The conference made the choice to protect four rivalries including BYU/Utah. The other protected rivalries are TCU/Baylor, Arizona/Arizona State, and Kansas/Kansas State.
BYU football has a great quarterback tradition going back decades and the next in line could be Jaren Hall. He has been around the Cougars football program in a full capacity by giving up his baseball career with BYU last year.
New University of Utah running backs coach Quinton Ganther didn't mince words when asked what his message is to Ute tailbacks, "We wanna be the best in the country."