Despite changes in college sports, BYU-Utah rivalry still means a lot
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- A young BYU fan bravely cheers for the Cougars among a number of Utah supporters during a a Big 12 men’s basketball game at the Huntsman Center in Salt Lake City on Saturday, Jan. 11, 2026.
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- BYU President Shane Reese (right) and Advancement Vice President Keith Vorkink react during a Big 12 men’s basketball game against the University of Utah at the Huntsman Center in Salt Lake City on Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026.
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- BYU’s Keba Keita rises up for a dunk against Utah in a Big 12 men’s basketball game at the Huntsman Center in Salt Lake City on Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026.
It’s pretty obvious what the BYU-Utah men’s basketball rivalry means to Cougar center Keba Keita, who has the unique distinction of having played for both schools.
Keita competed in his first two seasons with the Utes, then transferred to Provo in 2024. On Saturday, he and Kennard Davis Jr. combined for a double team that caused a key late Utah turnover.
“That stop was great,” BYU head coach Kevin Young said. “When I think about Keba, I tried to take him out of the game when he got a third foul. He is the quietest person on planet Earth until that moment. He has never yelled at me that louder than he did at that moment. That was awesome, I loved it.
“So Bido (Abdullah Ahmed) is like, ‘Am I still checking in?’ ‘No, you’re not. Go sit down.’ So that was cool.”
Immediately after refusing to sub out, Keita contributed a massive follow dunk for 51-45 lead and finished with 11 points, seven rebounds one huge block.
But in the age of NIL and the transfer portal, just what does the BYU-Utah rivalry mean overall?
A look at Utah’s roster reveals zero players from Utah, so nobody grew up on the rivalry. New Utes head coach Alex Jensen played in the rivalry, going 8-2 against the Cougars during his career with Utah. Ute assistant Eric Daniels coached against BYU at Utah Valley, Weber State, Southern Utah and Utah State and his father, Donnie Daniels, was a long-time assistant at the U under Rick Majerus.
Director of Men’s Basketball Sports Performance Erick Schork served in the same position at BYU (2016-23) and grad assistant Kim Tille played against the Cougars while at Utah.
As for recent history, only one player on the Utah roster — Keanu Dawes — competed against the Cougars in the two games last season.
BYU head coach Kevin Young grew up in Georgia and at one point coached the Utah Flash in what was then called the D League.
“It’s interesting for me,” Young said leading up to Saturday’s showdown. “I grew up in the church, but I never really grew up a super-huge BYU fan. I always respected the program and what it stood for and things like that, but I didn’t grow up with the hate, right? And now that I’ve been here and you kind of experience it, you just want to go up there and beat those guys.”
Young’s coaching staff is largely unfamiliar with the intensity of the rivalry with the exception of Chris Burgess, who was 2-2 against the Cougars as a player at Utah and Director of Basketball Operations Nate Austin, who was 2-3 against the Utes during his career.
Austin owns one of the oddest experiences in the BYU-Utah game. In 2014, Austin injured his hamstring stretching during warmups. He jumped center and immediately left the game, unable to continue.
In addition, grad assistant Charles Abouo, who played at BYU in 2008-12, was 6-1 against the Utes as a player.
On this year’s Cougar roster, only Keita, Richie Saunders and Mihailo Boskovic played in last year’s two games as did Dawson Baker, who is out for the season with an injury.
The point is, fewer and fewer players and coaches really understand the depth or intensity of the rivalry.
But maybe the fans on both sides provide more than enough extra attention for the rivalry to continue to mean so much.
Saturday’s 267th meeting at the Huntsman Center drew a sellout crowd of 15,558, with probably 40% showing up in BYU blue. By comparison, the Utes drew just 8,339 when No. 1-ranked Arizona came to town.
Utah students broke out the “F-BYU!” chant pretty early in the game. The MUSS student section — perhaps not well trained since they rarely attend in such numbers — twice unfurled a giant MUSS flag upside down.
At halftime, newly appointed Utah football coach Morgan Scalley addressed the crowd and at one point was drowned out by chants of “Let’s go, Cougars!’ from BYU fans.
There has been a clear shift in the rivalry, especially in the football and men’s basketball, since the Cougars joined the Big 12 and paying players became the norm. BYU is dominating the series and Cougar fans can’t stop gloating about it. Which puts Utah fans in a bad mood.
On social media, the back-and-forth banter ranges from playful to mean-spirited or even downright nasty.
So, pretty much business as usual in one of the most intense rivalries in the country.
