Welcome to the B12

[Jim McMahon]

First off, welcome to the B12. I know from reading your comments and talking to Ute friends that you’re in mourning over the death of the PAC. So I’m sure you’re feeling mixed emotions about joining the B12.

You’ll have to excuse all the excitement and trash talking by BYU fans over the PAC’s demise. You’ve clearly had the upper hand on us since joining the PAC with increased revenue and we were thrilled to finally be on a level (or potentially better) playing field with more money.

Having said all that, the B12 is the established 3rd best conference now and gives us all a chance to survive. We’re just thrilled to finally have a seat at the table. And honestly, maybe we can lose the vitriol between the worst part of our fanbases and the rivalry can be fun again with November football games.

Lastly, the arrogance from some of your idiotic fans on Twitter (we have plenty of idiots too, to be clear) has not endeared you to most of your new conference mates. Sure, BYU fans were more than happy to fan the flames, but that’s why I like this site so much. Bunch of rational fans. You may very well dominate the conference, but Pig Bus and others did nothing but crap on the B12 for the longest time and then once they found out they were joining, pretty much guaranteed that you’d be running the place.

Last side note, basketball is clearly second fiddle to football, but it’s going to be an insane basketball conference! Both BYU and Utah need to get their bball houses in order.

Welcome to the B12 and good luck this season!

[Central Coast Ute]

First, ty for stopping by and welcoming us. Speaking for myself, the PAC dying sucks. Not because I think the B12 is bad, but I won’t be able to attend any games in person as I live in California. The B12 will be fun and I’m happy to be there.

Having said that, I don’t like the way college football is going. Everything is to make Fox and ESPN happy and not the players or fans.

[chinngiskhaan]

I’m currently in VA, so I hope Utah plays a game @ WV soon. My family and I will definitely be there. Gotta do something about the PAC logo on my favorite sweater though.

[Anfernee]

I’m excited. Such passionate and loyal fanbases in the Big12. Thanks for the words. So in regards to the not real life world of the internet, especially the cesspool of Twitter, hopefully fans and just people as humans can interact in real life. And then make their opinions. Instead of making massive sweeping generalizations off of some bad eggs. We don’t claim them and they are repugnant. Also trust me when I say that a lot of BYU fans online have been purposely fanning that flame during all this.

[chinngiskhaan]

The majority of fans are not on twitter constantly. I honestly don’t care what the twittiots of the other teams think about our team’s twittiots. Any rational thinking person knows they are a tiny percentage of the fanbase, and I don’t care what irrational people think.

[//r00t4Utes]

Also to add, a verified handful of those fans were not Utah fans but fans of a newly invited team that wears blue, I’m guessing that is not uncommon on Twitter or message boards in sports

[UteBacker]

BYU fans will soon take over as the most hated fan base in the conference…they always do. 😉

[Tony (admin)]

Fact

[EmersonUte]

I hope you’re right, but my money is on BYU not becoming the most hated. You have to actually win to be the most hated. And BYU is a long ways away from that. When we went to the Pac-12 we sucked the recruiting air right out of the State of Utah. BYU will not get the same recruiting bump that we did.

So here’s hoping that we’re actually more hated. Not for the few dicks on twitter, but for coming into the conference and playing really good football and handing out some painful losses to others along the way.

[Jim McMahon]

I really don’t think we will. For years in the WAC we thought we were the best team in the conference and our record showed that. There was clearly a level of arrogance there and I don’t blame other programs for hating us. That hate and animosity carried over to the Mountain West.

With the WCC in basketball, we idiotically waltzed into that conference talking smack about their “high school” gyms. We knew that Gonzaga would be top dog, but we just blindly assumed that we would be the clear number two and that in some years we would eclipse them for first place. We were so arrogant and created massive motivation for most schools to beat us. We didn’t win the league one time and got put in our place, and were rightfully hated by many programs.

We walk into the B12 humbled and grateful to finally have a seat at the table (yes, even if a lesser seat than the P2). We know full well that we lack the depth to play a full conference schedule and will struggle for several years to build depth. But we are beyond elated to finally be accepted into a conference with open arms and to be with other programs that are a much better fit culturally. Our fans are genuinely excited and humbled.

Sure, there will be natural rivalries and bad blood that develops, but I doubt we become public enemy number one anytime soon. But we’ll see.

[//r00t4Utes]

And you and your team’s fans definitely should be feeling all that, happy, greatful, hopeful, really all the similar feelings we had when the PAC12 invited Utah.

