BYU has led the Mountain West in this ranking every single year since the league was formed in 1999. There is no question who has the best overall athletic program in the Mountain West Conference. Tom Holmoe is doing a great job down at BYU!

In true form Utah finished right around the middle of the pack for the MWC.

You can read more about it by clicking here.

Here are the Mountain West Conference standings:

• BYU – 36
• TCU – 40
• New Mexico – 47
• San Diego State – 66
• Utah – 75
• UNLV – 86
• Air Force – 96
• Colorado State – 123
• Wyoming – 163

I found this gem on cougarboard.com today, enjoy!

Only two Division I-A programs have managed to reach 10+ wins in football and manage to reach the NCAA tournament in basketball 4 consecutive years. Those two programs? BYU and Texas.

Now with regards to these Ute fans and their delusions, I will compare.

BYU has as many top 15 finishes in the last 4 years (3 of them) as Utah does in the ENTIRE 100+ year history of the program. Ouch.

Utah has 6 top 25 finishes in the entire 100+ year history of the program (that’s two more than BYU has had in the last 4 years). BYU’s also had 17 top 25 finishes since 1977 (or better than 50% of the time does BYU finished ranked…including finishing ranked the last 4 years consecutively).

Utah has five ten+ win seasons in the history of program. BYU has had 4 consecutive ten win seasons…and 16 of them since 1979. Ouch.

BYU has more 11+ win seasons in the last 4 years (3 of them) then Utah has had in over 100+ years (two total in 100+ years of playing football for the Utah program).

Utah has three outright conference titles since 1957 (BYU has two in the last 4 years). BYU has 22 conference championships since 1976.

Utah has finished ahead of BYU in the conference standings just one time in the last 5 years in football (and just five times total in the last 40 years). BYU has finished ahead of Utah outright 4 times in the last 5 years and over 30 times in the last 40 years. Ouch.

In the last 5 years, Utah has finished in the MWC conference as follows: 6th, 4th, 3rd, 1st, 3rd. BYU has finished as follows; 2nd, 1st, 1st, 3rd, 2nd.

The overall series all-time is 50-31-4 (not 58-28 as a ute fan proclaimed above). However, BYU has won 3 of the last 4 and 29 of the last 41 in this series. Utter domination. Utah fans have to look to their great grandaddies to find someone that remembers an era where Utah was better than BYU. Pretty sad. Simply put, very few “rivalries” has been as lopsided as this one (in BYU’s favor, I might add) in the last 40 years. If one team is winning 75% of the time, then who is this a “rivalry” to anyways?

Now onto bowl records……..Utah fans talk about their “12-3″ bowl record. But, remember, nine of these 15 bowl games have occurred since 1999. Utah only started to qualify for bowls when the bowl season become so watered down that any 6 win team would qualify. Prior to the late 90′s you actually had to be GOOD to make a bowl game. Not so much anymore. As a result, the vast majority of these “bowl wins” have come against second tier opponents. Since 1995, Utah has played two bowl opponents that managed to finish with a winning record and rank in the final Sagarin top 40. One of those teams destroyed Utah 38-10. The other was Alabama. Since 1999, here is the list of the teams Utah has played in bowl games: WAC Fresno State, 6 win USC, C-USA Southern Miss, 7 win Pittsburgh, 7 win Georgia Tech, C-USA Tulsa, Navy, Alabama and Pac-10 6th place Cal. That is not murder’s row. In fact, other than Alabama, that bowl resume is TERRIBLE. What credit should Utah deserve for beating Navy or Tulsa or Fresno State or Southern Miss when they were getting blasted in the regular season by the likes of New Mexico, UNLV, Wyoming, or Colorado State? Bad, bad, bad.

More evidence of Utah’s ineptitude: Utah has not beaten a major conference team on the road that finished with a winning record in nearly a generation. Utah has just one victory in the last 15 years against a non-league opponent that was ranked the day they played and who also FINISHED ranked in both polls (non-inspired Alabama team). And to cap it off……Utah has ONE victory in over 100 years of playing football against a major conference team that finished with less than 4 losses. One. That’s it.

As you can see, Utah has been historically (or at least in the last 50-60 years) one of the worst Division I program in college football. Very few programs boast such few accomplishments (virtually never finishing ranked, virtually never winning a league title, nor beating anyone of consequence).

As for BYU, included in all many great BYU seasons above (a plethora of ranked seasons, bowl games, and 10+ win seasons) is included the following: A national championship, a Heisman trophy winner, 2 Outland trophy winners, several Davey O’Brien winners, several top 5 Heisman voting finishes, and a Doalk Walker winner. BYU has also had many consensus All-Americans. BYU has multiple QB’s go onto the NFL and be starters on prominent Super Bowl winning teams (such as Jim McMahon with the ’85 Bears and Steve Young with the ’95 49ers). In fact, Steve is still the highest rated passer in NFL history. Utah’s claim to NFL fame? Alex Smith! LOL. Pathetic.

