BYU and Utah yesterday announced that the latter has "cancelled" next season's men's basketball game, the "last meeting under the current contract," according to Goon & Drew of the SALT LAKE TRIBUNE. Utah coach Larry Krystkowiak "cited extracurricular incidents in two of the last three meetings" as the reason Utah's "most-played rivalry and the seventh-most played rivalry in college basketball will be on hiatus." However, BYU coach Dave Rose "disagrees with Krystkowiak's contention that the series needs a cooling off period." Rose said, "The rivalry is pretty heated. We've had some interesting moments over the years. ... But in rivalry games things tend to get pretty heated at times. I don't think, from my point of view, that the safety of the players is an issue." Utah AD Chris Hill is "backing his coach -- while leaving the door ajar for a resumption of the series down the road" (SALT LAKE TRIBUNE, 1/7). Rose: "This doesn’t make any sense to me at all. If the game was scheduled to be played in [BYU's] Huntsman Center next year, the series would still played." In Utah, Facer & Call note that "as part of the contract, Utah will pay BYU a buyout" of $80,000. Rose said, "It’s a hefty sum. It’s probably not for me to say. (Krystkowiak) told me he’s fully prepared to pay that. It’s written in the contract ... To me, it seems like a significant amount of money. Maybe to them that doesn’t seem like a big deal. Money can’t replace the game" (DESERET NEWS, 1/7).
A FEW BAD APPLES: In Utah, Lafe Peavler writes "nobody wins with this decision." Utah "loses a quality opponent" and "looks like a kid taking his ball and going home." BYU also "loses a quality opponent and a chance to play a rivalry game on its home floor" (DESERET NEWS, 1/7). In Salt Lake City, Gordon Monson writes Krystkowiak and Hill in statements "scolded the Cougars hung over their heads a threat" that if Rose and BYU "did not clean up their acts" then maybe Utah would cancel the series for longer. That is the "equivalent of an overbearing parental power play." It "makes you wonder a few things," including "whether this is, in fact, a power play in which Hill is thumbing his nose at BYU, using the bad behavior of a couple of players as a reason to throw the hammer down and rupture, or at least interrupt, a series that's gone on for more than a century." Monson: "This is an overreaction, and possibly an attempt to embarrass BYU" (SALT LAKE TRIBUNE, 1/7). In Utah, Brad Rock adds college basketball "badly needs" this game. For a sport that "struggles nationally to get noticed until March, rivalry games like Utah-BYU are an excuse to grab some attention" (DESERET NEWS, 1/7).
