a possible candidate to join the Big 12 Conference should that league decide to expand beyond its current 10-team format.

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Holmoe also discussed punishment of players that were involved in an end-of-game brawl after the Cougars' 55-48 overtime loss to Memphis in the Miami Beach Bowl. Memphis punished 12 players for their roles in the fight, but BYU said it will handle its punishments internally.

“It sounds kind of crazy that after the game, no one was really too concerned about them growing from the experience,” Holmoe said, according to the Deseret News. “But it is important to us that they do because a lot of these guys are going to come back and play for us and be a big part of our program and be leaders of our team in the future."

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