BYU linebacker Kyle Van Noy will appear on a cover for Phil Steele's 2013 College Football Preview labeled on Steele's blog as "Pac-12," despite the Cougars having no affiliation with the Pac-12 conference.
The BYU football program is independent, while other sports such as basketball are affiliated with the West Coast Conference. The University of Utah, BYU's biggest rival in football, joined the Pac-12 in 2011.
The Pac-12 cover prominently features Brett Hundley of UCLA, Marquis Lee of USC and Kevin Hogan of Stanford, with Van Noy's picture appearing in an inset box.
In response to an inquiry about the cover by the Deseret News, Brandon M. Pertner, an assistant editor for Phil Steele Publications, said that Van Noy was chosen for the Pac-12 cover due in part to regional considerations.
"The problem is we really don’t have a set cover for BYU players to be featured on so we decided to include him on our Pac-12 cover, which in the past has been exclusively for Pac-12 players only," he said in an email. "Because of this issue and the overwhelming support for BYU football, we are now looking at doing a Mountain cover in the future that could feature BYU players and others more prominently."
Steele's 2013 preview will have 11 different covers featuring different conferences, schools or regions, and are being released two at a time via Steele's blog.
"In past years I have had 11 different covers that I ship out to different parts of the United States so each magazine has a regional flavor to it," Steele wrote on his blog.
The 2013 covers will feature Florida, Texas, Pac-12, Northwest, East Coast, Midwest, Alabama, Auburn, Armed Forces, SEC and Big 10.
Ryan Carreon is a web editor for DeseretNews.com. E-mail him at rcarreon@desnews.com