[2008 National Champ]

I really have no animosity for the parochial school but I won’t believe that its fans have truly been humbled until the first thing out of their mouth after a loss is “good game”. All I’ve heard since 1988 is a continuous string of reasons why they should have won, could have won, would have won, did better in any statistic during the game than their opponent.,, What I never hear is “good game. you got us this time but I can’t wait until we meet again”. If you can’t respect your opponent, how can you ever expect them to respect you?

[Duhwayne]

Thanks for stopping by and for sharing understanding words. The last 72 hours have not been my favorite as a Ute fan. There was some serious crybabyness and I’m happy I quit Twitter when Musk bought it. Kudos to BXII front office—picking off Colorado really forced the other SW schools to peel off.

Pres Young and Dr Hill nailed a moonshot 15 years ago. One would think the west coast would have been the more stable conference than one basically Texas based, but USC f**ked PAC just as Texas did. It’s too bad but I’m over it.

Bloom where we’re planted. I look forward to Utah and BYU showing well in Big XII. Consolidation isn’t over. Only way to control what you can is to win.

[2008 National Champ]

yeah, there were never any issues with Twitter before Musk bought them

[prestitute]

Yeah, twitter is still a dystopian hellscape that I think isn’t really used that much by ‘rational’ folks anymore. It is a place for shameless self promotion and complaints about how the world sucks now that white people can’t use the N word with the hard R anymore for ‘intellectual honesty’ and other BS like that. It is annoying that some of our fans are doing dumb stuff there, but whatever. It is weirder to me that those folks are getting listened to by supposedly real journalists and such, but that is the weird ass world we now live in.
I think it will be a lot of fun in the B12, but many of us still really will miss the PAC. It was a great place for our program to grow, and Utah has been trending in a great way. It sucks that none of this is a meritocracy, but hey, it’s life (which largely isn’t either).
Thanks for the welcome. If we can get more of our reasonable fans to rule the day, it will be fun having the Holy War be a game that really matters again. I have so many BYU friends who are great to hang with and watch the games with (and other games with, too). I hope it works out well. I think I may just have to keep abstaining from Cougarboard though, every once it a while it can be fun for schadenfreude, but it isn’t good for the soul. Best to you and the program, except when we play!

[Redblood]

Sorry for taking this the wrong way but so many of your fans have been so smug about this, but the truth is it is also welcome to you, neither of us have played a down in this conference. I think my challenge with this change has been more brand related than competition.

I think the competition will be fierce and at least at the level we have experienced in the PAC. The difference is the brands. We have built a much better brand in part by beating and earning the respect of brands like USC, Oregon, UCLA, Washington… there just aren’t those kind of brands in this new conference.

That doesn’t mean we are too good for it, because we aren’t one of those brands either. But I will miss the weight that comes from a win against brands like that.

And It will be interesting to see how you adjust to the level of competition. I think all of your fans conveniently blame our rise on the money and conference. And while it is certainly accurate, it doesn’t automatically happen. Colorado had the same resources and were horrible. Arizona and ASU have had those resources for 40 years and went to a combined 2 Rose bowls?! 0 for AZ.

The thing is we just happened to have a once in a generation coach in Whit. so everyone assumes it is just going to happen for you. So the question will be how good is Sitake? Because if he is not great, it could be tough sledding for a long time. And by the way, it is rough. Those first few years were tough. And you can say you want about playing better teams… but trust me the frustration of not playing great teams is way better than the frustration of losing.

Think of the COVID year, prior to that your fans were really frustrated with Sitake and interest was waning. Then you play the worst schedule in the world but are showing up in the playoff poll getting a QB drafted at 2 and everything is right again. So welcome to you too, it will be interesting!

[Jim McMahon]

Great post. I liked your explanation on missing the big brands and that totally makes sense. I want to address a few of your points from what I feel are most BYU fans’ perspectives…at least the BYU fans I know.

“I think all of your fans conveniently blame our rise on the money and conference. And while it is certainly accurate, it doesn’t automatically happen. Colorado had the same resources and were horrible.” This is only partly true. We are saying that relative to us, Utah has been on much better footing with more resources, especially when going after top LDS recruits. Colorado and the AZ schedules aren’t going after the same pool of LDS talent that BYU and Utah are. PAC and $ have been a clear leg-up for your team for that pool of athletes. But yes, just as big off a differentiator is certainly Whit. He has been your LaVell. He’s been unbelievable. If I could go back in a time machine and somehow convince him to take the BYU job in 2004, the last 20 years would look vastly different for our two programs.

