Utes vs. Cougars rivalry must go on

SALT LAKE CITY — I don't get all the talk I've heard about ending the Utah-BYU rivalry.

While no one in official positions is coming right out and saying it, I've heard fans on both sides of the rivalry talk about it. And you have to wonder when you hear BYU athletic director Tom Holmoe talk about the rivalry in the past tense as he did in last week's interview about his athletic program.

"We had an incredible rivalry and it was fun," Holmoe said. Notice the words "had" and "was." Was it a slip of the tongue or does he know something he's not saying?

Holmoe did say, "We're fighting to keep it (the rivalry) and make it work," but it makes you wonder how committed both sides are.

When Utah was accepted into the Pac-10 Conference last month, Utah athletic director Chris Hill said, "It's my intention to have the rivalry continue with a tremendous passion."

And U. football coach Kyle Whittingham, who has been on both sides, called the rivalry "great" and said he hopes it continues.

Certainly the two schools can find room on their future schedules for each other.

The Mountain West schedule features eight league games out of 12 total and it hasn't been determined yet if the Pac-10 schedule will have eight or nine games. Either way it leaves Utah with three or four non-conference games.

After joining the WAC in 1962, both Utah and BYU continued their rivalries with Utah State, although the BYU-USU games became spotty during the past two decades.

From the turn of the century until the 1960s, the big rivalry in the state was Utah vs. Utah State when the two schools always played in the same league. When they went their separate ways in '62, they still managed to keep playing every year without interruption for 48 years. The only reason they stopped it this year was because of Utah's unique opportunity to play Notre Dame.

Certainly the Utah-USU rivalry has lost much of its luster, due in large part to the recent dominance by Utah. However, don't forget that Utah State won 10 of the first 15 meetings after Utah joined the WAC.

I don't think the question is whether the BYU-Utah game will continue to be competitive. Over the past 10 years, you probably couldn't find two more evenly-matched teams in the county. The series is 5-5 and every game but two has come down to the final minute. Some say Utah may get a recruiting advantage being in the Pac-10, but that may not come to fruition for many years.

I've heard Holmoe and others at BYU say how difficult it is to schedule games, particularly home-and-homes with worthy opponents. In the past five years alone, BYU has played Eastern Illinois, Eastern Washington and Northern Iowa. Certainly the Cougars would rather play a longtime rival such as Utah than Eastern Illinois.