BYU/Utah Rivalry Game Fact Sheet: BYU Tops Utah in Mountain West Stats

Oh, yes. Let it begin. 

It's that time of year when the weather turns cold, when myopic BYU fans play the "what could have been" game and trash Utah fans for being white trash heathens, despite the fact that most Utah fans are members of the Mormon faith and as white collar as myself and John Huntsman.

It's also the time when the inferiority-complex burdened Utes fans spew their vitriol for the Cougars, despite not having any connection to the University of Utah aside from geography and a dislike of BYU. 

But that's another article for another day. Today, we break down The Rivalry as it has played out in terms of the Mountain West Conference over the last six years—since Bronco Mendenhall and Kyle Whittingham tool over as coaches and TCU joined the league. 

The numbers may surprise you.

Bowl Breakdown

Utah: 5-0. Highlight: A stellar beat-down of Alabama in the Sugar Bowl in 2005

BYU: 3-2. Highlight: Drubbing of Oregon State in the 2009 Las Vegas Bowl. 

Summary: Utah has been excellent in bowl games, while BYU has been average. 

Conference Titles

Utah: One. Year: 2008

BYU: Two. Years: 2006, 2007

Summary: Utah had one great year and several mediocre ones. BYU had two good years. In the rest the Cougars played second-fiddle to TCU.

Conference Finishes

Place in final MWC standings:

	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010
Utah	6th	4th	3rd	1st	3rd	2nd or 3rd
BYU	2nd	1st	1st	3rd	2nd	2nd - 4th

Teams Utah/BYU have trailed in final MWC standings

Utah	BYU
New Mexico	TCU
Colorado State	Utah
San Diego State
TCU
Air Force
BYU
Wyoming

Summary: Utah's average finish is 3.4 in the Mountain West, while BYU's is 1.8. BYU has finished ahead of the Utes in every year but 2008. 

More than that, the Utes have finished behind every team in the conference except UNLV at some point since 2005. Considering the quality of some of the teams on Utah's "finished-behind" list, that's sad.

Conference wins by year

 Number of victories over MWC foes since 2005

	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010
Utah	4	5	5	8	6	6 or 7
BYU	5	8	8	6	7	5 or 6

Summary: Utah has three seasons with fewer than six conference wins while BYU has just one. BYU has won, on average, an entire conference game more than Utah per season since 2005.

Record against conference foes

Teams Utah/BYU have lost to since 2005

Utah	BYU
New Mexico	Air Force
Colorado State	San Diego State
San Diego State	Utah
TCU	TCU
Air Force
UNLV
BYU
Wyoming

Summary: Utah has lost at least once to every team in the MWC since 2005, while BYU has only fallen to four. Again, that's not stellar competition the Utes have fallen to.

Cougars over Utes in MWC performance

BYU's MWC success is better than Utah's over the past five seasons. Utah has managed to lose to every team in the league, and has finished behind every team, except UNLV, at some point. 

Meanwhile, the Cougars have finished in the top three every single season and BYU has finished ahead of the Utes each year except for 2008.

So, as we bid bad-bye to the MWC at the close of this season, we wish Utah better luck taming the PAC-10 than it had against the MWC. 

Ryan Teeples runs BYUUtahRivalry.com and can be followed at twitter.com/ryanteeples