Football aside, Y. on a roll

A Sports Illustrated writer and Colorado graduate once wrote BYU was the most hated team around.

That was after BYU had won a "mythical" national championship in 1984 and after the Cougars had defeated the Buffaloes in the 1988 Freedom Bowl.

BYU has grated on many nerves over the years, trying to do things above board, proclaiming a code of honor, winning a lot of games, grabbing conference titles, setting records, running up scores and generally ticking off a cadre of critics near and far.

That's why Cougar athletics received its share of wink-wink "ahh, too bad" when its football team finished the worst back-to-back seasons in about four decades this past season, inviting a bunch of feigned tsk-tsk-tsking since Thanksgiving. Then came the suspensions, expulsion and Cougar crime news of May.

Among Cougar faithful, it has resulted in a lot of glass-half-full-or-empty philosophizing.

All of this comes in the shadow of a major upgrade in the school's athletic facilities, a state-of-the-art student athlete center and indoor practice facility. The buildings have been praised by both collegiate and professional experts.

Compare the two pictures, the facilities against the struggles of the cash cow football program, and heads get scratched. Where's all this going?

Well, an accounting of 2003-04 provides renewed fodder: BYU's still worthy of opponent envy, scorn and, yes, the S.I. shake of hate. Now, if Gary Crowton can get the football team back to disturbing the recently comforted, it would refurbish BYU's portrait.

This past athletic season turned out to be one of the most successful in school history.

Cougar men and women had 15 of 21 athletic teams advance to NCAA play. The Cougars earned nine conference championships (Eight MWC and 1 MPSF). BYU teams achieved 11 top-25 finishes, including 10 in the top 20 of various rankings.

If you compare this finish, the last time the Cougars had 11 top 25 finishes was in 1993-94. That year, only eight teams finished in the top 20.

Count 'em in 2003-04.

• No. 1 men's volleyball (third national title since 1999).

• No. 2 women's cross country (finished No. 1 or No. 2 each year since 1997, winning the title four times).

• No. 5 (tied) women's soccer (program-best Elite Eight at NCAA tournament).