It's come back again — the hatred

Sitting in The Pit, in Arena Auditorium, Moby Gym and other Mountain West venues, an old familiar refrain is back. It already returned in football, now it has surfaced in basketball.

The voices cry loud and clear from the bleachers and if you filter through some media outlets, especially radio talk shows after some BYU wins in football from TCU to SLC and San Diego and Albuquerque you can collect evidence. In hoops bean-counting fouls and free throws and memos to league headquarters by coaches are kicking up after BYU victories.

Winning does that. BYU is finding itself despised once again. It’s the Dallas Cowboys/New York Yankees syndrome.

With the returning to winning, also back is some arrogance on the part of some BYU fans, and that adds fuel to the fire. When football struggled to get to bowls and post winning seasons the earlier part of this decade, many Cougar fans were humbled. They longed for the old days. Some even vowed they’d never take the Holiday Bowl or wins over Utah for granted ever again.

Now, the winning is back. So is some strutting. And that, too, is driving folks in enemy camps crazy. Many fans now hate the Las Vegas Bowl and ache for something more.

Basically it’s all part of the cycle of college sports in this part of the country.

I remember back in the days BYU raced through the league winning consecutive championships in football. It bugged folks in the Rockies, especially over the range where CU, CSU, Wyoming and Air Force struggled to compete and get the same recognition. From El Paso to Laramie, from Colorado Springs to San Diego, it was tangible. This was back in the day Doug Looney of Sports Illustrated came out with his piece about BYU being the most hated school in the country. Doug, of course is a graduate of Colorado. We saw it again when BYU went 12-0 in 2001 and turned a lot of heads. This is when Rick Riley of Sports Illustrated wrote his column about BYU’s old men being a huge advantage. Rick, of course, is a graduate of Colorado and I believe still lives in Boulder.

The criticism of missions, the hue and cry over BYU holding in its passing game was the major topic of discussion among media, coaches and fans two decades ago. It got so bad in the 80s that WAC officials started to react to the criticism and increased their flag count on BYU for holding. It was predictable as a Norm Chow run play call on first down. Back in the day, Jim McMahon loved this. He liked seeing a second and 15 or third and 20 — it meant he would get more yards that day because he’d usually convert the first down. Same with Ty Detmer.

Are we headed for another reactive cycle to BYU’s success? Once the criticism of officiating and refereeing boils and filters through MWC cities, coaches and league offices, we’ll see.

Right now, it is real and it is a unique sideshow. Critics can point to all kinds of evidence and make their case. BYU’s final drives against Utah — two straight years. The no-call at New Mexico at the end of the game. BYU is winning and there’s got to be a reason why. It couldn’t be the athletic talent or the coaching, it must be something more sinister.

It’s an interesting study in sports sociology.

It’s back, the hatred. Maybe it didn’t really go away at all, it just hibernated through the losing years. But it’s baaaaaaack.

In the meantime, Holmoe probably doesn’t mind it at all.