Welcome to the Post-Jimmer Era

BYU athletics are on the verge of something exciting, uncertain, and altogether new. A new era, if you will.

Conference realignment has thrown the college sports world into chaos, and while the Cougars have been consistently hovering around the outer edges of the storm, they have nonetheless been deeply affected by the shifting landscape. The football team has struggled through their first season as an independent program. On Friday, a notably Jimmer-less basketball team will embark on their first tour of the high school-sized gyms of the West Coast Conference. Rumors continue to swirl that university higher-ups are wrangling with various BCS conferences about potential membership.

Everything is new. Everything is different. Everything is uncertain. And nobody seems to know anything.

And maybe that’s OK.

As frustrating as it can be, it’s kind of exciting to be a BYU fan in 2011. Even though the roller coaster often rockets from impossible highs (BYU to the Big 12!) to stupendous lows (TCU and West Virginia to the Big 12!) in a matter of mere moments, there is something undeniably exhilarating about what we’re watching right now.

I suppose that’s why I’m starting this site. I’ve never been more afraid for the future of BYU sports – a football team that has consistently proven it can’t compete with the big boys, a basketball team that may not return to the heights of last season for another 20 years, the prospect of the Cougars being frozen out of a world dominated by super-conferences – but I’ve also never been more intrigued. Maybe that makes me a masochist, but it also makes me a fan.

I’m excited for the twists and turns that lay ahead – and I’ll be using this space (along with a few contributors) to share my thoughts and analysis as these events unfold. With basketball season just beginning, we’ll probably do quite a bit on that in these first few weeks, including a three-part season preview starting later today. Some football talk (and/or tortured rants about the unrealized potential of the 2011 squad) is also inevitable.

This site may not always be comprehensive, but we will strive to provide smart, worthwhile writing about our beloved Cougars and the brave new world which they now inhabit. That’s what we’ll offer, and I invite you to come back here regularly and join us on this little journey into the unknown. We’d enjoy the company.

Welcome to the post-Jimmer era.

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