Photo by Aaron S. Terry, Stadium Journey
On Saturday October 26, BYU’s football team visited Central Florida for the 4th time in series history, defeating the Golden Knights 37-24. The Cougars improved to 8-0 in conference play in only their 2nd season as members of the Big 12, and now stand atop the Big 12 standings – Iowa State is also undefeated, however, but is only 7-0 since they already had their bye. BYU’s performance was good enough to move them into the top 10 of the AP Poll, the first time they have been in the AP Top 10 since a 9-0 start in 2020.
After decades in the Western Athletic Conference (WAC), which was re-formed into the Mountain West Conference (MWC) in 1999, Brigham Young University joined the Big 12 in 2023 as part of the larger conference alignment that in some way affected almost every team in the FBS.
That conference realignment saw the end of some rivalries which have existed for over 100 years, for example Texas-Texas A&M, who first played in 1894 – the last meeting was in 2011, but the rivalry is being reborn in 2024, as Texas A&M and Texas are now in the same conference again, the SEC.
Photo by Aaron S. Terry, Stadium Journey
That conference alignment also brought together teams that are separated by thousands of miles, most notably in the Big 10, which now stretches from USC and UCLA in California all the way to Penn State in State College, PA. Such distances have become commonplace in college football these days, however – years ago it was surprising, for example, to see West Virginia join the Big 12, over a thousand miles removed from its conference rivals in Texas and Oklahoma; such distances are no longer remarkable.
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