This is not a good year for rivalries. Colorado-Nebraska, Florida State-Florida, Kansas-Kansas State, UCLA-USC, USC-Notre Dame ... either one or both teams in the rivalry are having sub-par seasons. None can touch what's on the line in tomorrow's BYU-Utah game.

The only question is why this didn't happen sooner. Only once have these teams met when both were nationally ranked — in 1994, BYU was No. 20, Utah No. 21. Throughout the series, if one team was hot the other was cold or mediocre. It seems long overdue that both teams reach this annual season finale with national rankings intact and major bowl representatives in the press box.

Everything came together this season ... well, except for BYU's loss at TCU ... to make this a legitimate big game, almost precisely as many observers anticipated before the season began. This season lived up to its billing, even if BYU does have one loss.

In this corner, it's Utah, 11-0 and ranked No. 8 in the nation; in this corner, it's BYU, 10-1 and ranked No. 16 in the nation. That 21-1 combined record is the best in the history of the series.

It's Max Hall vs. Paul Krueger and the Ute defense; it's Brian "Fourth Quarter" Johnson and Freddie Brown vs. David Nixon and Jan Jorgensen. It's Austin Collie vs. Brice McCain, again. It's BYU and Utah as we've never seen them.

The Big Game

No. 16 BYU at No. 8 Utah

Saturday, 4 p.m.

Rice-Eccles Stadium

TV: The mtn.

Radio: 700 AM, 1160 AM, 102.7 FM

Live game blogs: deseretnews.com/blogs.

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E-mail: drob@desnews.com

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