During his two decades at the helm of Brigham Young’s athletic department, Tom Holmoe ruled the Mountain West football program to independence and from independence to Big 12. He parked the basketball team in the West Coast Conference until it also, moved into The Big 12. He hired a block of successful coaches , celebrated more than 100 conference championships and even some national titles.

It was a lively and at least successful time.

But now, when Cougars is looking for a successor – Holmoe announced his pension on Tuesday – the reality has an indication of Deja Vu.

In an important respect, Brigham Young is back where it began during Holmoe in the spring of 2005.

Cougar’s peeled College Sports Mountain just to meet a second summit, waved through the clouds and waited for Holmoe’s replacement.

It is not Brigham Young’s fault, and it really is not Holmoe’s fault, because the landscape has changed dramatically in recent years. But the ability to skillfully navigate in this treacherous terrain must be of utmost importance in the search for Holmoe’s successor.

What in the world are we talking about?

How could Cougars have jumped from the mountain west to Big 12 and still be strategically placed as if it is 2005 again?

Let hotline explain.

When Holmoe slid into the chair 20 years ago, Cougars was comfortable in the mountain west together with Utah, San Diego State and a handful of other long -standing foils. But the speech of re -adjustment was crowded in the distance, with a wave of conference media rights that would expire in the early 2010s.

PAC-10, first to the table, added Ut Uts and Colorado, was divided into divisions and changed in PAC-12. Cougars were left at least from the beginning. Instead of staying in the exhausted mountain West, they chose to become independent in football and place their Olympic sports in WCC. Eventually, adjustment returned, with Big 12 which offers a sought -after invitation to join Power Five.

It is now Power Four, after PAC-12. But how long?

This is where the story is repeated in Provo. Because after all this work, after all these years seeking membership in a conference at the highest level of college sports, the terrain prepares to switch again.

At some point in late 2029 or early 2030, Big Ten must settle on a member strategy for its next media contract cycle, which begins in the summer of 2031. If the conference adds more schools – Notre Dame is sought after; So is North Carolina – Sec will undoubtedly do the same and thus spark desperate encrypts within ACC and Big 12 to secure invitations to the two most prestigious conferences.

Or maybe Big Ten passes in expansion in the early 2030s and consolidation takes hold, with the entire Power Four structure that gives way to a college football super -weathered. Many of the smartest senses in the industry believe that a superb is inevitable.

Will it contain 30 teams or 70? Will it be marketing and relegation? No one knows, but everyone will request an invitation.

All that is saying this: Brigham Young’s next athletic director will meet essentially the same time frame to prepare for massive adjustment that Holmoe met – maybe five years, maybe six – when he took over 2005.

In absolute terms, safe, Cougars have risen the conference hierarchy. But on a relative basis, their position is comparable to what it was then, with their attractions at a higher level that will undoubtedly be materialized when the decade turns.

How does this affect the search for Holmoe’s successor? Of course, it will be unlike someone else in Power Four. The school will undoubtedly choose a member of the Church Jesus Christ of the Saints of the Last Days, someone with ties to school or both.