Big 12 football media days have come to an end and in less than one year, BYU will join that conference.
In basketball, the Big 12 is widely regarded as the best conference in the country.
This upcoming season marks the Cougars’ final one in the West Coast Conference before jumping to the Big 12.
For Mark Pope and his staff, how much does future membership in the Big 12 influence the program’s decisions?
“For us, the Big 12 provides us an incredible platform to be able to speak to. The best college basketball conference in the country. The Final Four has had Big 12 participants recently. We’re able to speak to that,” said assistant coach Nick Robinson. “But for us, this summer, a lot of our focus was really on right now. How’s the roster? How is this team going to be built to win the WCC?
“Gonzaga is still a very, very good basketball team. Saint Mary’s and Santa Clara had great years. For us, the best thing that we can do to prepare for the Big 12 is to be great now. That was the primary emphasis, to do everything we can to be great right now and work every day to be great.”
Robinson emphasized that while this season will be unique for BYU because it’s going to be making the transition from the WCC to the Big 12, the focus is on this upcoming campaign.
“Coach Pope has said consistently that joining the Big 12 is super exciting and super scary all at the same time. But we’ve got work ahead of us in the WCC,” he said. “Our nonconference schedule has got to prepare us not for the Big 12 but the WCC, which is filled with great teams and great coaches.
“That’s goal No. 1, is to do everything we can to prepare for ourselves for game No. 1 this season. We’re working each day to be great.”