‘Lesser of two evils’: BYU’s Tom Holmoe explains why Cougars are traveling to Wyoming this week

BYU Cougars defensive lineman Fisher Jackson (53) knocks down a Wyoming Cowboys quarterback Andrew Peasley (6) as BYU and Wyoming play at LaVell Edwards Stadium in Provo on Saturday, Sept. 24, 2022. BYU gained 38-24. | Scott G Winterton, Deseret Information

Simply earlier than BYU beat Wyoming 38-24 in Provo on Sept. 24, 2022, BYU athletic director Tom Holmoe instructed the BYU Sports activities Radio Community that the Cougars totally supposed to return the sport in Laramie in 2024.

“It’s a good sport. … It’s a sport we ought to be enjoying,” Holmoe stated on the time.

After BYU beat its former convention rival for the ninth straight time, and maybe not realizing what Holmoe had promised 4 hours earlier than that, then-Wyoming coach Craig Bohl stated he believed BYU would purchase its manner out of the settlement.

That appeared odd, as a result of Wyoming athletic director Tom Burman had instructed the Casper Star-Tribune earlier that week that he totally anticipated BYU to make the journey, even if the Cougars have been becoming a member of the Large 12 in 2023 and have been within the technique of trimming their 2024 non-conference schedule from 12 video games to a few.

Seems, Holmoe and Burman have been proper.

Wyoming (0-2) will host BYU (2-0) at 7 p.m. MDT Saturday night time in Laramie, the Cougars’ first go to again to the excessive plains 7,220 ft above sea degree and 30,000-seat Battle Memorial Stadium since 2009. Quarterback Max Corridor led the Cougars to a 52-0 win that day, throwing for 312 yards and 4 touchdowns in simply over two quarters.

It seems like a entice sport if there ever was one, contemplating that Wyoming is 0-2 and coming off a 17-13 house loss to FCS Idaho and BYU is 2-0 and coming off an 18-15 street win on the ACC’s SMU. However BYU coach Kalani Sitake would have none of that discuss earlier this summer season.

“Wyoming is all the time good, and actually bodily, particularly up there,” he stated.

The Cougars return to LaVell Edwards Stadium the next week, internet hosting a Kansas State group anticipated to contend for the Large 12 title, in BYU’s convention opener. Wyoming is at North Texas on Sept. 21.

Additionally, you will hear quite a bit this week about how a lot this sport means to the Cowboys and their followers, who’ve seen a number of memorable wins over the hated Cougars the previous 50 years, but additionally a number of lopsided losses. BYU has gained 12 of the final 13 and 18 of the final 20 matchups.

The final time Wyoming beat BYU in Laramie, 13-10 on Oct.18, 2003, Wyoming followers tore down the goalposts and paraded them by means of city, even if each groups had shedding data.

So why is BYU, which so little to realize and a lot to lose, even enjoying this sport?

On the Large 12 soccer media days in July in Las Vegas, Holmoe instructed the Deseret Information that “it’s sort of the lesser of two evils.” He additionally stated BYU was doing it “out of precept,” a reference to his 2022 promise, his friendship with Burman, and a thawed, hotter relationship with the neighboring state faculty after a number of discontent stemming from the “Black 14″ incident in 1969.

“So when you could have 12 unbiased video games, and then you definately go right into a league, it’s important to take 9 of them, and put them out, to make room for 9 convention video games,” Holmoe stated. “You simply don’t throw them within the trash. You’ve got contracts with these groups that it’s important to work by means of.”

Holmoe stated he didn’t wish to play back-to-back nonconference street video games, however a Large 12 requirement that makes its groups play at the very least one nonconference Energy 4 foe per season meant that the sequence with SMU (signed in October of 2023) needed to keep.

Then it was a query of whether or not to maintain the Wyoming sport, or purchase it out for in all probability round $1 million and attempt to discover a house sport towards an FBS group on brief discover. He contacted his good friend and faculty soccer scheduling guru Dave Brown of Gridiron to see if there have been any choices.

There have been for Week 2 — SMU proved to be your best option there, because the Mustangs have been shifting to the P4′s ACC — however nothing nice for Week 3.

“It was in (2021) once we first knew we have been going to the Large 12. And we instructed Dave (Brown) we have been going to wish a few video games in 2024. Most individuals assume there are (quite a bit) of video games, however there aren’t,” Holmoe stated. “On the time, we had three selections for every a kind of slots, as a result of you aren’t speaking about the entire season; You’re speaking about Week 3, and Week 2.”

Additionally in July, Holmoe stated the Cougars’ P4 nonconference opponent in 2025 could be introduced “fairly quickly,” however as of early September that hadn’t occurred. BYU opens at house towards FCS Southern Utah in 2025 and desires a Week 2 sport towards a P4 opponent earlier than touring to East Carolina in Week 3.

“Solely two years to do faculty soccer scheduling is difficult,” Holmoe stated. “Take a group from the SEC, and have a look at their 2032 nonconference schedule, and will probably be crammed. So once you begin pondering you are able to do it in two years, on that particular day, the alternatives are slim.”

So, convey on the Cowboys.

“We’ll simply maintain making statements as we go alongside,” Sitake instructed BYUtv after the SMU sport. “We’re prepared for assertion No. 3 to return subsequent week and we’re going to Laramie and enjoying a tricky Wyoming group … in a hostile setting. It’s a good expertise for our guys, so we’re wanting ahead to that sport.”