BYU can’t give up BYU-TV.

BYU-TV like other “educational” cable programming requires that the content providers (BYU-TV) pay the cable/satellite companies to carry the station. So not only does BYU-TV not collect carriage fees, it actually pays carriage fees. It also pays The BYU athletic department for the content it airs. This allows BYU to circumvent it’s policy of no church monies being spent on athletics. BYU-TV is essentially a black box that allows the church to fund athletics through subsidizing BYU-TV without it showing up as a direct transaction on the ledger.

This is how BYU’s athletic department is able to report increasing revenues despite having a static ESPN contract and falling attendance and ticket prices in the revenue sports. A conference has to allow BYU-TV to directly contract with the BYU athletic department to keep the shell game going and this conflicts with any conference football membership.