BYU NewsNet - BYU vs. Utah 2008: Viewpoint — Utah, BYU battle for bragging rights in Deseret First Duel

For the love of bragging rights.

At what point can one school officially say it is better than the other? Is it after the respective football team wins that the school can start the banter? Is it after the basketball team wins a home-and-home each season? Or is everything sport-specific?

For an entire year, rival fans will rub their team’s victory into the other’s faces and claim bragging rights until the game rolls around the following season.

To allow fans to base their opinions on an organized format, Deseret First Credit Union agreed to sponsor the Deseret First Duel, the official BYU-Utah rivalry platform organized between the schools. The Duel gives points to the school that wins each respective athletic event for 12 different sports.

“It was a way to formalize the rivalry,” said Darrell Kirby, public relations specialist for Deseret First. “It was also a way to emphasize sports beyond football and basketball.”

The points are based on the sport’s fan popularity and also how many times the schools face off for a particular sport. The total point value comes to 65.5, meaning the first school to earn 33 points will win the Deseret First Duel each season.

Football is given 10 points (the most of any sport) because the “Holy War” generates the most revenue and has the biggest following. Six points were given to the annual women’s soccer game because the teams face each other only once a year, whereas the women’s volleyball games are given only 3 points each because the schools play each other twice a year.

The men’s basketball games merit 5 points each game because the schools play twice a year, and basketball is a highly-anticipated event for the public. Baseball, gymnastics, tennis, softball and swimming are the other sports given points for victories.

When football and basketball seem to be the most visible attractions, one would think that they should receive more points than they do, due to the fact that no one talks smack after a BYU-U of U gymnastics meet or tennis match.

Generally speaking, when one school dominates in both football and basketball, people will declare that school as the more dominant for that season. In 2004, the Utes beat BYU in football and both times in basketball, and most fans saw the U. as superior that year.

For these past two seasons, BYU has won close battles in football and all four times in basketball, so it is easy for one to think the Cougars have been superior.

However, even after BYU won both football and basketball in the first year of the Duel, the deciding factor was the second-to-last baseball game, which the Cougars won to clinch the title. BYU fans would have been enraged if Utah were given the title after the Y. had won football and both men’s basketball events.

Yet that was the intent of the Duel.

“There’s never been any discussion to change the points,” Kirby said. “We didn’t want to overdo it with football and basketball by taking away from the other sports.”

Thus we have it, a formalized platform to determine the true champion of sports between the schools. As for bragging rights, the Duel trophy will speak for itself on which school is dominant that season.