While I don't agree with some of the ADs comments, this was a great article that gives us fans a lot of insight as to what they have to deal with. A lot of us fans would prefer to just see the football schedules stacked with big names, but sometimes that isn't always possible. One thing's for sure, the Cougs and the Utes should stop scheduling FCS teams as much as possible, cuz it's a no win situation. If you win, it just damages your SOS and if you lose, your season and maybe bowl hopes are ruined.

Please Please Please don't schedule Hawaii. I know BYU gets some great recruits out of the islands, but playing at Hawaii brings up some great times like when Detmer got humiliated the night he won the Heisman, or when BYU's perfect streak with Doman and Staley was obliterated. Each of these games were played at 1am our time and BYU lost to a Hawaii team was clearly inferior. The players I knew on the team at the time said they just weren't as focuesed as they needed to be and they knew a lot of the players had been partying the night before the game. The same thing happened almost every year we'd play there and you want to go back? Look at history and ask yourself if the recruits are worth an almost guaranteed loss every other year.

If you have to schedule a game at Hawaii please at least REQUIRE A MORNING GAME and don't go out there until Thursday night so your players can at least get a half week of preparation.

I really don't think that making a wrong turn on a Rubik's Cube takes hours to fix. Considering that most people who can do it can do it in under five minutes, it doesn't seem like all that big a deal if you make one wrong move. Maybe if you broke it it would take hours to fix it, or go buy a new one...

Actually, Mr. Holmoe, the two times BYU played Texas ('87, '88) were both regular season games. Perhaps you are confusing them with Oklahoma, who BYU has only seen once--the '94 Insight.com (Copper) bowl.

If ever you're afraid of a game - especially against another mid-major, irrespective of how competitive that mid-major may be -- you're admitting to yourself you're not BCS material. While I think the BCS is a scam, it IS supposed to matchup the best teams possible. Anyone who is afraid of losing to Hawai'i (or Utah, BYU, Boise St, Fresno St, So. Mississippi, et al) isn't ready to be counted among the elite teams of college football.

GO TIGERS!!!

Yes, it is true that BYU's recent forays to Hawaii have been rather embarrassing, but I wouldn't call the teams they faced inferior. That is just locker-room fodder we don't need to give the other team. Keep in mind this is a big emotional game for Hawaii; they really get up for the Cougars. If the Cougars have lost due to partying and lack of focus, then that is lack of coaching and discipline--two things that I think Bronco would probably have addressed. Meanwhile, why kill a great rivalry just because it hasn't gone well for us lately? Hawaii has also been the scene of some great BYU victories, as well as some of the greatest plays in BYU (& college) football history. Can anyone ever forget Kyle Morrell's leap to preserve a goal-line stand in '84? The only real reason for not seeing Hawaii on any kind of an ongoing basis is travel cost. Otherwise I'd wouldn't mind seeing them every few years or so to keep the rivalry alive.

Best post of the year, by far. Keep it up.

Can we all just agree on one thing of an eternal nature?

Scheduling Utah State = Automatic Win

Thats why I love to see the Aggies beat the U and the Y, it only happens once in a decade or so but when it happens I love to hear them say why do we play the Aggies!!!!!

The Rubik's cube is not that hard it takes me at tops 2 minutes to solve it.

Re: Go to the islands 7:41 a.m.

I am not a cougar fan, but I have to admit that Kyle Morrell's play mentioned by the poster was and is the greatest individual defensive play I have ever seen in football, on any level. Period.

Hours of undoing a mistake on a Rubik's cube? If you get good at it you can easily solve the whole thing in a couple of minutes.

Uh...no.

It might feel that way cause its been awhile for the Aggies, but they will rise again to bite the U and Y. It might even happen to 1 or both this year.

Wait and see.

Go Aggies

BYU- i think Hawaii just scored AGAIN!!!

Whenever my Rubics Cube gets messed up I just buy a new one that's already solved. I wish my little brothers would leave them alone.

So is coach Whit going to start having our players work on Rubics Cubes? I think that's a much better idea than playing golf cuz they won't get grass stains on their pants.

The comments made by the AD's are telling of why BYU and Utah will never be considered to join any BCS conference. Wanting to play one or maybe two BCS teams each season so that they "have a chance at success" is lame. They won't ever be considered ready until they can play 4 or 5 BCS caliber schools and win 3 or 4 of them. If they were in the PAC10, they would see a schedule like this: USC, Cal, UCLA, Oregon St, Oregon, AZ State (and that might just be the road games). There are years where 4 of those teams could be top 25 with a couple of those in the top 10. So what the AD's believe is that we can't be successful playing a schedule like that. Whether they could or could not doesn't matter when the school's don't think they can. Beating up on a weak conference will never prove that we can and SHOULD play with the big boys! Talk is cheap. Prove it on the field.

If Hawaii is inferior, how come they have been to the BCS....?

I agree with the remark that if we schedule Hawaii they should be forced to play at a time where jet lag doesn't set in. I know many of us loved seeing the Hawaii game until they started beating us. All things considered though, they have enough of a home field advantage without playing late, late night games.

It may not seem like it because of a couple of high-profile blowouts, but BYU has actually played quite well in Hawaii. In fact, BYU is 11-8 vs Hawaii on the island, and 19-8 vs Hawaii overall.

In the last 10 meetings, BYU is 8-2 vs Hawaii, 3-2 on the island.

