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PROVO — The massive job interview Big 12 is conducting throughout the country should lead to one obvious conclusion, a former BYU athletic director said.

In Rondo Fehlberg’s view, BYU sports belong in the Big 12. None of the other candidates, which reportedly number 20, can match what BYU has to offer, Fehlberg said.

“There’s really no logical reason for them not to be in if you look at all the stated reasons that the Big 12’s presidents council have given for this expansion,” he said.

Fehlberg’s opinion is soothing to a nervous BYU fan base, which is worried that programs such as Cincinnati and Houston will get promoted to the much-coveted position of being in a Power 5 conference. His reasoning is BYU supersedes the competition in all the most important metrics, most notably being the best revenue option.

But nothing is final until the Big 12 extends invitations. And if BYU doesn’t get one?

“I think if they don’t get into the Big 12 it’s most likely good old-fashioned religious discrimination,” Fehlberg said. “It will masquerade as a number of other things, but I think that’s what it will be.”

In one form or another, politics could interfere with BYU’s stated desire to join a Power 5 conference. As it stands, the football program can’t sustain itself long-term as an independent.

Several years ago, political intervention resulted in BYU being left out of the newly realigned Big 12. The latest issue that could impede BYU involves LGBT groups petitioning the Big 12 not to invite the LDS-sponsored institution.

Fehlberg finds the latest hurdle somewhat ironic. In principle, he said, BYU and the LGBT groups seek the same things.

Related:

Report: Big 12 to interview 18 expansion candidates, including BYU he Big 12 has determined its expansion candidates, and, as projected, the list includes BYU. Along with about 20 other schools.

“The kind of rights and protections that the LGBT community speaks of, and those who support them, are the very things that BYU is supporting in the sense that BYU is saying we ought to have the free right of association, the free right to think and believe and choose and mingle with who we want as long we accord everyone else that same right and privilege,” he said.

Interesting point.

While Fehlberg said his instincts say his alma mater will get into the Big 12, he knows BYU — and by extension, the LDS Church — won’t bend any principles to get there. As an example, he points to the stand the church took on the same-sex marriage issue in California a few years ago.

“BYU is not ever going to overcome the fact that it has standards it won’t budge from,” Fehlberg said

In a wide-ranging interview about BYU sports on 97.5-FM and 1280-AM The Zone, Fehlberg doesn’t believe the LDS Church will drop the sports programs at the flagship institution. Sports were or are being eliminated at two LDS-owned colleges in Idaho and Hawaii.

He said church leadership believes BYU athletics are worth the cost. In particular, he said, the football program is an extension of the church’s mission. Essentially, BYU can save souls.

“It’s been a matter of record that the number of convert baptisms in this country that followed BYU’s national championship in football,” Fehlberg said.

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