If the goal is "be better than Utah", the way to get there is for BYU to excel. Instead, seems that as long as we're a mediocre team (#ExtendKalani t-shirt optional) the solution must be to hope Utah is even worse. I dislike this mentality*. It's stupid and self-defeating.

I won't be cheering for Utah, but if they win any negative impact for BYU in recruiting or branding or size of fanbase or whatever won't really be because Utah is doing well. It will be because BYU is doing poorly.

If they win, there's a silver lining. College Football is the most aristocratic of all college sports. To a fault. It's a sport where the bluebloods belong by brand alone and everyone else is a pretender. A place where if your Notre Dame or Texas you'll get ranked every preseason. Not because your team might be good, but because your brand is great.

It's why the BCS worked for so long, and also why we have a 4-team playoff. I get it that we'd prefer any team other than Utah to shatter that glass ceiling. But someone's gotta do it, and the sooner the better. Make it so a team that's good is a team that can prove it on the field. And who knows, maybe once we get to earmark our tithing for BYU athletics (this is a joke btw) we'll benefit from that precedent.

*Note: this doesn't apply to the unfortunate CBers that have to deal with idiot Utah fans (they have their fair share, and then some) on a regular basis. For those folks I understand wanting Utah to be a dumpster fire no matter what.