Seriously, SLC red clad folks, congrats are in order.

You've made it. You are a big boy football program. All those years of watching the religious, private school down south with their self-imposed recruiting limitations own you year after year...well, they're over. You've taken over everything from the Poly Pipeline to undefeated seasons. You no longer have any reason to compare yourselves to the team in Provo. Simply, there is no comparison. An annual football contest will no longer be a Holy War, but simply a scheduling favor between old high school friends--one who has grown up and moved to the city in a high-rise apartment and the other who is still living in a hometown basement apartment and wearing his HS letterman's jacket as a sign of his legitimacy in life.

And you know what? It's probably for the best.

Why?

Because both are getting what they want. Your school and team were and are willing to mortgage whatever is necessary to advance into the upper echelon of academia and athletics even if a few swim team members drown along the way. You realized in 2004 that there is a much larger world out there to be conquered. You realized that while your "rival" was talking about state championships, you were putting your stamp on New Year's Day.

Meanwhile, the other guys can talk about all the glory days given they're living in the old neighborhood where folks actually have a fading memory of their exploits. They can sit in their basement and deluge the internet with reminders for anyone who will listen of what they did in high school and how they did it the "right way".

Which brings us to now and this congratulatory message. I won't ever own a red shirt. I won't ever claim "a Utah man am I" even though I was born in Salt Lake. I won't ever give a moment's effort to figuring out what channel your games are playing on. But I am man enough to recognize and congratulate you on the fact that your team, your program, your university has reached a pinnacle--one that only three programs in modern college athletics can claim. That deserves accolades. That deserves respect.

So congrats Ute fans, this bud's for you.