There was a big difference between BYU, Utah and TCU and the rest of the conference as coaches and players took the podium one school after the other at the Mountain West Conference Football Media Days in Las Vegas on Tuesday.

The big three all talked about their programs — their strengths and their successes — while everyone else talked about their weaknesses, shortcomings, hopes, and not surprisingly, the big three. Teams are proving once again that their existence is defined by their relationship to these bigger programs.

With Utah jumping to a different conference in LeBron-esque fashion, fans and media would like to put BYU in Utah’s shadow in the same way Wyoming is in TCU’s, but BYU coach Bronco Mendenhall isn’t having any of it, and he shouldn’t.