In addition to all the above, we know that BYU has vastly superior facilities, vastly higher attendance at games (both home and away), and brings in a much wider viewing audience.

There is no comparing these two programs in any way. I guess for Utah fans, their entire history revolves around 3 months in 2004 and 3 months in 2008. If it didn’t occur in those small windows then it is an ugly blemish that must be forgotten. Unfortunately, they can hide from their past. It’s bad.

As for basketball, you’ve all seen the numbers. BYU blows Utah away in attendance and ratings here, as well. Utah likes to talk about their nice, little basketball program. But, what is it? It’s a program that’s had 4 losing seasons (in MWC play) in the last 5 years. It’s a program that has played in a grand total of ONE NCAA game in the last half decade (getting abused and tossed to the side by a 12 seed in that one game). And a program that historically is vastly overrated (two elite 8 appearances in the last 40 years) in addition to its last half decade of futility. Utah also has just one outright MWC title in is entire basketball history. Ouch.

BYU, meanwhile, hasn’t finished behind Utah in the league standings in hoops in 5 years. BYU’s been in 4 straight NCAA tournaments…and battled Kansas State tough in the round of 32 this past spring after spending most of the season ranked. BYU has beaten Utah 7 of the last 8 meetings in hoops…and BYU’s won 3 of the last 4 MWC crowns.

Now that we’ve exposed these clowns for who they are (that’s a program with an intense little brother syndrome……similar to A&M to Texas). Economically, competitively, fan following. Any way you cut, BYU wins here. And wins by a large margin.

Maybe now that you are in the Pac 10 you will be able to find a new rival. One that you are competitive with.

It has been fun dominating you guys for the last 40 years, but it looks like Colorado will be your new Rival. Judging by their history you may be able to compete in this rivalry better than you could with BYU.

Go Cougars!

Instead of going over the easy basketball victory for BYU last night, I thought I would share a video to get U fans excited for football.

Go Cougars!

Now this is a real class act!!!

I once said that some people take their football and the fighting for their alma mater way too serious in the “big” picture of life, a game should be a game, with good sports, no hard feelings and being an adult. This was sent to me by a friend, and sort of points that out.

Just prior to the start of the Air Force-BYU football game, Sept. 22, 2009, this video was broadcast in the BYU stadium in Provo , Utah . Later, the USAF Academy Superintendent, LtGen Gould, showed this clip to the faculty and staff. He told everyone that BYU ran it minutes before the kickoff at the game. He was clearly moved by it, as were those who watched it. BYU is a class act.

BYU VS. AIR FORCE

Not only is Coach Rose an incredible man off the court, he has done an incredible job on the court as well. He has won 20 games the past four years, won the regular season conference championship the past 3 years and has his team ranked #10 on their way to a fourth consecutive title. Keep up the good work Coach Rose!

It feels good to be back on top of the rivalry! BYU has now won 3 of the last 4 rivalry games and Bronco is 3-2 in head to head games with Whittingham. It is great to be a Cougar!

To all the whiny U fans trying to make a big deal out of Hall’s comments, you look foolish trying to divert the attention from the game. You lost, get over it! While he probably should not have said anything, who cares that he hates you? Did he hurt your feelings? You must think of Max Hall in high regards if you care so much about how he feels about you!

At least he didn’t attack an entire religion like Alex Smith did while proclaiming his hate for BYU. You can read about how Alex Smith thinks the LDS faithful are arrogant by clicking here. Or you can see how Morgan Scalley declares his hatred for BYU by calling everyone involved with BYU “Pricks” by clicking here. I point out these two incidents to show U fans how to brush that type of stuff under the rug. As BYU fans we don’t care that U players hate us. It wasn’t a big deal then and it wouldn’t be now if U fans hadn’t got their panties all twisted up in a wad after Hall’s comments. Honestly, do you really care that Max Hall hates you?

I almost forgot to mention that George is still running!

Two First Class Coaches – LaVell Edwards & Bobby Bowden

Bobby Bowden is the head coach of Florida State, who the Cougars will be playing today. My husband is always telling me the more personal stories about different coaches and players to get me more emotionally involved in the game. He knows that if I feel some emotional connection to the people on the field that I will be more into the game, its a girl thing I guess! Yesterday my husband told me that we needed to watch the movie We Are Marshall last night. Here is a little clip of the movie that shows why I have decided that Bobby Bowden is one of my all time favorite coaches. Win or lose today Bobby Bowden is a class act!

Saturday BYU plays Florida State at LaVell Edwards Stadium! Football Season is finally HERE for all of us BYU season ticket holders. We have been waiting a good 2 weeks for this home game. I can’t wait for all the sights, sounds and smells (yes I said smells, love those roasted almonds!) of Saturdays game. I am so excited to be in that stadium under those lights and watch my #7 Cougars beat the Seminoles! GOOOOO COUGARS!!

A big FYI for all you out there that follow the Cougars Wives Club: McKinzi Hall (Max Halls wife) announced that she is pregnant with their first baby who will arrive in March! Congrats to the Halls!