LETTER: In-state rivalry games not needed

Dear Editor,

I am writing as a disgruntled Aggie football fan. Here we are a little over the midpoint of another football season and USU is 2-5 (seemingly again). When was the last time USU was 5-2 after seven games? Like all Aggie fans, I’d like to see more winning seasons, but I don’t know if that’s going to happen with any regularity.

If and when Utah State gets into a conference, that may help. But probably not with the continuous brutal non-conference schedule. It’s not as hard to lose to teams like LSU, Oregon and Georgia, but the year-after-year losses to BYU and Utah are disappointing.

So why not schedule the Utes and Cougars like the Georgia, LSU and Oregon teams. That is on occasion. What? Don’t play the in-state rivals every year? Are they really rivals when we win once every 10 years? I suppose the administration, coaches and players here at USU want to schedule BYU and Utah and no doubt that will happen.

From what I understand, Utah and BYU are major proponents of not wanting Utah State in the Mountain West Conference. I’m not sure exactly the reasons, but one was recruiting competition. Maybe another was not enough attendance to games. Well, that seems odd considering the Utes and Cougars schedule the Aggies up here every other year practically.

Really, why not schedule BYU and Utah periodically since we are not in the class they are. It wouldn’t hurt my feelings for USU to join the Big Sky. We would do well there, probably. Of course Idaho State is like 1-16 against Weber State the last 17 meetings in the Big Sky, so things like that could happen maybe. It is thought if the Aggies got into the MWC they’d do well, but I’m not sure about that. So why not dump the Utes and Cougars? They’d probably say we’re poor sports for that, but who is the poor sport about not wanting USU in the MWC for fear they won’t win as often against us?

Stan Hall