Besides the success of an undefeated season and Sugar Bowl win, the U has also beaten BYU in the annual food drive.
Every year, the U and Brigham Young University collect food during Rivalry Week in November and compete to raise the most food for the Utah Food Bank. Although the drive took place before the Utah versus BYU football game, results weren’t calculated until later in December.
“The beauty of this Rivalry Week food drive is we take this heated rivalry and we help people with it,” said John Fackler, director of alumni relations.
This year, the U bested BYU, collecting 212,082 pounds compared to BYU’s 122,441 pounds, according to the Utah Food Bank. But BYU triumphed in the cash drive by collecting $43,461 compared to the U’s $35,667.
Traditionally, the U has always been able to raise more money than BYU, which has previously been able to collect more food. The total amount of food gathered and money donated by both schools was greater this year than in past years. In fact, the U raised $5,000 more than last year.
This year, the U raised the stakes to allow students to compete personally in the drive.
Chris Spencer, a graduate student in business, won the competition to see who could donate the most food without going over a $15 spending limit.
By spending only $14.68, just a few cents short of the limit, Spencer and his wife bought 172 pounds of food, winning him a $300 scholarship for his last semester of school.
His wife, Annalisa, collects food coupons and looked for the best deals on canned food while collecting coupons from newspapers and the Internet.
“With three days notice, this is what we came up with, using as many Internet-printed and Sunday-paper-clipped coupons as we could rummage up,” Annalisa Spencer said.
Fackler said the students were very innovative. “They had all of these different combinations of coupons, my hat is off to anyone who can do that for 15 bucks. I mean we’re not talking about cheap stuff,” he said.
Some of the food included Moist Deluxe cake mix, baking powder and cans of Progresso Soup.
The runner-up had 61.4 pounds of food.
All of the donations for the contest, which was organized by the MUSS, were distributed by the food bank throughout the state.
This 14-year-old food drive competition between BYU and the U is threefold: food, money and then if they are left with a tie, they let the football game decide the winner.
“The tiebreaker went to us,” Fackler said. “The last two years it has not, but five of the last seven have gone to us.”
One of the reasons this year’s drive was different was that the U was intent on beating BYU in food donations this year and Utah fans had other expenses to deal with, Fackler said.
“Utah fans gave more food because we had to buy BCS bowl tickets!” Fackler said.