Interesting thoughts. Thanks for the reply...
Utah - There is some ancient history between the schools, but no modern fan remembers that. Utah got the attention of the academic world with that cold-fusion discovery, that no one can replicate. But those memories were erased following the SLC olympics. UU got some facilities upgrades and caught fire with Meyer and have maintained that momentum with Whittingham. CU fans were excited by UU's victory in the sugar bowl a few years back. But SLC is Terra incognito for many Coloradoans. Outdoor enthusiasts love Moab, we drive through Utah on the way to Vegas and SoCal. Utah feels close because the scenery is familiar. But SLC is more than a day trip, and therefore won't be well attended relative to the other rivalries. The perception of Mormon culture boardering on misogyny sends up red flags among the liberals. Who knows how much of that is real or fiction. But regardless of the cultural biases, UU is better than anybody from Texas.
You had to bring up cold fusion. Fair enough.
Here's our take that I can gather from Ute fans...
BYU is our rival. They haven't always been (it used to be Utah State for much of our history), but with the rise of BYU football in the Lavell Edwards era ('70s, '80s, '90s), things quickly escalated. Utah and BYU are only 40 miles apart, and both reside in the "Wasatch Front" which is the SLC metro area. BYU is in Utah county and UofU is in Salt Lake county. I'll try not to bore you with details, but the two counties are very different. I know you won't believe me, but SL county is actually pretty liberal politically, socially, etc. I mean that all relatively. It's not San Fran, to be sure. The Mormon church headquarters are in downtown SLC, so that balances things out a little. SL county is about 50% Mormon, maybe less. Salt Lake City proper is definitely lower, maybe 30% Mormon.
But Utah county, where Provo and BYU are, is much more Mormon. Utah county is what I think most people picture when they think of a community populated with a Mormon majority; (by that, I
don't mean people riding around in horse and buggy - haha!). Utah county is probably 70%+ LDS (Latter-Day Saint - the proper name for Mormons).
The reason I'm explaining all this, is that there is a definite cultural divide between Utah and BYU. Now that Utah has crawled out of our suckiness in football in the 70s and 80s, the football rivalry has been tight. We've split the games for the last 20 years. The rivalry has always been fierce (our first game in the 1800s ended in a bench-clearing brawl) it really has ramped up according to some fans. (I personally think the rivalry is as brutal as it's always been.)
Long story short, there are fans on both sides of the rivalry who think it's become too toxic. They're afraid if it escalates anymore someone might get hurt. Some Utah fans (both LDS and not) are simply tired of the 'culture' that comes out of BYU, and they just want to be done with it. Some Ute fans have been begging for this PAC move to happen so we can have a different, "normal" rival shed of all the BYU baggage (and this is coming from a Mormon). They're sure UofU and CU will find reasons to hate each other, but it won't be (as) religious and petty as the "Holy War" has become here. Just two great schools who want to beat the hell out of each other on the gridiron and hardwood.
Again, good luck in the PAC. Screw A&M and KU. Eff those guys. We're better than them, and I hope it's us! We deserve it! We work hard for everything we get, and we ain't planning to rest on laurels should the PAC come calling. We don't feel the entitlement that KU and A&M simply because of the name on our shirt or what we accomplished 50 years ago, or last year. We've learned that that thinking gets you nowhere but apathy and spoiled mediocrity (see Notre Dame).
Tell your connected CU friends to lobby for Utah.