BYU/Boise State Football Series Will Be Done After 2022 Season
Jan 26, 2022, 10:04 AM
Boise State AD Jeremiah Dickey said he is working on future football games with BYU. (BYU Photo/Jaren Wilkey)
(BYU Photo/Jaren Wilkey)
PROVO, Utah – The annual BYU/Boise State football series will be over after the 2022 season, for now. This update comes from Boise State Athletic Director Jeramiah Dickey, who engaged in conversations with Boise fans on Twitter.
One more game with them and then done…for now. They have been awesome to work with. Challenging for them as an independent. Utah and Utah State also important to their base. I have hope we can get a H/H in future but they need to figure out Big 12, etc & I completely understand
— Jeramiah Dickey (@JeramiahDickey) January 25, 2022
When asked about the future of the BYU series by a Twitter user, Dickey, who has been Boise’s athletic director for the past year, replied, “One more game with them and then done…for now. They have been awesome to work with. Challenging for them as an independent. Utah and Utah State also important to their base. I have hope we can get a H/H in future but they need to figure out Big 12, etc & I completely understand.”
The two teams will play on November 5 in Boise this season, but after that, it’s anyone’s guess when the rivalry returns. The BYU-Boise State game has been played annually since 2012.
BYU/Boise State Rivalry
A series that started in 2003 as a replacement game emerged as an annual rivalry. Both programs signed on for a 10-year extension from 2025 to 2034. BYU’s move to the Big 12 will bring the series to an end.
As Dickey noted, he hopes there could be a home-and-home between the two schools in the future. It’s still unclear if the Big 12 Conference will go to an eight or nine-game conference schedule beginning in 2023, but early reports indicate that nine is the direction the Big 12 is moving.
Since becoming an Independent, BYU’s game contracts with schools have included clauses that allow them to move on from the scheduled games without financial penalty if they move into a Power 5 conference. For example, in the BYU-Boise State contract to begin in 2025, the wording read, “The defaulting party’s cancellation is made and communicated to the other party within two years after the defaulting party becomes a member of another conference, whether currently existing or newly created, that is different from its current conference or independent affiliation, and that includes at least four schools that currently belong to a Power 5 conference.”
Boise State leads the all-time series between the schools holding a 4-8 lead. Last season, BYU lost to the Broncos in a game that saw an undefeated Cougars team ranked No. 10 in the national polls fall to Boise State.
Mitch Harper is a BYU Insider for sports.ksl.com and host of the Cougar Tracks Podcast (SUBSCRIBE) and Cougar Sports Saturday (Saturday from 12–3 p.m.) on KSL Newsradio. Follow him on Twitter: @Mitch_Harper.
