Changes take some fire from rivalry game

PROVO —

A day before kickoff, you don't have to go any farther than John Fackler's phone to gauge the change in the BYU-Utah football rivalry.

It hasn't rung all week.

Fackler is director of alumni relations at the University of Utah. Normally, by this stage of BYU-Utah week he's as frazzled as an offensive coordinator's nerves, his phone ringing or texting off the hook with requests for tickets, information about tailgate parties, pregame rallies, transportation to the game and a hundred other demands.

This year, nothing.

"Not one call, zero," he says. "It's just so much different. People are not as enthused. I can name you a ton of people not going to the game this year who in years past would have sold their firstborn to get tickets. Part of it is we just played in the Coliseum at USC."

The other part is that the game is in September instead of November, and with Utah's move to the Pac-12 conference and BYU's move to independent status, the longtime neighbors are no longer in the same league.

It's a new day in the old rivalry.

The big game is the sorta-big game.

At BYU, host of tomorrow's contest, the enthusiasm is also a notch below frenzied.

As of Thursday afternoon, Linda Palmer, director of the alumni association, reported that seats were still available.

"The ticket demand is probably a little less than we'd expect later in the season," says Palmer diplomatically. "Normally we've played almost the entire season, so it's a little bit of 'Gosh, we're playing Utah!'"

Palmer sees a silver lining in the earlier date.

"People don't have as much time to get worked up about it," she says, "and that's OK. I was concerned sometimes about how heated that rivalry could become."

Ditto Fackler. "The heated tone had to come down; it just could not continue," he says, referring to recent years when smack talk on both sides hit previously unplumbed depths.

"I'd see people I knew were just salt of the earth losing it over the game," he says. "Everyone has their idea of Judgment Day. One idea is to take everyone to the U-Y game. Whoever doesn't fly off the handle, they're in."

But playing in September, without a league title on the line, softens things.