Patrick Kinahan: Big 12 affiliation pays major dividends for BYU

PROVO — Over the last year, three highly-touted recruits went on national television to individually announce their commitments to play for BYU.

One signed with the basketball program, while the other two pledged to join coach Kalani Sitake's football team. Not only did both programs get an infusion of outstanding talent, they also attracted tons of positive attention for the athletic department. Good times, indeed, for BYU sports.

Clearly, BYU football and basketball have enjoyed an uptick in recruiting over the last year. It begs the question as to why.

For some, particularly detractors, the reason boils down to money. Notoriously underfunded, BYU is paying to compete through its NIL collectives.

The financial aspect can't be discounted, but there's got to be more to it than straight cash. In many cases, recruits can get comparatively the same amount of money from the various schools involved in the recruiting process and yet choose BYU.

The bigger difference is BYU's conference affiliation, which wasn't the case since the administration chose to go independent in football and shuffle most of the other sports in the West Coast Conference starting in the 2011-12 academic season. The Big 12 membership has opened a flood of opportunities coaches didn't have until the last few years.

"Being in the Big 12 and the success we had this past season, is going to help us," football assistant coach Kelly Poppinga said during an interview with The Zone.

Three years ago, while serving a church mission in Utah County, offensive lineman Andrew Gentry chose Jim Harbaugh's offer to play at Michigan. He entered the portal after this past season and has transferred to BYU.

"Having a chance to be in a conference, especially the way the playoff is structured now, made a big difference to me," Gentry said during an interview on The Zone.

Instead of missing out on more impactful talent, as football and basketball often did during the independent and WCC era, recruits are announcing their intentions to a national audience. Roster fillers don't get that level of exposure.

Faletau Satuala started the trend, making his decision last January during the 2024 All-American Bowl in San Antonio, Texas. NBC aired the game nationally, as it did last week.

Bountiful High linebacker/safety Faletau Satuala picked BYU in a hat ceremony during the 2024 All-American Bowl in San Antonio, Texas. The game was televised nationally on NBC.

Standing behind a long desk that featured BYU, Utah and UCLA hats, Satuala thanked his family and close associates alongside him before donning the hat of his college choice. As a freshman on the team that finished 11-2, the defensive back from Bountiful High played in 12 games and is expected to have a more prominent role next season.

At the same game last weekend in San Antonio, Clovis High (California) star McKay Madsen followed the same formula as Satuala. The running back/linebacker stood with his family and chose BYU over Oregon and UCLA.

With an abundance of deep pockets, Oregon was considered the favorite to land the four-star recruit. Madsen plans to leave on a church mission this summer.

"Family is everything, and faith is even more important," Madsen told NBC. "I want to continue my education at a school who respects that and lets me live it every day."

Basketball star AJ Dybantsa made the biggest splash, announcing his decision last month on the ESPN daily show First Take. As the nation's top high school recruit, Dybantsa stunned host Stephen A. Smith by picking BYU over the likes of perennial powerhouse Duke.

He reportedly will make upwards of $7 million for his one season in college, with the amount coming from multiple sources. With the money being essentially the same at Dybantsa's final choices, he likely would have looked elsewhere had BYU still played in the WCC.

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