This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2010, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
The Utah-BYU rivalry is not dead, nor should it be. And if the stewards of the longtime rivals, soon to play in different conferences, allow it to die, or even temporarily stall, because of the Utes' exit from the Mountain West, shame on them.
It would be more than a failure on their part to not make the right thing happen. It would be inexcusable, and stupid.
That last word came from the mouth of Tom Holmoe, who recently used it to describe what he would be if he actually took the path a few pouters at BYU favor, namely telling Utah to enjoy the sunshine on the coast and to pound sand.
His exact words: "I could be stupid and say, 'Hey, you guys went to the Pac-10. We're never playing you again."
Then he asked: "Is that in our best interests? I don't know. But we're going to do what's in our best interests."
Later, he said: "If we're going to play [Bo Diddley Tech] instead of Utah, we take a step back."
Holmoe bobbed and weaved, but only enough not to completely expose BYU's chin inside the ropes of such rivalry talk. He knows it's best for the Cougars to keep on playing the Utes and for the Utes to keep playing the Cougars. He knows it's best for college football here, and college football fans, from the hardcore to the casual. He also knows Chris Hill has similar feelings, in all sports.
"We've [already] started talking about now and the future," Holmoe said.
Both athletic directors acknowledge the challenges, foremost among them scheduling issues, namely fitting the games in, whether they're played early or late in the season, and making the rivalry a win-win off the field no matter who wins on it.
None of those problems are big enough to legitimately halt the rivalry. Any flak sent up about games already in place and it being too costly or complicated to move them is bull. BYU playing Utah is too important.
"If you want to make it work, you make it work," Holmoe said. "... We're going to try."
There should be no try, just do.
One accommodation Holmoe said BYU would not make is a two-for-one scenario in which the Cougars play host to the Utes once for every two trips to Rice-Eccles.
"The rivalry is great, home and home, here and there," he said. "For us all of a sudden to go two-for-one? I don't think we'd do that. If you want a rivalry, make room for the rivalry."
Fair enough.
Anti-rivalry folks generally fall into four categories: those who think it has gotten too heated and want it cooled off; those who don't want either school, especially Utah, to have to make any adjustments to a nonconference schedule already in place alongside an evolving league scenario; those Utes who are overnight Pac-10 snobs, thinking Utah has little to gain from playing the Cougars; and the aforementioned BYU pouters who want nothing to do with the Utes since they took the last train for the coast.
As for the first group, Holmoe said the rivalry "was fun." He added: "It got nasty for the fans a lot. ... For a lot of people who get it, it's an incredibly great rivalry."
For the second group, he said: "We're fighting to try to keep it, to make it work. But it's hard. The logistics have changed dramatically."
The third group is wrong. Utah playing BYU isn't like Michigan getting beat by Appalachian State. While the Utes will be part of a BCS league, the Cougars still are a respected Top 25 program, a team that brings value to the Utes by way of a Utah win. Making any kind of stout delineation, defining and valuing teams only by conference affiliation, saying BYU or Boise State isn't worth playing, or risking a loss to, is undermining the very path the Utes took to get where they are.
The fourth group needs to remove the binky from their mouths.
The blue-red rivalry has been a significant part of sports in this state since sports became significant, an event that, despite what happened to Utah State, transcends conference membership and who's hot right now.
If administrators on either side allow it to be interrupted, in what they claim is the best interests of their universities, they will have done a disservice not only to their schools, but also to the people of their state, and to their fans beyond.
GORDON MONSON
hosts "The Gordon Monson Show" weekdays from 2-6 p.m. on 1280 AM The Zone. He can be reached at
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