For the sake of peace, happiness and intrastate welfare, what could be better than this? The Utah-BYU basketball series is dead even. After 226 meetings, each side has won 113 games.
It's perfect. No side wins, no side loses. Everybody's happy. So what say we call it a series right now and send everyone home feeling good?No?
Have it your way. The Cougars and Utes will meet tonight in the Huntsman Center for the 227th time.
Think about it. They began their series on Jan. 23, 1909, just as Theodore Roosevelt was leaving the White House, and they've matched each other stride for stride ever since while pretty much hating each other's guts. They've played each other every year, except 1944, when they skipped the game and joined the same side to fight Japan and Germany.
Think of the odds against a
series being tied after 91 years of playing each other anywhere from one to five times per season. Look at it this way: BYU has played 226 different schools over the years, and of those teams they have faced more than eight times, not a single series is tied, except for the one with Utah. Similarly, the Utes have played 274 different opponents, but of those they have played more than 14 times, not a single series is tied except for the one with BYU.
If one measure of a rivalry is how even the competition is, then this rivalry has greatness.
"It's an interesting phenomenon," says BYU coach Steve Cleveland. "It says something about the rivalry and the parity of the two teams."
All of which makes the current state of affairs in the rivalry an aberration. The Utes have rallied to tie the series, having won the last 11 games -- the longest streak of the series. The last time the Cougars beat the Utes was Jan. 3, 1995, and it marked their fourth straight win over their arch-rivals. At the time, there was only one player on the roster who had ever beaten BYU.
"Too many people make big deals out of streaks," BYU coach Roger Reid said afterward, "but if you play somebody long enough, you win your share and they win their share."
Guess he knew what he was talking about.
Fred Bennion, a former star football player for Utah, coached BYU in its first game against Utah. The Cougars not only won the first game, they won the first eight. Bennion also coached Utah to its first victory over BYU. Two years after the series began, the Utes hired Bennion as their basketball and football coach. Utah beat BYU for the first time in 1913.
Since then . . .
The home team has won 128 times.
There have been 14 overtimes.
They have split the season series evenly 24 times. BYU has swept the season series 21 times; Utah has swept it 25 times.
In games decided by one point, BYU has won 10, Utah has won nine. In games decided by two points, Utah has won 11 times, BYU 10. Etc. Etc. This is one even race.
"Obviously, in the last four or five years the pendulum has swung Utah's way," says Cleveland. "But if you went back in the past, I'll bet there were times when BYU dominated the rivalry."
There have been a few times when one side dominated the other, but of course they had a way of evening out. BYU won six straight in the early '40s, then Utah answered by winning the next six. BYU won the next six after that. Utah won eight of nine games during one stretch that began in the late '50s. BYU won nine of 10 in the mid-'60s. Utah won 10 of 11 in the mid-'70s. And so it has gone. Utah's current win streak was preceded by a streak in which BYU won eight of the previous 10 games.
"In the next five years, we hope to reverse things and make it far more competitive," says Cleveland. "Who wants a rivalry where one team dominates. It's not a rivalry then."