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PROVO — BYU head coach Kalani Sitake hasn't had time to connect with Utah's Kyle Whittingham since the proclamation that the Utes will join the Cougars in the Big 12 (along with Arizona, Arizona State and Colorado) following the potential collapse of the Pac-12 in 2024.
But in his first public comments since the move became finalized as BYU entered the second week of training camp, Sitake made it known that he's in favor of the two longtime rivals sharing a league for the first time since BYU went independent in football in 2011.
"I'm really excited," Sitake said. "I think the conference has gotten a lot stronger, and I'm excited that they (the Utes) are going to be on our schedule consistently. I'm looking forward to it. I think with those schools that are joining, it's going to be a lot of fun."
Sitake admitted that the decision "doesn't help us for this year," so there's no point in interrupting his own busy schedule during training camp or the similar timeline Whittingham faces as the two-time defending Pac-12 champion Utes prepare for what may be the final year of the conference — or at least, the final year as most of its 108-year history will remember it.
He just didn't want to "disrespect" Whittingham's time, so the two will enjoy the camaraderie that may come with being in the same conference for the first time since the Mountain West days at a later point.
Maybe it will come over dinner after the season, or when the two come together for their annual charity golf tournament benefiting the Kidney Foundation of Idaho and Utah every spring. They'll eventually discuss it, though; the two worked together on the same staff at Utah for nine years, including when Sitake was Whittingham's defensive coordinator and assistant head coach from 2012-14.
Still, Sitake wasn't shy about saying that the moves put in place by new Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark have been a positive for the Cougars' new conference home. And if there's any good that may come out of the landscape-altering and — at least to some — upsetting round of realignment, it's the revival of the Cougars' oldest rivalry, as well as a pair of former Western Athletic Conference rivalries in Arizona and Arizona State.
Even most Utah fans, like university president Taylor Randall, would agree to that.
"I'm a fan, a lifelong fan of this university, and I know we're going to get questions about the renewed rivalry with Brigham Young University," Randall said in addressing the media Monday. "For me, it's always been fun. We're looking forward to that. We've appreciated the way we've worked together over the years when we've not been in the same conference. We're certainly looking forward to the years where we will be. I hope you all are as excited as we are to this new opportunity for the University of Utah and University of Utah athletics."
BYU was scheduled to play Utah again next season, resuming the century-old rivalry after a brief hiatus so the Utes could play Florida in a home-and-home series with a six-game series over the next seven years.
That will obviously be folded into league play, with some theorizing that the rivalry game may move back to a November date after adjusting as early as September with the Utes' Pac-12 commitments and BYU's schedule as an FBS independent.
Similarly, the Cougars' future games against Arizona in 2026 and 2027 will also likely be folded into games that count in the Big 12 standings. Some questions about conference consolidation are easier to solve than others.
But it's not all for the worse.
"I think we're a society that adapts. I think there's a lot of interest in college football, and change can be good," Sitake said. "I know there are people who are upset about tradition being lost, but that's just what society is. Things move, they adapt, they evolve; things change. College football will be just fine. We're all adapting to what happens in conference affiliation and realignment and also what's going on with the playoff, the transfer portal, NIL and all that stuff.
"But the interest and excitement in college football has always been there, and is strong."
The move also reunites Colorado, a founding member of the former Big Eight that left the Big 12 a decade ago for the Pac-12, with former conference rivals in Texas and Oklahoma.
That move, in particular, isn't lost on BYU running back Deion Smith, the Houston native who was Colorado's leading rusher a year ago with 393 yards and two touchdowns before entering the transfer portal when Deion Sanders was named head coach in Boulder.
"I feel like it will be good. Coming from the Pac-12, I've always felt like the Big 12 was a little bit more superior, with better TV times and good game times instead of 'Pac-12 after dark'; that was horrible for travel," Smith said. "But I feel like it's a good thing for the university and the (football) program, too."
For now, all sides will go their separate ways for one more year — while knowing that a future reunion is in store.
"I've got players on this team that won't play against those guys in the new conference," Sitake said. "So we're focused on the schedule that we have right now, but excited for the schedule that we have next year and in the years to come in that conference."
