truly understand the plight of the majority of us BYU fans living instate, our "hate" for the UofU (minus their, by and large, admittedly great medical programs and facilities), and why most of us want nothing to do with them in the Big12.

I grew up in Utah, and they were much easier to take in the 70's, 80's and early 90's when BYU was dominant. There were moments here and there of bad behavior, but it was mainly just normal rivalry banter. There were boundaries back then, and although the anti-LDS contingent amongst them existed, they were less vocal and fewer in number.

Since that time, I've had line upon line negative interactions with their fanbase and I have observed and personally experienced far too many instances of terrible behavior to feel much goodwill toward their school, sports programs/players or their fanbase.

Lewd and crude comments, profanity, the mocking of sacred things that I hold dear, directed toward me or at BYU without my kids around, fine. Although moronic and annoying, I've heard it all before.

But the spitting or throwing of things at a family in the stadium, the vandalizing of vehicles for displaying BYU plates, the messing with food/service for wearing a BYU shirt/cap into a restaurant, actual discrimination within the workplace by a known Ute fan "superior" toward a known BYU fan subordinate/co-worker, negative treatment or comments to my kids/grandkids (most recently by an adult after a snide comment being made to an 8 yr old wearing a BYU cheerleader costume while trick or treating, then giving candy to everyone in the group but her, which took the cake for me) are all unacceptable!

Most, but not all of those above, happened directly to me or my family in Davis Co, but all are true accounts of trusted friends and ward members.

And you will never really know until you've experienced it all yourself. Are there some good Ute fans? Sure, but I've encountered so many over the last decade that were not as opposed to the decades prior. And it seems to be a learned and passed down behavior to their children, who act disrespectfully in school, and on several of the various team sports that I've coached. It's sad and pathetic!