Utah's Hill goes deep in BYU/Utah rivalry


3 photos
Save Story
Leer en español

Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes

This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.

SALT LAKE CITY — In a head-spinning series of comments, Utah athletic director Chris Hill went from revealing a "deep, dark dirty secret" that Utes fans are happy not to play BYU in football to announcing both teams have agreed in principle to sign another contract.

Confused? Welcome to the club.

Along the way, Hill took a shot at the Utah sports media in a Deseret News story and then said his personal integrity was attacked through inflammatory comments made by an unnamed radio host, which obviously was referring to Gordon Monson, co-host of The Big Show on 97.5-FM and 1280-AM The Zone. For a rivalry that is in a two-year hiatus, with both teams no longer in the same conference, it has never been this heated.

Speaking to Deseret News columnist Lee Benson, Hill said he didn't regret interrupting the state's biggest college event for the opportunity to play a two-game series with Michigan. As proof, he believes most Utah fans would agree.

In essence, he blamed the media for creating a controversy out of skipping the series.

"It's not like every year we're not going to play them, it's not that big of a deal," Hill said. "Then there's the media, bless their hearts, but it kills their self-serving jobs. What are you going to talk about on the radio if you don't have the BYU-Utah game? What are you going to write about?"

Newsflash: Life goes on with or without a football game.


It's not like every year we're not going to play them, it's not that big of a deal. Then there's the media, bless their hearts, but it kills their self-serving jobs. What are you going to talk about on the radio if you don't have the BYU-Utah game? What are you going to write about?

–Utah athletic director Chris Hill


Hours after Monson called out Hill on the DJ and PK radio show for basically saying it was a lie to imply most Utah fans appreciated not playing BYU, Hill issued a press release that included going after Monson and also said, "I've talked to (BYU athletics director) Tom Holmoe on several occasions about our future scheduling. We are already scheduled to meet in 2016, '17 and '18, and on Tom's desk is a contract for 2019 and 2020, which we sent on July 30. We have also discussed tentative dates for 2021 and 2022.

"Neither Tom nor I like to announce things until we have signed contracts in hand, but the circumstances today, when my personal integrity was attacked, led me to believe it is important to let people in the state know our future plans."

In a later interview with David James and me, Hill said he didn't intend for his shots at the media to sound mean-spirited. He also reiterated the break with BYU is only for two years.

"I understand that it's a rivalry," Hill said, "and I don't want rivalries to go away."

Aside from the potshots and sniping, the real issue is Utah and BYU will continue a rivalry that ranks among the game's best. For rivalry lovers, this is great news.

Related:

As a member of the Pac-12, Utah has to schedule carefully. Given the difficulty of nine conference games, the Utes have to play a manageable schedule in the three non-conference games. Using Hill's logic, it wouldn't be smart to play a big-name opponent such as Michigan and BYU in the same season.

Hill is right in stating Utah needs to play BYU early in the season, mostly in the first three weeks, before conference play begins. BYU, which doesn't have as much leverage being an independent, has to agree to Utah's conditions.

Judging by all the publicity this latest episode has generated, and remembering the crazy ending in the last game in which Ute fans stormed the field three times, it's silly to say the rivalry has lost its luster. It can be argued it is even more intense now that both teams have gone their separate ways and have no reason to pull for each other the way conference opponents sometimes do.

Fortunately, despite all the varying opinions, it's game on for the foreseeable future.

Photos

Related stories

Most recent Sports stories

Related topics

Sports

ARE YOU GAME?

From first downs to buzzer beaters, get KSL.com’s top sports stories delivered to your inbox weekly.
By subscribing, you acknowledge and agree to KSL.com's Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

KSL Weather Forecast