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PROVO â It didnât take long for BYU to replace Utah on its future schedule.
At least, sort of.
Just a day after the two schools mutually announced a temporary bereavement in the rivalry series â one that will reportedly allow the Utes to schedule a home-and-home series with Florida â the Cougars added a home-and-home set with a school from the Sunshine State, as well.
BYU will play Central Florida for the first time since 2014, returning to Orlando on Nov. 11, 2023, with a return trip to LaVell Edwards Stadium scheduled for Aug. 31, 2024. The two games, when added with a home-and-home series with Rice in 2023 and 2025, effectively take the place of the Utes, who were scheduled to play BYU in September of 2023 and 2024.
"I appreciate the great working relationship we have with Mark Harlan and many others at Utah," BYU athletic director Tom Holmoe said in a statement announcing the postponement and addition to the rivalry series. "We have a responsibility to take care of the future of this great rivalry, not just in football but across all of the sports.
"There may come a time in the future where we need to ask Utah to make an adjustment for us. Thatâs how a relationship works. Utah approached us about an opportunity they have and we agreed to work with them."
BYUâs update to their future series wonât hurt their future schedule too much, either. The Cougars will face the Owls on Sept. 29, 2023, in Provo, followed by a return date to Houston on Sept. 27, 2025. It will be the first meeting between the two schools since the era of the 16-team mega-Western Athletic Conference, and the first since the Owls exacted revenge with a 27-14 win in 1997 that has kept the series record at 1-1 for more than two decades.
BYU last defeated UCF 24-17 in Provo in 2011, but the Knights took a 31-24 victory in overtime on the return trip to Orlando in 2014.
The Knights also added a home-and-home series with BYU regional rival Boise State, playing in Orlando in 2021 and in Boise in 2023. The 2021 date will be the first-ever meeting between UCF and Boise State.
That's a significant upgrade to a school who has risen to the tops of the national rankings in recent years, but whose strength of schedule has come under fire. The Knights famously have refused to schedule two-for-one games with Power Five programs in recent years.
BYU and Boise State are the first two scheduled games on the 2023 schedule for the Knights, who play in the American Athletic Conference. UCF also has a home-and-home series with North Carolina in 2024 and 2025, according to fbschedules.com.
"BYU and Boise State represent big-time strength-of-schedule games for our program based on their records and top-25 rankings in recent years," UCF athletics director Danny White said in a statement from the school. "We are committed to continue to schedule attractive, meaningful football games both for our fans and student-athletes. BYU and Boise State are both power programs, and weâre proud to play them."
UCF, which has been a member of the Football Bowl Subdivision since 1996, has risen to become one of the top teams in the Group of Five conferences, with six conference championships, 10 bowl appearances, two New Yearâs Six bowl games â the 2014 Fiesta Bowl and the 2018 Peach Bowl â and an undefeated season in 2017 that White to lead a victory celebration as ânational championsâ that included a parade at nearby Walt Disney World.
