Traditions: Keep? Or not?
In Sunday’s Idaho Statesman, columnist Brian Murphy made a plea to keep the Boise State-Idaho rivalry going.
It’s a good point. The rivalry is a source of pride and interest in the Gem State. At the same time, keeping it going may not be practical. With the Mountain West now at 10 teams after adding BSU, that could well mean a nine-game conference schedule. That leaves just three non-conference games available for the Broncos.
“…it’s just what in-state football programs do – no matter the conference. Florida plays Florida State. Georgia plays Georgia Tech. Clemson plays South Carolina,” wrote Murphy.
“Closer to home, and more to the point, plenty of Mountain West schools lace it up against their in-state WAC counterparts. UNLV plays Nevada. New Mexico plays New Mexico State. BYU and Utah play Utah State.
“See, Boise State, Mountain West teams are not too good to play their WAC counterparts home-and-home.”
That’s true, but only to an extent. Utah doesn’t have USU scheduled this season. Although BYU played USU the last two seasons – and is schedule to do so again this year – the teams didn’t play in 2003, 2004, 2005 or 2007.
The BYU-Utah rivalry will likely go on into infinity. Even if Utah goes to the Pac-10, the teams would probably play each year, which would fill one of three possible non-conference games for each. If they both end up playing in the MWC, they’ll each likely continue scheduling such non-conference opponents as Florida State, Oregon, Pitt, Louisville, Michigan and Oklahoma.
Either way, it’s getting harder for Utah and BYU to play USU every year. Just like BSU-Idaho, it’s a nice tradition, but not a lot of monetary or media incentive.