Thoughts on how BYU and Utah can keep Utah State on their schedule by working together

Word is PAC12 might go to 8 games plus B1G and ACC game. May end up an ‘or’, but either way will completely change the scheduling assumptions of an ABC model. An early ‘B’ game on the road is useful for the team and yes, USU could be it every 5 or 6 years so they could have 7 home games and another ‘bus’ game. But it would be for those reasons, not to do anyone a favor or be altruistic to any state interests.

But who cares after such a fun season. And none of this matters - it’s Harlan’s job to work through this. I don’t live local, so I have no care of Utah playing anyone in state.

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The Big12 bashing is funny coming from the PAC12. History is one thing, but currently the teams in the Neo-Big12 are just as good as the PAC12 as a collective. So yeah, BYU is going into a diminished conference, but judging their status by their conference counterparts, they will be equal to Utah and it’s counterparts. By recent head to head results, Utah is above BYU, but evaluating status by conference affiliation, BYU will be equal to Utah.

Perhaps, we shall see… And if so, they won’t give us the 2 for 1 I suggested. I’m OK with that, 1 for 1, on a 2+ year rotation would also be fine with me.

To simply break this down, with 3 OOC games on the schedule every season, with the extended games to play ACC and SEC teams eating up one slot per year, and the proposed B1G-PAC 12 contract eating up one OOC slot per year, unless the PAC 12 drops the conference schedule to 8 games (like the SEC does), Harlan has one unfettered OOC slot to fill every year.

One other item for consideration. If the PAC 12 does with football what they did with basketball this season, we may have to schedule an HBCU school to come play us. My guess is this would be “one and done’s” on a three to five year rotation in the OOC schedule, but the end result is such a deal would further reduce the number of available OOC slots for playing BYU and USU.

Conference obligations and the long term schedule simply have no wiggle space for a regular in-season tilt between these schools. My guess is BYU is going to find itself in similar straits as Utah in the BIG 12, hence the need for an inter conference agreement to create a regular scheduling of the game.

What availability USU has is unknown as well. Just because they play in a G5 conference doesn’t mean Hair Thompson hasn’t started cutting deals with other G5 conferences to solidify OOC scheduling in the Mountain West. After getting raided (again) by the P5, I am sure they are looking to shore things up some.

For the record, I enjoyed having USU on the schedule. I enjoyed tailgating with their fans and having a collegial experience at the games - even on the off chance we lost one.

BYU I can take or leave. Their fans are generally nice, but not collegial like USU. They really don’t tailgate and interact they way the fans of the other schools do. Their team is competitive, and it’s generally a good game; but since Utah’s transition to the PAC 12, the game hasn’t really had the cachet it once had. Even with BYU landing in a P5 conference now, it will still not carry the cachet it had when these two schools were knocking heads with a conference championship hanging in the balance.

FWIW

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THIS

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I’ll take the “leave” option.

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Couple of thoughts:

  • For obvious reasons, the BYU game has more value now that they are in the Big XII than when they were Independent. It doesn’t need to happen yearly. And on a rare occasion I’m not opposed for both schools to play each other in the post season
  • I’m in favor of a home and away against Utah State. Clearly this matchup is preferable to some of the other non-conference games we’ve scheduled (No. IL comes to mind)
  • I still have a soft spot in my heart for the MWC, and wouldn’t mind a few series against former schools that we share a long history with
  • Any future FCS teams Utah plays should all be against in state schools or the HBCU’s
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We should go full SEC style and have 4 road PAC12 games then 4/5 home PAC12 games, home against Weber/SUU/Utah Tech (never heard of them, but they are FCS?) (C team), home and away with Utah St., and home and away with BYU :wink: .

I too like MWC for our ‘B’ game - if that’s USU now, fine. Rotating to others is good (like the SDSU home and away, could do Fresno, Nevada, even Boise St.).

I kind of like the 2-3 years on, 2-3 years off with BYU, esp. when they are replaced by UM, UF, ND, etc. With B1G and ACC matchups likely coming, I like seeing other teams. Would love playing Wisc (we have them on the schedule when my kids are adults, so let’s speed that one up).

I am opposed to that. When it is (for all intents and purposes) dictated by the legislature that we play them, I don’t want to have to play them in the post season as well.

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Big 12 is a very powerful basketball conference in it’s new look. Baylor, Kansas, Iowa St, Houston, West Virginia, Texas Tech…all good basketball schools.

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I have been advocating something like this since Utah went to the PAC. Personally, I loved going to Logan and it wasn’t a financial burden because the home team paid a nominal fee to the traveling team (50k or so) and kept the rest of the home receipts. Much better than paying an FCS team 500k. To me, the benefits are:

  1. We only play BYU 2 out of every 6 years instead of every year;
  2. We resume games with an historic rival - we have played Fresno, Wyoming, SDSU, San Jose and will undoubtedly schedule additional games against MWC teams - make it USU 2 out of 6 years;
  3. Logan is an easy game to travel to, so make it on the years we have only 6 home games on the schedule.
  4. The PAC is talking about eliminating divisions and going to 8 conference games. This is a no brainer if this were to happen.
  5. Eliminate FCS games and this is a no brainer.
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are they though? based on the current AP top 10 and last year’s elite 8.

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Right?

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But if teams like Arizona get better, and it looks like they will with a top 25 class, it will still be a situation where we beat ourselves up. Need to move to 8 conference games as well.

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This works for me.
BYU:
Year 1: Bye
Year 2: Bye
Year 3: Bye
Year 4: Bye
Year 5: Bye
Year 6: Bye

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Since SLC is in the middle of the three schools, it only makes sense to have all games between the three schools in this, the most convenient location. Therefore, all future games between the three, no matter the frequency, should be held at Rice-Eccles Stadium.

Easy.

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:joy: cool. At least you don’t hide it.

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Utah has neither obligation nor incentive to do any of this. When/if the alliance materializes the schedule would call for 1 each of B1G and ACC. Add in the gift game to a FCS local team and there’s the schedule. If the PAC12 and B1G drop down to 8 conference games it would free up another date that I’d like to see go to a SEC team. Why on earth would the Utes tie up all of the OOC games with Utah teams?

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If you scroll down and read a few more posts you’ll see that the discussion has evolved. This proposed schedule will keep the in state teams playing but much less frequently. I just think there’s value in maintaining those rivalry’s. Utah and BYU don’t need to play every year. With the rotation I’m proposing below, instead of monopolizing 6 OOC games over 6 years, you’re only obligated to use 4 OOC every 6 years.

Utah:
Year 1: Bye
Year 2: @BYU
Year 3: vsUSU
Year 4: Bye
Year 5:vsBYU
Year 6: @USU

Utah State:
Year 1: vsBYU
Year 2: bye
Year 3: @Utah
Year 4: @BYU
Year 5: Bye
Year 6: vsUtah

BYU:
Year 1: @USU
Year 2: vsUtah
Year 3: Bye
Year 4: vsUSU
Year 5: @Utah
Year 6: Bye

I’m with Ute King on this. If we must play them, play them at RES.

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