Utah and BYU resume their rivalry this week (as if you didn’t know). On Saturday evening in Provo, they will meet on the football field for the 103rd time, although even on this point the schools don’t agree (BYU officials say this will be the 97th). Anyway, they began their rivalry when the primary mode of transportation was the horse.
Anyway, here they are again — the rivalry of rivalries. Not that the rest of the college football world really gets it. A few months ago, The Athletic ranked the nation’s top 100 football rivalries. Utah-BYU ranked no better than 28th.
The rivalry was ranked ahead of Georgia-Georgia Tech, Washington-Washington State, Stanford-Cal, Iowa-Iowa State, Colorado-Nebraska, Arizona-Arizona State, Alabama-Clemson, but behind the likes of Pitt-West Virginia, Oregon-Oregon State, Iowa-Wisconsin, Minnesota-Wisconsin and Kansas-Missouri.
We could challenge many of the 27 rivalries ranked ahead of Utah-BYU — Oregon has beaten Oregon State 15 times in 18 tries, so how is that a top 27 rivalry? — but let’s move on.
Former college football head coach and ESPN analyst Bill Curry once observed (in what passes for understatement around here), “I think people from the South and the Midwest ought to see this. This is a big-time football rivalry.”
There’s a simple reason Utah–BYU ranks as one of the nation’s top rivalries and one that is obvious but often overlooked: They are neighbors; the schools and their fans live next to each other.
The Utah and BYU campuses are only 48 miles apart. They’re less than an hour drive. There are rivalries that share similarly close quarters, but not many. The Michigan and Ohio State campuses — home to football’s greatest rivalry — are 190 miles apart, nearly a four-hour drive. That’s a good buffer zone. Auburn-Alabama: 157 miles. Oklahoma-Texas: 371 miles; Army-Navy, 262 miles; USC-Notre Dame, 2,000 miles; Nebraska-Oklahoma, 427 miles; Miami-Florida State, 488 miles; Florida-Florida State, 150 miles.
Cal and Stanford are 47 miles apart, but, then, that hasn’t been much of a rivalry for some time. UCLA and USC are only about 12 miles apart — so close that both teams wear their home jerseys — but over the years, nobody pays much attention to this lackluster rivalry anymore. Michigan and Michigan State are 60 miles apart. Ole Miss and Mississippi State are separated by 100 miles.
But geographic distance doesn’t begin to describe how communal Utah and BYU fans are. They have to live with one another. They are neighbors. Sometimes they are even friends, although they might not admit this. They might go to church together. They work together at the office. Their kids associate with one another. They might even be in the same family, as unbelievable as that might sound (family therapy probably helps).
There are no borders between Utah Valley and Salt Lake Valley, although maybe there should be one week every football season.
All of this closeness only serves to make the rivalry even more heated. Who doesn’t want to beat a friend or family member who aligns with the other team?
The ties between the schools even extends to the coaching staff. Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham was an all-conference linebacker at BYU and his father Fred coached at both schools; BYU coach and former player Kalani Sitake was the defensive coordinator at Utah for a number of years. BYU offensive coordinator Aaron Roderick was previously the co-offensive coordinator at Utah. Utah offensive coordinator Jason Beck is a former BYU quarterback who began his coaching career with the Cougars. BYU defensive coordinator Jay Hill was previously an assistant coach and player at Utah.
No wonder it was a huge controversy when the rivalry was temporarily interrupted by conference realignments. Previously, only world war had stopped the rivalry. Then college football’s midlife crisis took hold.
Many rivalries suffered. The Kansas-Missouri rivalry took an eight-year break, Texas-Texas A&M a 12-year break. Nebraska and Colorado have played only four times since 2010. The Utah-BYU rivalry, which had survived the Skyline Conference, the Western Athletic Conference, the Mountain West Conference, world war and domination by one side or another for extended periods, was threatened when Utah left the MWC (and BYU) behind to join the Pac-12. The Utes and Cougars did not play in 2014, 2020, 2022 and 2023. Then fate lent a hand. BYU went to the Big 12 in 2023 and a year later, after the Pac-12 imploded, Utah followed.
Utah leads the series 62-36-4, largely because the Utes won 37 of the first 42 games. Since the renaissance of the BYU program under LaVell Edwards began in 1972, BYU has won 28 games, Utah 21. Many of the games have been uncannily close, which has only added more fuel to the intensity of the rivalry. Twenty of the last 24 games have been decided by single digits.
“Utah is still Utah and it’s still the biggest game of the year,” Edwards said in 1980.
Nothing has changed since then.
