SALT LAKE CITY — Barring more schedule disruptions amid the novel coronavirus pandemic of 2020, BYU will play a home football game in December this year for the first time in school history.
One day after the Mountain West Conference released its revised 2020 football schedule and the Cougars got Boise State back on their schedule on Nov. 7, BYU athletic director Tom Holmoe announced that a previously canceled San Diego State game is back on as well.
“We are excited to have the Aztecs back on the schedule. We share a long history of exciting games over many decades. We are pleased the Mountain West Conference determined to play football in 2020 and worked with San Diego State to allow this previously scheduled nonconference game to be played.” — BYU athletic director Tom Holmoe
The catch is that the BYU-SDSU game, originally set for Nov. 14, will be played on Dec. 12 at LaVell Edwards Stadium in Provo. A kickoff time and television broadcast plans will be announced at a later date, but almost certainly the game will be played during the day because the average low temperature in December in Provo is 23 degrees.
That’s really, really cold.
“We are excited to have the Aztecs back on the schedule,” Holmoe said in a release. “We share a long history of exciting games over many decades. We are pleased the Mountain West Conference determined to play football in 2020 and worked with San Diego State to allow this previously scheduled nonconference game to be played.”
BYU and San Diego State, two former MWC rivals, met last season in San Diego, with the Aztecs beating the Cougars, 13-3.
BYU (2-0) plays host to Louisiana Tech on Friday night at 7 p.m. MDT. Starting next week when Texas-San Antonio visits, they will have seven games remaining on their schedule.
Holmoe said in a roundtable discussion with reporters that officials from Army and BYU are still trying to get the postponed Sept. 19 game back on their schedules, but would not put a percentage on its likelihood.
Regardless, the addition of SDSU enhances the Cougars’ schedule immensely. The Aztecs are picked to win the Mountain West’s West Division, while Boise State is picked to win the league’s Mountain Division.
When he was asked in the aforementioned media session if he was done adding games to BYU’s already-revamped schedule, Holmoe said he’s not sure and added that he’s “not being coy about it.”
It’s just the reality of the pandemic, where nothing seems to go as planned.