The Utah-BYU football rivalry is about more than what happens on the field.
Tension extends to debates over which team has the better fan base, the better mountain views and the better stadium experience.
Drake Toll, host of the “Locked on Big 12″ podcast, weighed in on some of those off-field metrics during Monday’s episode of his show.
He noted that Saturday’s Utah-BYU game marked his first time at Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City, and then he shared some observations.
Utah football stadium review
Toll said that Rice-Eccles “has a leg up” on LaVell Edwards Stadium in Provo, Utah, when it comes to the intensity of the fan base.
Utah fans “know ball,” he said, and that means they also know when to yell and scream to disrupt their opponent’s rhythm.
But Toll said the overall atmosphere at LaVell Edwards Stadium is better than it is at Rice-Eccles because of elements like the fire dancers.
BYU football stadium review
At BYU, there are carefully crafted bursts of entertainment during time outs and between quarters, he noted. Utah has some of that, too, but it also has awkward sponsored segments that disrupt the flow of the game.
“Overall, it felt like the in-game stadium staff (at Rice-Eccles) was trying to kill the momentum,” Toll said on Monday’s episode of “Locked on Big 12.”
Rodger Sherman, who until 2023 was a prominent college football reporter for The Ringer, shared similar thoughts with the Deseret News last year amid his epic college football road trip.
He attended games at both Rice-Eccles Stadium and LaVell Edwards Stadium during the road trip and came away feeling like Utah offers a better football experience, but BYU offers a better entertainment experience.
“I was really impressed with the show BYU put on, like with Cosmo jumping over fire and the fire dancers. The student section is ridiculous,” Sherman said.