End of an Era

This year's Holy War Rivalry marks something of an end of an Era. BYU and Utah have been in the same conference for 89 years. All of that will change in the 2011 season.

On June 16, 2010 Utah was officially invited to join the Pac10 as it's 12th member, following Colorado. The move took Utah into a automatic qualifying BCS conference with a tie-in to the Rose Bowl, and left BYU, TCU and newly joined member Boise St. in the MWC.

Anxious to develop it's brand, access and exposure and further recognize their potential Brigham Young University announced they were going Independent in football and their other sports would join the WCC. In partnership with ESPN, BYU now has access to a level of exposure and possibilities that were never possible with the previous MTN channel and MWC.

This appears to be the last year in the foreseeable future in which the Cougars and Utes will compete as conference foes. It is also the last time for at least the next few years where the Utes and Cougars will face off in November. After 47 games in a row played in November the 2011 game will be played in Sept. In fact, the Utes last home game of 2010 will be against the Cougars and the Cougars first home game of 2011 will be against the Utes.