Utah signs four-game deal with Aggies starting in 2012

BYU has a history of forcing the Aggies to a 2-1, while the Utes have for years and years alternated home/away.

I agree in part, though. I don’t think the Utes need to schedule a roadie against the Aggies every other year. Especially with now only three OOC games.

Here is an official Utah State press release announcing the 4 year deal between Utah and Utah State when it was announced back in July 2008.

I think a certain news organization that is owned by the same corporation that owns a certain competitor school down south wants to portray it as if both deals were signed just now. That way it looks like since the two schools left for the PAC 12 and Independence one of them appears to have more scheduling power.

The better story is this. Utah State stands up for BYU and gets screwed out of MWC invite and dies with the WAC for doing it. BYU returns the favor by scheduling a 2 for 1. All part of the honor code I think. This story portrays the truth just like Bronco tells the truth when he says he has never lost a recruit to Utah. Truth is not reality, perception is. Owning the news helps make sure the story linked by Jazzy was written instead of the story about BYU screwing Utah State after the Aggies got screwed for being the only WAC team to look out for BYU instead of themself.

I’d be more stoked with a series against a program that won’t be playing in a Sun Belt equivalent football conference when we’re up there in 2014.

What does Utah gain by playing BYU? Well, and this is just my feeling, a highly-charged and electrifying game unlike anything else on our schedule.

I have fun at BYU games. I think the atmosphere at both stadiums is the best and I’d hate to give that up. Oh sure, the snobs will tell us we can’t continue being rivals with non-BCS programs – but until we find our real rival in the BCS, I’m not opposed to playing the game and collecting on the great memories.

No team has given Ute fans more memories than the Cougars. I don’t know why someone would be so quick to give that up. To me, football is entertainment and I’ve been entertained more times by this series the last ten years than I have any other opponent. That includes classics against Air Force and TCU.

Dropping BYU from the schedule is not going to better Utah’s program and it certainly won’t worsen BYU’s. Both teams are now dependent on completely different areas.

Not the game itself.

Maybe that will kill it off. Maybe, the lack of playing for anything outside state bragging rights, will end the series due to apathy. But that hasn’t happened yet. What I do know, however, is that there is one game that you can bet will sellout, one game you can bet will draw all the local attention, one game that you can bet will come down to the wire and I’d hate to give that up over spite.

Then again, what is gained by playing Utah State? The games are never competitive and the Aggies are likely to be playing in a conference that will be at the bottom of the FBS when the series begins next year.

I’m guessing we’ll be the only BCS team making a journey to Logan for quite sometime and there is a reason for that.

Now let’s see how many BCS teams are going to be rolling into Provo the next few years…

I don’t want to dump BYU because it’s a fun game. I also have no problem throwing the USU Aggies a bone.

Alas, I’m not in charge!

As for the TAMU Aggies, well, after their last visit to Salt Lake, I doubt they’ll ever return here.

I know they were negotiating a new deal even early last year because 2010 was the first season the two teams didn’t meet each other in a generation. This could be that deal.

But we’ll see.

It’s a high profiled game that draws a lot of national attention. To me, that’s always good. Could the Utes lose? Oh certainly and that will suck, but also be forgotten once the Pac-12 schedule rolls around.

I look at it this way: If Utah is not good enough to beat BYU on a regular basis, they’re probably not going to be good enough to do much of anything in the Pac-12. If that’s the case, what happens in September against the Cougars isn’t going to make a difference in the entire scheme of things.

Likewise, BYU beating Utah isn’t going to suddenly make them better or validate their season. In fact, I think they’d gain a helluva lot more out of wins over Texas and TCU than the Utes this season.

It’s all for bragging rights. That’s it. It won’t dramatically influence local recruiting and it certainly isn’t going to make or break Utah’s season like in years past. If Utah loses, it’ll suck and we’ll move on and hope they can put it together against the Pac-12 foes. If Utah loses and sucks the remainder of the season, that BYU game will only blur together with the other major losses.

That’s just how I see it, anyway.

It makes sense. Hopefully when it’s up in 2015, we’ll move to potentially schedule BYU/USU every other year. I think that would work.

So…

2016: BYU
2017: @ USU
2018: @ BYU
2019: USU
2020: BYU

So on and so forth.

This indicates Jazzy’s speculation was right – the agreement was probably in place before the Pac-12 invite.

I’d much rather see Utah play them at home this year than Montana State. That game at ISU last year was fuuuuuuuun!

It’s much closer to 6 on average. Just saying.

But there’s no certainty Utah plays BYU after 2012.

2013, for example, is in doubt. The Pac-12 would not give an exemption to Utah to allow the Utes to play the Holy War later in the year. (The Pac-12 did give an exemption to Stanford and USC to play Notre Dame after the first 3 week window.) In 2013, BYU has games in weeks 2 & 3 of the season. With the dates in the press release above, we know Utah is playing Utah State in week 1.

If we skip the Holy War in 2013, then there may be several years it gets skipped. One hopes that most years we don’t play both BYU and Utah State.

However, I disagree with your premise that Utah needs to ditch BYU and USU to gain respect. By week 12, we’re lucky if pollsters remember anything beyond the record.

I am against doing it every other year. I just don’t think we have the scheduling room to afford USU with such a contract. No BCS team has a home-and-home series (on a routine basis) with a non-BCS school.

Travelling to Logan every four or six years is not a bad deal – especially when you realize the last BCS team to play there was Oregon…in 2001. Couple that with the potential of the WAC becoming the Sun Belt 2.0 and I think there is less incentive to establish a rotating series.

Look at it this way, here are the following Pac-12 teams that have played in Logan and the year they played:

Arizona State: 1948
Oregon: 2001
Oregon State: 1998
Washington State: 1950

Four programs and only two in the modern era.

Already, with our two trips to Logan in 2012 and 2014, Utah will equal the output of BCS teams that have played there since 1950.

So I don’t think playing a 2-1 or even 3-1 would be acting stuck-up. It would still provide the Aggies more BCS opponents in their stadium over a ten year stretch than its history and still be fairly reasonable.

But I don’t see the need to alternate between SLC and Logan every other year.

College football is like a gambling where the odds are not even.

Pretend you walk into a game of poker where some players play with 5 cards and the others play with 6 cards. The dealer deals you 6 cards. Are you going to pick up 5 cards leaving the 6th on the table and start betting your money? Are you still going to do this when you are at a table that the dealer dealt 6 cards to most of the players at your table.

I respect the players that are able to win with 5 cards, but I am not going to give up my card when my money is on the line.

I have no interest in seeing games against the Bearcats, the Cougars, BC and thugs from Miami. Other than playing different opponents and the travel for a small number of fans (we don’ travel well), there is no argument for playing these schools. While I listed at least 4 (3 subjective) for playing USU.