BYU and Utah will continue their football series beyond the 2018 season, yet in not the way either school wanted the news to come out. The two schools have agreed in principal to play each other in 2019 and 2020, according to The Salt Lake Tribune. The news was forced out when Utah athletics director Chris Hill publicly responded to criticism from a local media member on the radio.
“Neither [BYU AD] Tom [Holmoe] nor I like to announce things until we have signed contracts in hand,” Hill said in an emailed statement. “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 received some criticism from his comments in a Deseret News Q&A where he said, “the deep, dark dirty secret is our fans are not disappointed.” His feeling was that playing BYU, Utah State and another strong non-conference opponent would be too much to go along with the Pac-12 schedule.
Other news that came out is that the two schools have tentative dates to play the Holy War through the 2022 season, but those talks are still in the early stages.
While the way the news came out was not ideal it is a good thing that BYU and Utah are able to continue this series. College football has lost a lot of rivalries over the past few years, mainly due to conference realignment, so it is refreshing to see these two schools able to work out a deal to keep playing each other.
The 2019 game is likely to be played in Provo since the 2018 contest is at Salt Lake City, making the 2020 game will be played in Rice-Eccles Stadium.
2019 BYU schedule currently as follows:
HOME: USC, Boise State, Washington, Utah
AWAY: Virginia, Utah State, Washington State, Massachusetts, Toledo
Here is the 2020 lineup:
HOME: Missouri, Michigan State
AWAY: Stanford, Arizona State, Boise State, Northern Illinois, Utah
