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Show 3 THE RIVALRY Thanksgiving 2007 SPORTS www.dailyutahchronicle.com Carrying the conference A NOTE FROM THE EDITOR or the last two years, The Daily Utah Chronicle has teamed up with Brigham Young University's student newspaper, The Daily Universe, to provide a preview of the "Holy War" between our schools' football teams. This year. The Chronicle is on its own. We were forced to scrap plans for a tandem issue when we couldn't convince The Universe to participate if we purchased Insertion into The Salt Lake Tribune and the Descret Morning News. Oddly enough, it wasn't a matter of money that caused The Universe to back out. One of the many unique differences between our schools is that The Chronicle is completely independent from the U's administration. The Universe, on the other hand, is overseen by BYU faculty. A seemingly harmless issue such as the possibility of an Honor Code-violating bar advertisement appearing in that day's The Salt Lake Tribune made faculty members think twice about participating. Despite BYU's unfortunate absence on these pages, The Chronicle has made every effort to offer balanced analysis from Its perch here in the Salt Lake foothills. We've included work from our Sports, News, Opinion and Arts and Entertainment sections to give a comprehensive account of the rivalry's unique culture. These 36 pages feature the work of the best journalists and designers the University of Utah has to offer If you have any comments or suggestions, please let us know so next year's staff is equipped to do even better. Above all else, thanks for reading and enjoy the game! F Matthew Piper letters@chronicle.utah.edu Cody Brunner ASST. SPORTS EDITOR TYLER COBB/fhe Daily Utah (hicnale Across the board of college sports, the University of Utah and Brigham Young University have won many Mountain West Conference titles. Brigham Young University ran away with the MWC title in football last year. In volleyball, the Utah Utcs went undefeated throughout their conference schedule to take the regular-seas on championship. The Utcs or Cougars have won Softball titles in each of the last four years. It doesn't matter what sport is in discussion or what year it is—Utah and BYU have been carrying the Mountain West Conference since its inception. "Both schools are well-rounded and have plenty of great programs," University of Utah Athletics Director Chris Hill said. "They've both been competing at the highest level since the beginning of the conference." Last year, the two schools won either the regular season or MWC tournament championship in 16 of the 19 sanctioned conference sports. BYU won an impressive 13 of those titles. The two teams have been nearly as dominant every year since the MWC materialized in 1999. The most-publicized disparity lies on the football field, where either BYU or Utah has won the conference title in three of the last four seasons. The Cougars will tack on yet another championship if they win the remainder of their 2007 schedule. The dominance transcends football. In soccer, Utah has won the title three of the past four seasons. In women's basketball, the Cougars and Utes have combined to win the last five championships. In men's basketball, BYU or Utah has won a conference championship in four of the past five seasons. The list keeps going and going. See CONFERENCE Page 12 ~ |
