When Utah’s football schedule was released showing Utah as host to Michigan in the second game of a home-and-home two seasons ago, it sparked concern as to why the organization would discontinue the tradition of playing in-state rival BYU. But Utah athletics director Chris Hill has plans in motion to not only play the Cougars starting next season, but potentially several times in the future.
“I’ve talked to (BYU athletics director) Tom Holmoe on several occasions about our future scheduling,” said Hill. “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.”
This was part of a statement released on Monday to address the debate over the ongoing and persistent tradition of rivalry between BYU and Utah football. Hill and Holmoe have also talked about tentative dates in the years 2020 and 2021.
“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,” Hill said.
While BYU and Utah fans have used social media to debate the decision to nix one of the most highly-anticipated games of each year, individuals among local media outlets also voiced their opinions, which essentially moved Hill to speak up.
“I was very disappointed at the inflammatory statements made today by a local radio host toward me personally in regards to the Utah-BYU football rivalry and I feel it is important to shed some light on the topic,” said Hill.
Hill’s decision to replace the BYU-Utah rivalry game was based on popular support form Utah season ticket holders to schedule Michigan to play Utah at Rice-Eccles Stadium for the opening game of the season on September 3. This decision to host Michigan at Utah remains a positive outlook for Utah football fans and the organization as a whole.
“The Michigan game is attracting more national publicity than we’ve had for maybe any non-conference home game in our history,” Hill said. “There is a tremendous excitement surrounding the game from our fans. We anticipate it will also draw the largest TV audience we’ve had for a game televised from Rice-Eccles Stadium.”
When Utah plays either BYU or Utah State, Hill said it takes an emotional toll on all the players and he does not want these non-conference games to hurt the Utes in the Pac-12. Additionally, the combination of BYU, Utah State and a big name like Michigan could prove to be too much to handle on top of a difficult conference schedule.
“With a nine-game Pac-12 Conference schedule, we are not going to hand our football coach and team a non-conference schedule with Michigan, Utah State and BYU in the same year,” Hill said.
Hill has set plans to readdress the rivalry game in the coming years.
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