2002 BYU 35 Hawaii 32
2001 BYU 45 @Hawaii 72
1998 BYU 31 @Hawaii 9
1997 BYU 17 Hawaii 3
1996 BYU 45 @Hawaii 14
1995 BYU 45 Hawaii 7
1994 BYU 13 @Hawaii 12
1993 BYU 41 Hawaii 38
1992 BYU 32 @Hawii 36
1991 BYU 35 Hawaii 18

Hawaii is a great rival and I hope to see them on the schedule in the future.

New York area BYU fans need the Cougars to play Rutgers.

How come Utah State isn't on the cube?

Utah - I think UNLV just scored AGAIN!!!

A time where jet lag doesn't set in?!? Really? Is 4 o'clock better than noon? Or is that the other way around? I can't remember. WOW!

Also, the late, late night games can be explained by something called time zones, but I think I would be wasting my time.

Hawaii has been to the BCS because it was a sham. Congratulations, you went to a BCS game...and got your trash handed to you! Thanks to you, all other mid-tier teams probably won't get a shot at a BCS bowl because the BCS doesn't want another Hawaii vs. Georgia blowout. Had you lost by 10 points instead of 31, maybe the BCS would take us mid-tier schools a little more seriously.

Please, don't talk about how you're NOT inferior because you went undefeated during your season and made it to a bowl game...cuz honestly, in the end, it made no difference. Your schedule was WEAK.

my cube gets messed up, I just toss it at Ernest T. Bass's head.

The reason the ADs say what they do about scheduling one or two BCS opponents is because they don't have the budget for recruiting to hang with four or five. You put BYU AND Utah in the Pac-10, and they could handle it because their budget would go up and they could take higher-caliber recruits, seeing that more kids could get exposure in Provo or Salt Lake and still play a Pac-10 schedule

Thank you for a good, fair, interesting, well-balanced article.

First off, MAJOR KUDOS to Ernest T. Bass. I usually think you are from another Planet, but that post had me in stitches. Good one!

The BYU - Hawaii Rivalry was a great one. As stated, the Cougars had a pretty good record against the 'Bows, but UH always made the game interesting, and every once in awhile spanked us good!

To HUH, I don't think YOU understand the Time-Zone issue. Have you ever been to Hawaii? Maybe you looked at a Globe before? It isn't that difficult. When the Sun sets in Utah, it is still sunny on the Beach at Waikiki. At the 7PM (HST) Kick-Off at Aloha Stadium, it is 11PM (MST) in Provo. This has definitely been used to the advantage of the 'Bows!

Lastly, though I agree that BYU could hold its own in the PAC-10, it is pure conjecture to assume that they could recruit well enough to become a Top-Tier PAC-10 Team. Washington State (kind of a Provo, UT type environment) gets that increased budget, they don't seem to fare all that well from year to year. BYU would still need to focus on the High-Calibre LDS Kids.

BKB

As a season ticket holder, I would rather see BYU lose by 14 against a top quality team than wallop a second rate program. We can watch scrimages during spring football.

As a season ticket holder, I would rather see BYU win against a bad 1-A school than a great 1-AA school.

What does he mean "same academic standards?" What schools in the Big 10 or PAC 10 have lower academic standards? Is he talking about the football teams requirements; schools requirements? Is USC too low; Stanford's too high; Purdue? Penn State? Wisconsin? etc. etc. etc. Seems like a statement that needs further explanation. A big potential 'bridge burner' for sure.

I'm in the Eastern time zone (six hours ahead of Hawaii), and I distinctly remember watching the 12-0 Cougars losing in prime time to the Rainbow Warriors and still getting to bed at a reasonable hour. Blame that loss on whatever you like, the time zone was not a cause. Unless the BYU players were "partying the night before" until all hours and didn't get good and awake before playing an early game.

Oh, and that game was also memorable because of Todd "Former BYU Tight End" Whatshisname (why can't I remember it?) doing color with the ESPN woman PXP--I think it was one of her first games on PXP. I just remember being really surprised that the guy with the high voice was a woman.

MT in MD

re:ramper

I'm wondering if what Holmoe meant is that the admissions and academic standards are a little bit more rigorous (let's see which kids at say, Utah or USC or Ohio State could get into BYU, Duke, Northwestern, BC, Stanford, etc) at BYU than others, and sometimes that is what they're looking for. Of course BC has a great football team, but being a jesuit school, they probably go through much of the same things as BYU does with getting quality players to come to a great academic university with high admissions standards to play on its football team. Maybe that's why they love playing ND so much. I wouldn't be suprised if they play Baylor or Northwestern for that reason.

I have been to Hawaii, seen a globe, traveled it. Unless BYU flew in the day of the game, which I know they don't, the time zone has zero effect on the game. Unless of course you mean that having less BYU fans watching on TV is creating an advantage for Hawaii.

I guess the real question is, if the time zone was the real reason for BYU losing, or any school for that matter, why isn't Hawaii undefeated at home?

Typical Cougar fan. Can't accept the fact that someone beat you. There has to be some reason, other than the fact you played like crap, that you lost.

re: Quest for perfection

I am sure that is what he was talking about. But he needs to include far more schools in those two big conferences than he did. I taught for 20 years and had 4 former students go into the NFL. The private school I taught at has put 14 players into the NFL and scores into Div. I schools. The school recruits from around the country and it has been a real education to see how some colleges deal with talented student/athletes. My students would tell me how they were turned off by some college's tactics. The NCAA is far more aggressive trying to monitor things now than they use to be. As far as BYU goes I don't believe they are at the high end academically but combined with their character requirements that may place them in a different category.

I graduated from BYU, but don't ever try to compare our school to Northwestern, Duke, or Stanford academically. They're WAY out of our league. From what I've seen, we could USC to that list too. Ohio St. is about right though.