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LAS VEGAS -- At the Mountain West Conference football meetings in Las Vegas Tuesday, the talk was all about the preseason media polls. But the biggest issue for Utah's teams is the future of the BYU-Utah rivalry game.
BYU Head Football Coach Bronco Mendenhall shocked some by saying unless there are changes, he's against playing the game.
Much has been said about the BYU-Utah rivalry game by fans and media, now the BYU and Utah players are in the spotlight.
BYU Head Football Coach Bronco Mendenhall said, "It won't be the same."
Utah's All-Mountain West center Zane Taylor said, "I couldn't imagine Utah without that rivalry game. I would go a bit crazy."
BYU safety Andrew Rich said, "I love that game and we cherish it every year. The rivalry is a great rivalry and one of the best in the country."
BYU insider and Deseret News columnist Dick Harmon said, "You don't want to tweak it too much, but they're (BYU and Utah) going to tweak it. It's changed forever."
The season is all set for the bright lights, but while nothing is chiseled in stone, it's obvious that when Kyle Whittingham's Utes join the Pac-12, playing the rivalry game in November won't happen.
"It's been a great rivalry over the years," said Whittingham. "It would be sad and really disappointing, I think, to see it come to an end completely -- which I don't think will happen, but there may be some bumps in the road."
Among the bumps, Mendenhall wants to force more civility into this increasingly intense and heated rivalry. He's going all in on cleaning up the runaway attitudes. "Both administrators and both universities need to take better control of the stadiums, so the game is safe. And I would be a proponent, unless that is addressed, not to play the game."
Assuming cooler heads prevail, then it's a when issue, and maybe a short hiatus until schedules permit.
Harmon thinks, "There are some dates that people are locked into in the near future that might mean there's not a BYU-Utah game for a year or two. Hopefully, that would be a short term thing that would be fixed and then it could go on, but it would never be the same."
We know for sure BYU and Utah will meet on Nov. 27, then they'll have a year to work through the issues.
E-mail: tkirland@ksl.com