“So everyone assumes it is just going to happen for you. So the question will be how good is Sitake? Because if he is not great, it could be tough sledding for a long time.” I actually don’t know of one BYU fan who just “assumes” we are going to ascend. It is going to be VERY tough sledding for us. We’re predicted to finish 2nd to last this year in conference. If you read Cougarboard at all and cut through all the noise, you can see a general theme that most fans don’t expect us to have a winning season this year. We lack depth and always have. Throw in the honor code as a hurdle for non LDS athletes and it will always be tricky. The Honor Code isn’t an excuse either, it is simply a fact. It helps us with some top LDS prospects, but it’s a major hurdle for non LDS prospects. But yeah, we will be lucky to be in the middle of the pack for the foreseeable future.

Lastly, even though you didn’t mention this, I have seen a lot of posts about how Utah is joining with full revenue while BYU is on a tiered schedule and how annoyed BYU fans are. Again, I actually don’t see that at all on Cougarboard. There’s probably some BYU idiots on Twitter complaining about it which wouldn’t surprise me. Our tiered schedule is still way more money than we ever made in Indy. We are simply grateful to have a seat at the table. Of course you and the other PAC schools would join with full revenue. You bring value and are joining from another power conference.

[UteHorn21]

As some of you I’ve interacted with know I’m a Texas fan to the core but my entire mom’s side of my family are big time Utes fans. I became one myself in 2008 watching that Sugar Bowl. I’ve never seen a team play more inspired than that (other than 2005 Texas).

I’m thrilled I will get to see the Utes regularly (I live in DFW) I think Utah-TCU will become a really good rivalry that dates back to the MWC.

I also think Utes fans will enjoy the Big 12 a lot more than the Pac 12 once the dust settles. As much as the names were big, there isn’t a whole lot of passion for college football on the west coast. Culturally Utah will like the Big 12 more imho.

[UteHorn21]

I posted this on the ASU board. It’ll give y’all a glimpse of your new family.

My perspective of Big 12 fan bases from my personal experiences (Texas fan)

Baylor – kinda the goody goods, probably a lot like BYU fans that drink beer. You’ll hear some “what the heck was that” or “what the frick” type stuff at games. Their stadium is pretty nice but they did go cheap on some of the finishings (brick patterned tarps covering concrete) the sailgate thing is kinda cool. Don’t let them tell you otherwise, Waco sucks. Take your wife or gf to this game and see the Gaines’ silos. Balcones distillery for the men.

Iowa St – fan turnout is always top notch regardless of record. They do play the part of a try hard a bit too much sometimes as the common sentiment is “everything is against us” blah blah blah. Pretty sure JTS will be the largest stadium in the Big 12 going forward (65,000)

Kansas – is it basketball season yet? Their fans don’t care about football. Their stadium is one of the worst in D1. The track is awful. Phog Allen is amazing though, def go catch a hoops game there.

Kansas St – the fighting juco’s. Bill Snyder resurrected this program from worst in the NCAA to a scrappy bunch that punches above their weight class. Just like Iowa St though, their fans love to play the underdog card that gets annoying.

Oklahoma St – Actually pretty nice fans. BPS is cool since the field is so close to the stands. The paddlers are annoying AF. Gotta hit up Eskimo Joe’s and get the cheese fries.

TCU – they’re kinda like a poor mans SMU. They def have quite a few short shorts and frat swoop hair cuts in their fanbase. They get chippy, especially about Baylor. I actually really like Amon Carter Stadium. I’m probably biased since Fort Worth is my hometown, but it’s everything Dallas isn’t. Stockyards, West 7th, Sundance Square, Magnolia. Great game to go to with family as there’s something for everyone.

Texas Tech – I’ll be honest, I have nothing good to say about their school or fans. They’re crass, loud, drunk and nasty. I do NOT recommend taking kids to Lubbock ever, especially a night game. They have a little bar district on broadway (Chimy’s, Crickets, Mesquite’s) Raidergate is a decent tailgate scene. Bring thick skin and extra clothes if you go to a game. If your team wins they’ll talk $hit all night and don’t be surprised if someone tries to fight you.

West Virginia – prob the best fans in the Big 12. Very proud of being mountaineers, the most fun to party with. They’ll talk $hit then chug a beer with you. Really a fun group. Amazing tailgating.

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