The Future of the Holy War

[YNot]

Interesting article from the Trib regarding the future of the Utah rivalry game and how conference realignment rumors affect scheduling:

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/blogsbyusp ... s.html.csp" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Lawboy]

Let me sum it up really fast: there is no future because Utah will not schedule us. They are worried about getting 6 wins, so they will schedule 2 loser games to go with their 9 PAC games and 1 Big Ten game. BYU is not a loser team, so we are out.

Expect the series to go away for a few years, until Utah dips into perpetual mediocrity, and then needs the game again for local relevance. At which time I hope BYU tells them to go pound sand, or themselves. Whichever.

[EM_Puma]

I responded in another thread of how ironic was that Stanford renewed their long-standing rivalry with Notre Dame through 2019. Interesting how they found a way to schedule someone they wanted to while still being so restrained by being a member of the PUKE12 conference. Utah is hiding behind a poor excuse.

[hawkwing]

Lawboy is exactly right on this.

Utah is cowardly. And realistic. They have no hope of competing in the Pac0 and know that they can only schedule cupcakes outside of conference if they hope to even sniff bowl games in the future. Their own cowardice will be the cause of their ultimate demise into obscurity.

[Stirfry]

I responded in another thread of how ironic was that Stanford renewed their long-standing rivalry with Notre Dame through 2019. Interesting how they found a way to schedule someone they wanted to while still being so restrained by being a member of the PUKE12 conference. Utah is hiding behind a poor excuse.

Didn't the PAC make an exception for Notre Dame to allow teams to play them during any time of the year and not be restrained to the (screw BYU rule) no non conferance games after September? You still only get 3 nonconference games but that exception makes scheduling Notre Dame a lot easier than BYU. (It's still not a legitimate excuse. Plently of big time schools play a difficult out of conference rival every year.)

My absolute dream scenario in all of this is what Lawboy described. Utah finally just comes out and says we don't need you anymore and doesn't schedule us. BYU gets in to the BIG 12 and is competitive while Utah suffers in the PAC. Pretty soon Ute fans return to their traditions of not caring and Rice Eccles is half empty on Saturdays. Utah than ask BYU to renew the rivalry to generate local interest and sellout at least 1 time every 2 years and BYU turns them down. I can dream right?

[scott715]

We can play them at our house only. Take that when it happens.

[Cougarbib]

We can play them at our house only. Take that when it happens.

This or a 2 fer

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[Ddawg]

Lawboy is exactly right on this.

Utah is cowardly. And realistic. They have no hope of competing in the Pac0 and know that they can only schedule cupcakes outside of conference if they hope to even sniff bowl games in the future. Their own cowardice will be the cause of their ultimate demise into obscurity.

+1! The Yewts will avoid playing & losing to BYU for 2 reasons: 1) W-L record, 2) recruiting in Utah. Being a PAC-12 team does help them tremendously. If they lose to BYU, they lose that in state sales pitch of "we're big and bad". Who cares if they're in the PAC-12, but lose to BYU. Playing BYU has no upside, with plenty of downside risk.

[EM_Puma]

Didn't the PAC make an exception for Notre Dame to allow teams to play them during any time of the year and not be restrained to the (screw BYU rule) no non conferance games after September? You still only get 3 nonconference games but that exception makes scheduling Notre Dame a lot easier than BYU. (It's still not a legitimate excuse. Plently of big time schools play a difficult out of conference rival every year.)

Yes, but that's not my point. If it was simply an issue of time of the year to be able to schedule BYU, then that point would be valid. The point was that Stanford knows extremely well that scheduling ND as one of their non-conference games is putting them in a situation where they could lose a game where they could schedule a cream puff, but they chose not to. Same reason that Georgia (SEC) still plays GT (ACC), S. Carolina (SEC) still plays Clemson (ACC), Florida (SEC) still plays Florida St (ACC), and USC still plays Notre Dame. In each of those cases, it is for the sake of the rivalry that has been forged they they chose not to disregard, because it does make their schedule harder.

Utah is whimping out.

It made me sick to hear the tilted radio jockeys on the SL radio yesterday saying that if they were Chris Hill that this is what they would probably do. Sure, I'm a financial analyst, I understand the logic, but the bottom line is the reason in my book for Utah to not schedule BYU for any further games takes us completely away from what the reason the sport was ever created and is taking all the fun away from the game.

I'm not a fan of any of those team that are taking the high road and continuing their rivalries, but Kudos to them. They still understand why we play this game and do something about it. Utah and the PUKE-pointed radio announcers can all spin this anyway they want, but I'm not foolish enough not to call a spade a spade.

[Stirfry]

Yes, but that's not my point. If it was simply an issue of time of the year to be able to schedule BYU, then that point would be valid. The point was that Stanford knows extremely well that scheduling ND as one of their non-conference games is putting them in a situation where they could lose a game where they could schedule a cream puff, but they chose not to. Same reason that Georgia (SEC) still plays GT (ACC), S. Carolina (SEC) still plays Clemson (ACC), Florida (SEC) still plays Florida St (ACC), and USC still plays Notre Dame. In each of those cases, it is for the sake of the rivalry that has been forged they they chose not to disregard, because it does make their schedule harder.

Utah is whimping out.

It made me sick to hear the tilted radio jockeys on the SL radio yesterday saying that if they were Chris Hill that this is what they would probably do. Sure, I'm a financial analyst, I understand the logic, but the bottom line is the reason in my book for Utah to not schedule BYU for any further games takes us completely away from what the reason the sport was ever created and is taking all the fun away from the game.

I agree with you a 100% on this one Puma. Utah is whimping out on this and they have a weak excuse. If a team with an SEC schedule can play FSU a PAC 12 south team can play BYU (Just ask Tim Davis which conference is more challenging ) It's another reason for me to hate the BCS. College football is no longer about competition.

As for the radio jockeys, the announcement 2 weeks ago that Spence Checkets was joining 1320 for the ride home was the worst news in years for local talk radio. Now the choices are the Ute homers on 700, the Ute homer from 700 on 1320, or Gordon Monson. (I'm proud to say that next months I will be 12 months of Monson free living! Ironically his column on Jim Boylen after he was fired put me over the edge but I've found out life is much better when you don't listen to someone trying to tick you off all day long)