As for BYU, this is likely a temporary stop. I'd imagine they have an easy out, and probably a fairly lopsided revenue distribution agreement. (I'd guess that BYU keeps a good chunk of their own money, and probably reserves some rights to television broadcasts.) The WCC also gives them a stable conference with all private religious schools.
BYU will be the "big Kahuna" of the WCC. In both student body size and basketball stadium size, BYU is about the size of the four largest WCC schools combined.
Most of the WCC schools are located in major metro areas with significant LDS and BYU alumni populations. Local BYU fans could probably fill some of the smaller stadiums on their own. This could be a boon to ticket sales (perhaps BYU and some of the premier non-conference games would be packaged with some of the "lesser" games.)
Being the big guy in the conference lets BYU dictate their terms. Key among them is "no games on Sunday." (It's probably hard for a religious conference to turn that one down.) As a little guy in a big conference, they may have much more trouble with that one.
BYU also gets some good exposure. San Diego. Portland. San Francisco. They may be playing in small arenas, but they will be in the biggest cities on the west coast. WCC also does well in other sports like soccer and tennis. The MPSF will likely hold some of the other sports that are not in the WCC. This seems to be a strong west coast push by BYU. If the independent football thing works well, they may just decide they like it. Otherwise, they may be nothing more than a short term blip in one of the most stable conferences.
Basketball Arena Size
| BYU | 22700 |
| Gonzaga | 6000 |
| San Francisco | 5300 |
| San Diego | 5100 |
| Portland | 4852 |
| Top 4 current WCC combined | 21252 |
Number of Students
| BYU | 32955 |
| Loyola Marymount | 8972 |
| San Francisco | 8722 |
| Santa Clara | 8377 |
| San Diego | 7548 |
| Top 4 current WCC combined | 33619 |
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