BYU wants to keep the Big Game going indefinately, but according to the Salt Lake Tribune, Coach Whittingham and athletic director Dr. Chris Hill are not so sure. They are a little intimiated by the PAC-12 schedule...who wouldn't be...and no matter how good or how bad the two teams are, the BYU/Utah game is always a tough one.
For BYU, they recognize the importance of the tradition. And this game, for them, falls between their two other toughest games, Texas and Central Florida. But after taking on the surprising Aggies on September 30, the schedule gets a lot easier. Jake Heaps and company will be able to run up the score on WAC bottom feeders and a surprisingly weak Oregon State as well as perennial Big Sky cellar dweller Idaho State. BYU's post-season was set the very moment Jake Heaps through a reckless pass into the Texas secondary last week. Winning the next 3 games, Utah, UCF and Utah State will make the season for the Cougars. The rest of the year is about impressing potential recruits and the promise that the schedule will get more challenging in the future.
The Utes, even with the loss last week against USC, can still play in the Rose Bowl. They managed to avoid playing Oregon and Stanford in the regular season this year. The team that just beat them, USC, is ineligible for post-season play. And their other main competition for playing in the conference championship game, Arizona State, visits Rice-Eccles Stadium in just a few weeks. While BYU is making like a shark among migrating seals, Utah will be in the heart of the PAC-12 schedule. They will not have an "Easy" game until the previously mentioned Oregon State comes to Salt Lake City. However, after BYU, the toughest challenge for the Utes will be a visit to Arizona. But, week after week from last week through October is it's own challenge. "Every week is like a bowl game."
Will the fans who have grown up with this rivalry accept that Utah wants to replace BYU with someone like Kent or Central Michigan or UTEP? Will it be OK with fans for BYU and Utah to settle bragging rights in Basketball and other sports? I suspect that this will not be the case, but there is little that fans can do about it. The only reason Florida and Florida State meet every year is because their state legislature mandated it. BYU is a private school, and such legislation is not practical as the state legislature has no legal standing to force Utah to play BYU.
This is the brave new world of college football. This is what conference realignment means. The end of rivalries. The BYU/Utah rivalry could go the way of Oklahoma/Nebraska, Penn State/Pittsburgh, or Virginia Tech/West Virginia. Certainly if Oklahoma and goes to the PAC-12 and Texas to the ACC, the Red River rivalry will die. Legislative action will keep Texas A&M and Texas on the gridiron once those schools go their separate ways, but with most of these old rivalries, the government does not get involved.
As the years go by, a lot of Utah fans will begin and continue to look down their long noses to the team from the south, after all, the Utes are in a BCS conference and the Cougars are not-at least not now. But the end of the rivalry can not be blamed on the Cougars. As an independent, BYU can play Utah anytime that they want to meet. Season opener, mid season or late season. BYU can revolve the rest of their schedule around to meet the Utes, and I am certain that they would drop anyone if Utah wants to play. But Utah is not so flexible. Their conference will only give them three weeks to schedule the Cougars. It gives them another convenient excuse to forgetting the Cougars. The Utes also have an instate game in 2013 and 2014, there may not be room for another.
Therefore, enjoy this game and next year's game in Salt Lake. It may be the end of the BYU/Utah series.
No comments:
Post a Comment