Utah vs ASU is cancelled
Waiting for an official announcement of Utah at Washington
Sounds good. UW is a good team. I’m glad we’re playing.
Side note - if BYU had just agreed to play UW, BYU would have had all the benefit of looking unafraid without even having to play the game.
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Starting to hear rumors that BYU didn’t just say “no thanks”. They actually agreed to nearly every term UW set - with the caveat that Washington play in Provo.
Not that BYU has anything against playing in Seattle - but with the thought that this way BYU isn’t out travel and logistics expenses, and if the game is cancelled for Washington to play Utah - it’s going to be in SLC anyway. So UW could make travel arrangements knowing that whatever happened they were playing in Utah - either SLC or Provo.
PAC12 said no - reemphasizing their stipulation that all OOC games be played at PAC12 sites.
For the record - sure, BYU wouldn’t have “had to play” (come one - they WANTED to play, but were pretty sure that it would be cancelled instead). The bigger issue was the logistics of putting time, money, resources into traveling to Seattle for no reason.
You need to stop. You seem reasonable enough. BYU lost this episode, everyone outside of Provo sees that, not just crazy Utah fans. Just say yes, the game gets cancelled, and you come out looking good. But BYU was afraid the game wouldn’t get cancelled.
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Two problems
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Utah is traveling to Washington
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BYU isn’t testing daily, which is a requirement for any team playing a PAC-12 team
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That’s just crazy talk. BYU was not afraid the game wouldn’t be cancelled. Not at all. They wanted to play. The players wanted to play. The coaches wanted to play. They wanted that game. They didn’t want to look like the girl who got stood up for prom when their date got a better offer and they didn’t want to be out the money paid for travel and logistics to get to Seattle when UW was playing a game in SLC.
There are a LOT of things you can say BYU did wrong in this episode - and you’d be right. But saying that they didn’t want the game? You lose credibility. BYU has been trying to fill their schedule since the PAC12 screwed them the first time around by cancelling 3 games already. Don’t blame them for not wanting to experience a 4th cancelation.
And I say that fully hoping that before the season is over, BYU has the chance to schedule a PAC12 team and actually play the game. Nothing sucks worse than having a pretty good team but not knowing how good (or bad) they really are due to a pandemic screwing the season.
Someone didn’t want that game because they said no to it. They even said, back when people were being honest about this, that they wanted to wait until Tuesday’s CFP rankings first to see if they needed that game for their resume.
BYU lost the public perception battle on this. Get over it.
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This thread is sounding like a certain election…
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The playoff committee saw otherwise. 14th? Youch. Lol, but youch.
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From my outside perspective it seems Washington offered a very unreasonable one sided contract and BYU countered with one concession that would make for a more equitable deal. That is schedule the game in Provo because Washington was unable or unwilling to guarantee they wouldn’t cancel. It wasn’t a dick swinging contest that prevented the game it was the contract being offered. In all our experience with BYU one thing has been certain, they are arrogant, they think they can beat anyone even when it’s obvious they can’t. I don’t believe the fear of playing Washington is what prevented them from scheduling this game.
Washington offered the only contract they could under pac12 rules. BYU knew Washington couldn’t deviate.
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There was nothing unreasonable about it. They said “hey, if we have an opening, you want to play?” And BYU said “maybe, we want to see where we are in the rankings first.” Which was the wrong thing to say.
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Utah at Washington
Saturday 8:30 p.m. ESPN
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I get that and I don’t blame Washington as if they were trying to swindle byu. It just seemed like a very bad deal for byu compared to what a normal contract would be. Not normal times I know but still I don’t blame byu for saying no, that deal sucks.
This is key. We’re in the middle of a pandemic. You have to be flexible.
I don’t blame BYU either, but, let’s be clear - this had nothing to do with terms of a contract. BYU turned it down because they wanted to see where they were in the playoff rankings. They thought they were already safely in the NY6, and they didn’t want to risk losing. It was a strategic decision, not a contract issue. That was the initial explanation, and there has been a lot of backtracking since then.
If you want to go conspiracy theory, though, I think it’s possible that BYU knew they would not pass the stricter covid protocols of the Pac-12. They’ve got to have quite a few cases going on.
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It was a terrible contract and to me that’s where the speculation ends on why it was turned down. There may well have been multiple factors but it was a bad contract that was doomed from the start.
Why?
Everyone knows the PAC-12 is requiring daily testing yet BYU has chosen to test 3 times a week instead.
Mark Harlan indicated tonight the game against UW would have been at Utah, but TV truck availability prohibited it. That would be the same for a UW-BYU matchup.
BYU fans need to stop pretending the world is out to get them and just admit their schools choices have consequences. Be that being independent, not doing daily testing, or saying anytime anywhere when everyone knows that’s not true.
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there is a food chain aspect to all of this and unfortunately UW > BYU
additionally UW was doing byu a favor, what other P5 conference are offering Holmoe a game right now?
imagine the outrage we’d be hearing from the Lords University if UW had approached SDSU before them? they’d be screaming UW is trying to dodge us, life is unfair yada, yada, yada
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double post
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Why speculate at all when the story was revealed from the start? You and all of Provo can discuss the merits of the contract all day long, but that doesn’t change what happened.
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