$200 to Park in Provo, and Worth Every Penny

Good morning, and thanks for spending part of your day with Extra Points.

PROVO, Utah—I promise you, I didn’t decide to go to the BYU-Notre Dame game because both teams were undefeated, or because “College GameDay” was coming, or anything like that. I had this game circled on my calendar months in advance as a possible Extra Points road trip destination.

My original plan was to try and talk to some of the Catholics who live in and around Utah County, home of the BYU Cougars, ahead of the Notre Dame matchup. Did a rare visit from America’s most famous Catholic college football team change anything for the visibility of a minority community? Were they excited? What did they think?

Those plans changed, of course, once I realized there is just a single Catholic parish in Utah County, and few in the other surrounding areas … and those parishioners just aren’t big college football fans.

Fair enough! Thankfully, there were plenty of other reasons to be interested in a football game between Notre Dame and BYU, especially now, as college football threatens to expand the Playoff to 24 teams, potentially turning showdowns like last weekend into an anachronism.

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There are clear similarities between the two programs, of course. They’re both excellent universities with proud athletic traditions across multiple sports. They’ve both competed at the highest levels of college football as independents. They’re both the flagship college sports brands for entire religions, not just for a city or a state.

Of course, Notre Dame had a teensy bit of a head start when it comes to football dominance.

Shortly after BYU formally launched a program, it brought in legendary Notre Dame head coach Knute Rockne to serve as a guest lecturer, a reflection of the fact that Notre Dame was already a very different kind of team.

By 1930, Notre Dame had already won three national titles and established itself as a national powerhouse on and off the field. BYU hadn’t figured out how to win more than five games in a season and was toiling against the likes of Western State, Montana State and Colorado College, playing in a state with a smaller population than South Dakota or Maine. Notre Dame won 10 national titles before BYU won its first bowl game.

But then things started to change. Utah now boasts a thriving economy and a population of more than 3.5 million, and the LDS church has grown from a provincial faith in the Utah wilderness to a global church of more than 17 million. BYU isn’t playing Western State anymore. It’s in the Big 12, playing in front of packed crowds of 60,000-plus fans, and gunning for more.

But like many American institutions, college football cares more about who your friends were three generations ago than it would like to admit. BYU is “new money” in a sport mostly dominated by the same handful of schools that were successful before the invention of color television. If BYU wanted to be more than just an aspirational peer to programs like Notre Dame, schools with a good 75-year head start, it would need to get building in a hurry.

Clearly, that’s happened. After a very public flirtation with the Penn State job, BYU head football coach Kalani Sitake signed a contract extension that reportedly pays him north of $9 million a year, a figure that would have been unthinkable for a BYU employee a decade ago. The athletic department has become an industry leader with its work in communications, local broadcast productions and in-stadium experiences, and much of the school’s key athletic facilities are new — or at least recently remodeled.

That requires a lot of money. One way BYU is generating that money? Corporate sponsorships and engagement.

As a private school, BYU isn’t required to share its NCAA MFRS report or specific financial information with the public, or with nosy reporters like me.

But a few BYU staffers with knowledge of the figures ballparked BYU’s revenue from corporate sponsorships and advertising over the past fiscal year at about $45 million. That would put the department near the very top of all of Division I.

There are a few reasons for this substantial increase over the past few years. Unlike most Power 4 programs, BYU handles its multimedia rights sales in-house, rather than with an MMR firm like Playfly or Learfield. That forces the school to accept more risk and hire more salespeople, but also allows it to capture a higher potential upside.

The department is also benefiting from economic changes in Utah, specifically around Salt Lake City and Provo. Dramatic population growth and the establishment of the Silicon Slopes tech corridor have brought plenty of high-net-worth potential donors and fast-growing companies, all looking to establish a foothold in the market.

Plus, BYU’s whole brand affinity play looks different from most other athletic departments’ because BYU plays such an outsized cultural role within the LDS community. You can live your whole life as a Catholic in the United States without ever meeting somebody who went to Notre Dame. If you’re LDS and live in this country, you will absolutely know BYU graduates. The school is positioned well to capture interest from folks (and brands) who went to other Utah institutions but maintain a strong connection to the LDS faith.

But it’s not just about that. The athletic department has also spent time and resources cultivating those corporate relationships, making investments in its major athletic facilities. When you hear schools talk about facility upgrades, they’re not always just talking about making room for more squat racks and mini-fridges full of Gatorade. They’re also talking about creating spaces for boosters and corporate partners.

Lavell Edwards Stadium, or LES, doesn’t just have one big suite for premium experiences. There are several smaller clubhouses all over the stadium for corporate partners to entertain clients, enjoy unique food and beverage options and more. School officials told me the biggest jump in the athletic department’s corporate fundraising had come from experiences, rather than just slapping logos on new parts of the stadium.

And of course, those premium seating areas had a unique BYU flair. Since the active members of BYU’s sponsoring institution, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, do not drink alcohol, you won’t find it sold anywhere in the stadium. You will, however, see bespoke mocktails, coloring pages for small children, and in one area a multicolored cowhide mural of Lavell Edwards himself.

