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Thursday, November 19, 2009

An Open Letter to BYU and Utah Fans


Dear BYU and Utah fans,

I hate to be the one to tell you this both of your seasons ended in September. I know that this hard for you all to accept, but I think that it is time for ya’ll to realize that your quest for perfection is over. You have been playing nothing more than glorified scrimmages.

Granted you both had some tough legitimate wins over good teams, but none of that matters. You lost.

I will be the first to say that the BCS is a crock of crap but that’s the way it is. Deal with it. Cowboy up. You both lost to teams you shouldn’t have. That’s all that matters to a computer. No matter what you think or justify it, a loss is a loss. Doesn’t matter if it was by one point or thirty.

BYU just so you know the better team for the past 10 years has been Utah. This is a tough pill to swallow, but lets look at the facts. Utah has had two BCS bowls and had two undefeated seasons. BYU has had how many? Zero. Get over it. They have been the better team. Your team imploded more times than my father would like to remember.

Utah fans, you have had some good runs in the past decades, but comparing this season to the others is like the Mona Lisa to a gift shop reprint. Once again your season was over in September. Bringing up how good you were back in 2008 is nothing more than picking at a scab.

Both of you peaked early. It was a tough break. Better luck next time.

As for the Mountain West Championship, which is usually a BYU or Utah shoot out, a third party has been added; TCU. In case you haven’t noticed TCU is no longer the little brother of the conference. He has grown into a man, and is now faster and stronger than both of your teams in several ways.

I have actually heard both of you fans compare loses to TCU. Really? You both got smoked no matter how long it took or how bad the score was. It doesn’t matter if it took one quarter or four. You both lost.

I know that you are naturally made to hate it each other but lets look at this from a different perspective. Have one of those seven habit paradigm shifts.

The MWC is a conference that gets little respect on the national level. Any of the interviews with either one of the Coach’s confirm this. Just this season are some of the talking heads of the sports world recognizing that the MWC is a more legitimate conference than they have once suspected.

But really the only way that the conference can prove itself is by having teams go undefeated. Mathematically if all the right things happen, the MWC could have a shot at the National Title. This is not going to be a easy task, but with the new system in place this year, and the planets aligning it is plausible. (Read here for information about the MWC agreement with the BCS.)

Problem for you is, its not going to be BYU or Utah this year.

Ever hear the saying the enemy of your enemy is your friend? Let me please introduce you to new enemy-friend. TCU.

TCU.

Just let that roll off your tongue a few times. TCU. It doesn’t sound that bad. TCU. It’s almost soothing. TCU.

This will hurt your prideful ears just a smidge but please listen to this. Because you both lost games in September the best thing that you could have done for yourself and the MWC was to lose in spectacular fashion to TCU. (I tried to make that like a band-aid. I hope you all survived.)

TCU is the MWC’s only hope of notoriety this season incase you haven’t caught on. Thus, YOUR only hope of notoriety in the future. If TCU busts the BCS this will in turn bring respect AND much needed national attention to the MWC.

They will look and see that at one point this year BYU, Utah and TCU were all in the top ten. Which is not bad for a non-BCS school that doesn’t have the supposedly ‘tough’ schedules. They will look at the history this season and see some of the big wins on the road like Oklahoma and Louisville. Other teams are starting to think that those back woods Mountain boys can actually play some ball.

Unfortunately one of you will have at least a three-loss season and I’ll be honest, that sucks. But look at it this way. Next year after two consecutive seasons of busting the BCS ya’ll are going to get the national respect that you yearn for.

So go have your Holy War. Wear your Blue and Red proudly. Talk about the glory days. Go to a bowl game and win. And more importantly talk TCU up like the proud older brothers that you should be. Tell your friends and family, your bosses, co-workers and strangers on the street. Because if either of you want a chance to play in the title game someday you had better be cheering them on as loud and as much as possible. Think of the greater good. Think about the Conference. Unite with a Cougar or a Ute. Bust out your purple and cheer on the Horned Frogs!

Sincerely,

Bradford

Photo courtesy of KSL.

2 comments:

Webb said...

Well put.

Although I will NEVER cheer for the Utes (hate em with a passion, and since I did attend that school I have every legitimate right to), I agree, they have been the better team (between BYU and UofU) for the last decade or so... still hate em.

As for TCU, it's a no brainer... yes, cheer your heart out for them. They are this conference only hope for recognition. Coincidentally enough, when all those blue fans and all the red idiots do come together, what does that make?... yup, purple! It's destiny!

Go TCU!

As for the BYU-Utah game... yeah... doesn't even matter at this point.

Sterling Gray said...

Brad, who would have thought that all of this would become irrelevant? With all three of these teams ditching the MWC, it's a moot point. Four months ago, I was hoping TCU would bust the BCS. Now, all TCU's victory over Wisconsin means is that the Big East is tougher than it used to be (let's be honest though, the Big East is just as pedestrian as the MWC, except they have a bowl bid). The Pac-10 and the Big East are getting better, and the MWC is getting media darling Boise State. So...nothing is changing for the MWC. Except they have to travel more. Too bad the band broke up right when they were getting good.