PROVO — Never before in the storied history of the BYU-Utah football rivalry have the two teams been so good at the same time.

The state's hungry families need the teams' fans to set records this fall, too.

For the 16th year, fans and alumni of Brigham Young University and the University of Utah have spent the days leading up to a rivalry game in a friendly competition to see which school can raise the most money and donate the most food to food banks in Salt Lake Valley and Utah Valley.

Their favorite teams seem to play great football games every November, and the fans keep getting better at giving.

In 2002, Y. and U. fans donated $7,620 during the food drive. Last year, the total jumped to more than $49,000.

Which school is the food-drive champion? The competition is as close as the games played on the field. The U. always has supplied more dough (nearly $29,000 last year) while BYU harvests more food (104,000 pounds in 2007, to Utah's 81,000).

"We've made a greater push to beat them in food this year," U. alumni director John Fackler said, "and they've made a greater push to beat us in money."

The U. is giving tickets to its bowl game and other prizes to the students who donate the most pounds of food for $15.

Rivalry-week lingo peppers this food drive.

Across the screen at alumni.byu.edu, where Cougar fans can make cash donations, scroll the words, "Help crush the Utes by donating money and food to a worthy cause."

Over at alumni.utah.edu is this reference to the U.'s undefeated football team: "In this year like no other, think food drive before scoring drive."

This certainly is a year like no recent one at the food bank in Provo, where the need for food has jumped at least 43 percent so far, said Myla Dutton, executive director of Community Action Services and Food Bank. Recently, the food bank has served 2,300 families a month, up from 1,500 a month a year ago.

"It's a big increase. Astounding," Dutton said. "We are seeing many, many, many families who had never sought help before. Incomes just aren't going as far."

Donors feel the pinch, too.

"We've seen people who in the past have given $100 giving maybe $50," Fackler said.

Fans of both teams have embraced the tradition of donating a dollar or more at local businesses, which then give them a blue Y or a red U called a mark. Fans can write messages on their Y marks or U marks, which then go up on the walls of the businesses.

This year, the businesses involved include both university bookstores, Deseret First Credit Union, select Crest convenience stores, the Creamery on Ninth in Provo and the Provo Macey's.

Fans of both teams can bring donations — cash, food or check — to Saturday's game at Rice-Eccles Stadium.

Each $1 turns into $17 of food.

"That's because we don't buy food," Dutton said. "The money puts gas in the trucks that go to stores that donate the food, that go to the schools that had food drives."

Dutton's eyes watered as she considered the hungry people helped when the two schools join together in community service.

"It means everything," she said.

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E-mail: twalch@desnews.com