There are also plenty of more traditional luxury boxes for corporate partners and well-heeled donors to watch the action. Most of these are decorated similarly, but one box, held by Crumbl Cookies CEO Jason McGowan, was decorated with a more personal touch. All of the seats have been replaced with Lamborghini leather, and the counters are Italian marble with built-in phone chargers.

The vast majority of the seats at LES are still bleachers, and the school is cognizant of concerns about pricing fans out or potentially jeopardizing home-field advantage. But more corporate and premium seating and sections are on the way. Competing with Notre Dame, or anybody else at the top of the college football pyramid, isn't cheap.

I joked with my pal Ben Criddle, a former BYU defensive back who now hosts a popular radio show, that this wasn’t exactly a David-versus-Goliath battle. The two sides weren’t completely equal, but David has certainly been in the gym.

I woke up at 4:15 a.m. the day before the game in hopes of grabbing a parking spot for “GameDay.” Provo hadn’t hosted the show since 2009, which meant nobody on campus took anything for granted, and fans flooded into the viewing area hours before the sun rose. School officials estimated the crowd to be somewhere between 6,500 and 9,500. Considering (almost) everybody was sober, I think that was pretty impressive.

Beyond the usual throngs of fans holding signs and the shock of seeing Pat McAfee wear a tie and demonstrate at least a casual understanding of Mormonism, one moment in particular stood out to me: As the “GameDay” hosts launched into a segment on the College Football Playoff’s likely expansion to a whopping 24 teams — a format that would almost certainly benefit a team like BYU — the swarm of caffeinated BYU fans booed.

I don’t know how it sounded on the broadcast. But the response was unmistakable from where I was standing. The crowd did not like that idea.

The entire event — from a huge nonconference matchup in mid-October to “College Gameday” setting up shop to an iconic brand showing up to face the Cougars in Provo — was unique and exciting in large part because this sort of thing just doesn’t happen very often. Throw in the fact that both squads were undefeated and the winner would be in the driver’s seat for a potential playoff bid, and the game wound up with stakes beyond bragging rights.

Would this go way in an expanded playoff era? Was this game among the last of its kind?

I spent the several hours before kickoff wandering to tailgate tents, talking to parents as they stood guard over their children flying through bounce houses, standing in lines for Swig’s Dirty Sodas and going anywhere else I could find BYU fans to ask what they thought.

About 60 percent of the fans I spoke to thought a game like this would still feel critically important, no matter the size of the playoff, because this was Notre Dame. It was a measuring stick against an aspirational peer, a game that would resonate beyond the boundaries of Deseret. If nothing else, it could be something to lord over Utah fans. (Have the Utes beaten Notre Dame yet? That’s what I thought.)

The other 40 percent worried this game wouldn’t be quite as meaningful without the stakes of the postseason. If both BYU and Notre Dame could expect to be comfortably in the postseason no matter what happened on the field, would the game even happen? Would the players try as hard? Would they still want to tell their grandkids they’d been there?

If nothing else, they certainly wouldn’t want to pay $200 just to park their cars at the game.

Even the people who swore the game would still matter had to pause and think about it. This was uncertain territory. Games like this don’t happen every week in Provo.

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That was certainly true on the field, as well. The two teams battled all game, with BYU jumping to an early 21-10 lead, thanks to some creative play-calling leading to a 15-yard touchdown catch by star BYU quarterback Bear Bachmeier.

But the Irish were able to move the ball with consistency, especially on the ground, and regularly found themselves threatening to score. Even with some uncharacteristic mistakes, like a fumble on a spike attempt late in the first half inside BYU’s 10 and a few overthrows from Notre Dame quarterback CJ Carr, the Irish had plenty of chances to blow the game wide open. But certain touchdowns turned into field goals, and promising scoring drives fizzled out before paydirt.

BYU’s offense nearly completely vanished in the second half, and the Irish, mistakes and all, climbed back in front, 24-21, with 9:32 left. It looked like Notre Dame’s superior depth and top-end athleticism would eventually carry the day.

But the Cougars had one last drive in them, reclaiming the lead with just 1:47 left thanks to a Bachmeier touchdown pass to Walker Lyons. But the Irish converted on fourth down, marched deep into BYU territory and looked to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat right on the game’s final play.

Did BYU commit pass interference on the last play? I dunno, maybe. Should Notre Dame have had one more second to run another red zone play? Apparently, yes. Should the Irish have already held a comfortable lead at that point, regardless of late-game officiating decisions? Also yes.

But you already know how the game went. Carr’s final touchdown attempt fell to the earth, and BYU secured the 28-24 upset. The Cougars are now No. 2 in the AP poll for the first since 1984, the year they won their national title. Fans, from the bleachers, mind you, flowed out of the stands and covered the field. Players wept. Delirium rang.

Was this the end of an era? To borrow the parlance of the locals, once you’re storming the field, who the frick cares? All that matters is that for at least one week, BYU is near the very top of the college football mountaintop.

Those are hypothetical questions for another day. For now, the investments worked. The system worked. And the chocolate milk is still flowing.

Beating the Golden Domers is a sugar high that won’t fade away for at least a few more days.