:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/16202557/158861466.0.jpg)
It's funny how news regarding BYU football schedules can come.
At BYU Media Day, Tom Holmoe briefly discussed that he was confident in future agreements with Utah and that other Pac 12 series (after having announced USC) were forthcoming. On Tuesday, Utah athletic director Chris Hill obliged on both of those things.
In the aftermath of Hill's pending-approval announcement of two more games between BYU and Utah, he seems to have tipped BYU fans to one of those Pac 12 series Holmoe is sending down the pipeline. When asked if BYU and Utah could return to November permanently as in 2018, Hill said they would not because of BYU's series with USC -- and Rose Bowl champion Stanford.
According to Utah AD Chris Hill, BYU and Stanford will play 3-game series starting in 2020.
— Jeff Call (@AJeffreyCall) July 9, 2013
Jeff Hansen detailed the possible arrangement on Twitter:
Gotta pretty good hunch that BYU will play USC in 2019, 2021 and 2023 and Stanford in 2020, 2022, 2024.
— Jeff Hansen (@rakoto10) July 10, 2013
I guess the Stanford band's supremely disrespectful showing the last time BYU played there wasn't too offensive (if anyone's used to it, the Mormons are!)
More surprising, to me at least, is another possible 2-for-1. Perhaps, it seems, Mr. Holmoe is finding that the elite teams of college football will only do 2-for-1's to come to Provo, and the next tier down with the stature to do straight home-and-homes with BYU don't want to play BYU at all. By the time 2020 rolls around, Stanford could stink again, but as of right now it has appeared in three-straight BCS games with a record of 35-5 in the last three seasons.
We have found, however, that Greg Welch's suggestion from more than one year ago -- "How BYU could help Pac-12 scheduling ... If the Pac-12 can stomach it" -- was a good one. BYU is in a position to help the Pac 12 resolve some schedule imbalance caused by Notre Dame's perpetual relationships with USC and Stanford, and it appears the conference realizes it.