My distaste for the TDS grows every year

I’m on the kick TDS to the curb train. They are the chicken who struts up on the chess board, knocks all of the pieces off the table, and then declares themselves the winner. They are a delusional fanbase who fail to put last season in context, and again declare themselves a relavent national power based on the most cupcake schedule. Time to schedule our football peers in the BIG and ACC conferences

I’m on a week-long emotional high after beating USC, UCLA, Arizona St, Oregon, Washington & Stanford.  I come out of the in-state rivalry game thankful that it’s over and we can move on from the fabricated hype that it has become.  

The sad truth is that beating those guys does absolutely nothing for us. Losing to them is an embarrassment. There’s no upside to playing them anymore.

I heard Dave Fox the other day when he was interviewed on the radio.  He said each school needs to do what is best for them.  He indicated that it made no sense for Utah to play BYU, it just doesn’t help the Utes in any way.  He was being very honest because he knows it is best for the local media to have BYU in the mix.

For me, the BYU game just gets in the way.  It’s too emotional and we gain nothing from it.  I do not hate or even dislike all BYU fans.  I know many and some are wonderful people.  Nonetheless, I would prefer never playing them in football.

If we have to play them because our legislature requires it, maybe we could play them once every three years.  We could also play USU and Weber once every three years.  So, one in-state game per year.  I would require USU and Weber to play in SLC.  That would never fly with BYU since they do have a larger stadium.

Yeah I agree, all emotion with zero to gain and everything to lose. The only thing we gain is a bigger and bigger win streak

My advice for those that get worked up over TDS is two-fold: (1) do not visit their message board, (2) don’t associate with zoobs. For the second point, I am not saying do not associate with any of their fans, just don’t associate with the zoobish fans (if you are forced to be around a zoob, via family or neighbor, just don’t talk sports with them). It is that easy. Your angst will subside dramatically.

I follow those two things and actually enjoy the game with TDS. I enjoy the rivalry. It is far more interesting to me than a game against Weber State, Northern Illinois, and most any of the non-P5 schools. 

The TDS game generates TV eyeballs from the casual fan in Utah.  Its not going anywhere because it is decently valuable TV inventory.  

With our recruiting getting deeper every year, we will probably end up keeping it even in years that we schedule big name nonconference opponents.

Hardcore Ute fans mostly hate it but everyone else still loves it.

I don’t talk to poo poo fans about sports. Most don’t engage me.

Life is too short to worry about all the negative and things out of your control. Control what is in your power and you will find power.

All of the positive things happening with Utah’s program why waste your time on them? Read a great article about Davis and McKinney. Nice to see these articles and enjoyable.

For background, my family is half Y fans and half U fans. I also grew up in Provo going to Y games with friends since about 7 or 8 years old entering thru the knothole gang for 25 cents without adults. Tickets were easy to come by. Myself I graduated from the U in the 70s and attended every football game. In about ’81 when they built their new stadium, I bought a season ticket as part of a family group for the single purpose of attending 1 game every other year. It was a bargain since my employer paid 2/3 of the lifetime donation because of double matching of donations to universities. I simply sold the other games to other family members. After my parents passed away and the remaining family is mostly U fans, I recently let my ticket go. With the exception of a couple of years in the army, I have attended almost every U vs Y football game since the 50s.

As a result, I have seen so many ups and downs in this game. While in Provo, I heard Wayne Howard tell us he hates BYU and Max Hall tell us he hates Utah. I remember when the big instate game was UofU vs USU. I saw many years where there was less than 500 U fans in Provo. When it became competitive in the 90s I had food thrown at me many times while simply sitting with my parents. Note, do not park in Provo with U stickers on your vehicle.

I have been ready to move on from this game and have advocated to do so. However, it simply is not a good idea. We have to have a warm up game with 90%+ chance of winning – check. A game with more interest than random cupcakes – check. A game that that boosts the strength of schedule more than cupcakes – check. We also for many multiple reasons can not ever even appear anti Mormon. If I can make it through a decade like the 80s when literally 75% of all SLC downtown companies were Y fans and annoying beyond belief, I think we can all get thru it now since it is balanced and the U is winning. I suppose for the old timers beating the Y will not bet old. And it is a easy road game. If it settles in like CU vs CSU so be it.

You’re absolutely correct Dresden.  Playing the zoobs does nothing for us, our team, nor our recruiting.  It’s time we either force them to submit to a 2-for-1 with us, or tell ’em to go play somebody else.

And for all those of you who still want to play that game, ask yourself this question…

If the shoe were on the other foot, what would ybU-p have done to us about the continuation of this series?

** HINT:  See all those 2-for-1’s and series pauses in their series with Utah State prior to leaving the MWC.

After 40 years as an adult watch Utah-BYU games

The reasons BYU is the better team now:
– BYU dominance in the 70s/80s – old news
– 1984 National Champions – by vote, not by beating the better teams – a good team no doubt
– “.. the Lord steps in… Magic “happens”, not fit but for “pumping my gas” – player mindset
– the Refs – pick any recent loss.
– The Utes forfeited in 2020.

The reasons UTAH is the better team now:
– The scoreboard, the last 10+ years