-Disclaimer added 5/27 - This is a Rant. Not every word is meant to be taken seriously. If i meant everything in this post literally I would be a crazy person. A lesson learned today; People on CB are too high strung and Ute Trolls are out in droves.-

With the advantage going to BYU.

I do not believe that Utah will ever compete in the PAC 12. They may play in a championship game or two, but it will be similar to this year's underwhelming, barely bowl eligible UCLA team getting 'a crack at it' type of game.

Logically speaking, the only reason Utah wouldn't want to play BYU and continue this rivalry older than anyone involved in the current programs is they don't believe they can win against BYU and possibly are afraid they won't be able to compete with BYU in the coming years. Worse than that, they believe that if they lose to BYU they are incapable of winning 6 of the other games on their schedule. Utah absolutely NEED 2-3 write in wins on their schedule in order to compete to play in a bowl game at the end of the year, especially in the next few years, because K-whit doesn't believe they can win 6 conference games every year. Logically that is the only reason Utah would want out of this rivalry. They will not draw a bigger crowd or more attention playing ANY other school. if Utah played Florida or Ohio State it wouldn't sell more tickets, t-shirts, or help them in recruiting any more than playing BYU. Utah vs Ohio State wouldn't get more Airplay than the ESPN affiliated BYU. Utah simply doesn't think it can beat BYU, and they hope their fans won't notice that. They hope their fans really do care about the Utes enough to watch them play a team like Idaho (while BYU knows their fan base will support them even when they play the Idaho's of the world). This is a huge gamble for Utah, one he is willing to take. His prayer is that Utah fans won't care, they'll get as excited about playing USC once every 3 to 4 years at home and they will keep coming.

The problem for Utah: Utah fans will not tolerate losing seasons. And they won't show up when they play Montana State or Greendale Community College. Not because they expect more from their program, or they will hold it accountable for failure yadda yadda yadda. But because they don't care about football that much generally speaking. They may have 10 or 15 thousand fans that will, but that won't cut it. I honestly don't believe Utah fans will show up to a November game to watch Utah play their new invented rival Colorado, if they have only won 4 games all year. This is why they have a hard time filling their stadium, a stadium that already holds 15,00 fewer people than Lavell Edwards Stadium. They even struggle when their competitive team plays teams like an Oregon State, or TCU. Honestly most Utah fans I know can't tell me a thing about when Utah played Oregon State, ASU, or Washington last year. They can't even really tell you much ABOUT when they stomped BYU. BUT they can tell you they stomped BYU. They still talk about Max Hall like it happened yesterday, and when this quote surfaced from Whittingham...they couldn't wait to pretend not to care about BYU and the rivalry. But the truth is when they have three losing seasons, a failed Offensive Coordinator and Charlotte Bobcats like attendance record, in a few years, they will come crawling back to play BYU.

Meanwhile BYU will CONTINUE to sell out "meaningless" games against teams like SJSU, and Idaho. BYU will continue to develop BYUtv (which is getting better and better in every way). BYU will continue to win 9-11 games a year. Regardless of whether or not they have the Utah Red Hawks on the schedule. BYU will win more games, sell more tickets, make more money, and have more class than the Runnin' Swoops could ever hope for.

And for the record: Kyle Whittingham makes me want to throw up.