The Washington Post weighed in Friday on the rivalry between BYU and Utah — competition so intense that the teams can’t even agree on when it started.
“For decades, the rivalry between BYU and Utah has felt bigger than sports: a colorful proxy war that pits church against state, neighbor against neighbor and families against themselves,” reported the Washington Post.
Last fall, leaders from some of the state’s institutions gathered in downtown Salt Lake City to discuss a solution.
The Washington Post reported: “Utah was joining BYU in the Big 12, meaning the schools would be competing in the same conference for the first time since 2010. The schools and the church’s massive business conglomerate, the Deseret Management Corporation, worried fans might become more hostile. They wanted the university presidents to appear in an ad together to call for sportsmanship, so they enlisted the DMC’s ad agency, Boncom.
“The playbook had worked before: In 2020, Boncom had produced a spot in which the candidates vying to be governor, Republican Spencer Cox and Democrat Chris Peterson, appeared together and pledged to run civil campaigns. They closed with a signature line: ‘We endorse this message.’ The ad gained national attention, and three years after Cox’s victory, when he was chair of the National Governors Association, he tapped Boncom to create a similar campaign called ‘Disagree Better.’”
Last year, Utah and BYU held a news conference to unveil their new ad. BYU President C. Shane Reese and Utah President Taylor R. Randall called for unity and respect in a new campaign called, “Rival Right.”
“Remember: What happens off the field matters just as much as the score,” Randall said.