Utes, Cougars to put rivalry on hold in 2014, 2015

[accadacca]

Sad to see this...
I got a good laugh out of the Greg Wrubell's (The BIGGEST BYU homer) comments...



SALT LAKE CITY — After weeks of speculation regarding the future of the Utah-BYU rivalry, it looks like the annual game between the red and blue will be put on hold for at least two years.

Utah athletic director Chris Hill has told the Deseret News that the Utes and Cougars will not play in 2014 and 2015.

Contracts for a 2013 game in Provo and a 2016 game in Salt Lake City are currently pending.
According to KSL's Greg Wrubell, "BYU has more flexibility (as an independent) than most programs to 'schedule wins.' Utah's ability to do the same is much more limited, and scheduling BYU is not the way to do it."

The Utes recently scheduled a home and home series with Michigan for 2014 and 2015.

Hill also said that the Utes have bought out of their 2014 trip to Utah State. The Utes and Aggies will meet on Sept. 7 in Logan, and then 2013 and 2015 in Salt Lake City.
The Deseret News is also reporting that Utah and Utah State have scheduled a four-year agreement in basketball that begins in 2014.

[Deuce]

I would like to see the 2 teams continue to play, I think it is a great rivalry and makes for some fun dialog, not only that week, but all year.

That said, I can understand Chris Hill wanting to get another home game in place of it. I'm not jumping up and down, stomping my feet feeling like I'm being shorted if they don't play every year.

Mr. Wrubell is 100% right, it is easy for BYU to schedule wins.....their difficulty is scheduling meaningful games.... Every directional school in the nation(NE Louisiana, Western Mining Tech, Northeastern School for the Blind ect) would love to have BYU on the schedule.... But BYU getting any sort of meaningful game in November is difficult.....not impossible, but difficult.

The University of Utah already has meaningful games built in, because even if it is a down year for a school, a PAC12 opponent is looked at as a quality game, as opposed to a WAC opponent. No to mention that they're playing for a conference division title when they are playing those games ect....

Back when both schools were in the Mountain West, either school use to schedule the likes of Oregon, Washington, Arizona ect and think how big time it was to have a PAC10 opponent on the schedule and count that as a quality win against a BCS school, regardless if the team was having an up or down year. "Those schedules are made years in advance, you just schedule quality teams and try to beat everyone on your schedule."

In a nutshell - BYU wants to schedule major conference opponents to buff up a schedule filled with WAC & directional schools. Utah wants to schedule WAC or directional schools in order to dumb down a schedule filled with 9 PAC12 games.

[Iceaxe]

The PAC12 and Big10 just cancelled their agreement to play each other every year, which bodes well for the Utah / BYU rivalry.