College Football: Rivalries End, but College Football Endures

With their contract up after 2012, the BYU Cougars and Utah Utes are staring the death of another longtime rivalry in the face. As expected, the fans and players who participated in the rivalry are less than thrilled.

Kyle Whittingham, the coach of the Utes, is saying the right thing with regard to this being an athletic director issue, even parroting the line of choice where games like this are concerned: "The rivalry game is important, but not as important as what is best for our university and our football program."

That's the same feeling Oliver Luck left us with just a day ago in his discussion about leaving the Big East. The same sentiment we got from Texas A&M during its move to the SEC.

The schools have gotten over it; the onus is on the fans to do the same.

Expansion has moved rapidly through the sport, and it has made certain things more important than others. In the case of Texas A&M, self-respect and personal happiness became paramount. For West Virginia, self-preservation and stability were the most important goals to achieve.

With Utah now in the Pac-12 and BYU going independent, it's about balancing a schedule and juggling prior obligations. Whatever their reasons are, those reasons are more important than a game against a longtime rival.

The sports fan seems to have a short memory for things like this, as folks complain about the loss of rivalries being some sort of damning move for the game.

Sure, it might make some fans upset. It might even lead to the whole "they don't want to play us" rhetoric from teams, the way Miami speaks of Florida or Pitt talks of Penn State. But in terms of it being damning for the game, hardly.

Right now, college football is as strong as it has been.

That's after absorbing the loss of Arkansas-Texas and Arkansas-Texas A&M. Texas and Arkansas were among the nation's best during the days of the SWC, but the Hogs left that rivalry for the SEC's greener pastures. It certainly didn't kill the sport.

We've seen the recent renewal of Hogs-Aggies in the non-conference slate, and the new SEC West foes will pick the game up full-time, but the game took an 18-year hiatus prior to the 2009 game.

Another one of the nation's big-boy rivalries that was lost? Oklahoma-Nebraska.

The Big Eight game was a yearly event in which the teams went to battle on the gridiron. The Big 12 merger then created a sloppy schedule, where the two would not play for a couple of years at a time, barring a Big 12 title matchup.

Now, the two will play even less, as Nebraska resides in the Big Ten and wants nothing to do with anything associated with the Big 12.

Yet the game endures.

Yes, as we have in every round of expansion, rivalries will be lost. Whether it is BYU-Utah or West Virginia-Pitt or Kansas-Mizzou or Nebraska-Colorado, the game is going to grow and endure.

Teams will find new rivals.

In a sport that is filled with copious amounts of hate, there is plenty to go around. Texas A&M will most certainly learn to hate Alabama, LSU and Auburn. Mizzou will develop a dissatisfaction with Georgia and South Carolina.

In the moment, the loss of these games is tough for fans to stomach. It is what they know, where the memories have been made. Give it time, and change will come the same as always.

That old hate will be there in your craw, but a new rivalry will sprout to draw the active disdain that so many fans seem to be fueled by.