We spend so much time trashing other schools, we forget that these schools were playing each other in sports before our grandfathers were born. Too many children on Cougarboard forget that these two schools were married to each other in the WAC and then the MWC before the media made a joke out of it all.

CSU and BYU have a long tradition of competing against each other. As a BYU fan, I appreciated having that level of competition with a sister-school that had a very old tradition. But hey, if we want to play UNLV every other year, more power to us. It just doesn't seem the same to me when I think of schools I WANT to play that are in the area.

I don't want to play Wyoming. I don't care to play UNLV or Nevada for that matter. San Jose St? Really?

But CSU is a real school with a real history of competition with BYU. Other than Utah and USU, there are not a lot of schools who we could compete with in the local area that would really matter. CSU was one of those schools before we declared independence. Sadly, CSU lost its competitive edge for about 10 years as academic-types devalued competition. That is coming back now and we should welcome CSU back into the fold.

I say that as a BYU fan, not as a CSU booster. I became a CSU booster because I wanted to see that rivalry heat up again.