Just before BYU beat Wyoming 38-24 in Provo on September 24, 2022, BYU athletic director Tom Holmoe told the BYU Sports Radio Network that Cougars fully intend to resume play in Laramie in 2024.
“It’s a good game. … It’s a game we should play,” Holmoe said at the time.
After BYU beat its former conference rival for the ninth straight timeand perhaps not knowing what Holmoe had promised four hours earlier, then-Wyoming coach Craig Bohl said he thought BYU would buy its way out of the deal.
It seemed odd, as Wyoming athletic director Tom Burman had told the Casper Star-Tribune earlier this week that he fully expected BYU to make the trip, despite the fact that the Cougars were joining the Big 12 in 2023 and were in the process of reducing their 2024 non-conference schedule from 12 games to three.
It turns out that Holmoe and Burman were right.
Wyoming (0-2) will host BYU (2-0) at 7 p.m. MDT Saturday night in Laramie, the Cougars’ first visit to the high plains at 7,220 feet above sea level and 30,000-seat War Memorial Stadium since 2009. Quarterback Max Hall led the team. Cougars win 52-0 That day, he threw for 312 yards and four touchdowns in just over two quarters.
This looks like a trap game if ever there was one, given that Wyoming is 0-2 and coming off a 17-13 home loss to FCS play. Idaho and BYU is 2-0 and coming off an 18-15 road win over SMU of the ACC. But BYU coach Kalani Sitake wouldn’t hear of that earlier this summer.
“Wyoming is always good and very physical, especially up there,” he said.
THE Cougars will return to LaVell Edwards Stadium the following week, hosting a Kansas State team expected to contend for the Big 12 title in BYU’s conference opener. Wyoming is at North Texas September 21st.
You’ll also hear a lot this week about how important this game is to the Cowboys and their fans, who have seen some memorable wins over the hated Cougars over the past 50 years, but also plenty of lopsided losses. BYU has won 12 of the last 13 games and 18 of the last 20 games.
The last time Wyoming beat BYU in Laramie, 13-10, on Oct. 18, 2003, Wyoming fans tore down the goal posts and paraded them through town, despite the fact that both teams had losing records.
So why is BYU, with so little to gain and so much to lose, playing this game?
At the Big 12 football media days in July in Las Vegas, Holmoe told the Deseret News “It’s kind of the lesser of two evils.” He also said BYU was doing it “on principle,” a reference to his 2022 pledge, his friendship with Burman and a thawed, warmer relationship with the neighboring public school after much discontent arising from the “Black 14” incident in 1969.
“So when you have 12 independent games, and you go into a league, you have to take nine of them and put them up for sale to make room for nine conference games,” Holmoe said. “You don’t throw them in the trash. You have contracts with those teams that you have to honor.”
Holmoe said he didn’t want to play two consecutive non-conference games away from home, but a Big 12 requirement that its teams play at least one Power Four non-conference opponent per season meant the series with SMU (signed in October 2023) had to remain.
The question then became whether to keep the Wyoming game or buy it out for about $1 million and try to find a home game against an FBS team as soon as possible. He reached out to his friend and college football scheduling guru, Dave Brown of Gridiron, to see if there were any options.
There was some for Week 2 — SMU turned out to be the better choice, as the Mustangs were moving to the ACC from P4 — but nothing great for Week 3.
“We first knew in 2021 that we were going to be in the Big 12. And we told Dave (Brown) that we were going to need a few games in 2024. Most people think there’s a lot of games, but there’s not,” Holmoe said. “At the time, we had three choices for each of those slots, because we’re not talking about the whole season, we’re talking about Week 3 and Week 2.”
In July, Holmoe also said the Cougars’ 2025 P4 nonconference opponent would be announced “fairly soon,” but as of early September, that had yet to happen. BYU opens at home against FCS Southern Utah in 2025 and needs a Week 2 game against a P4 opponent before traveling to East Carolina in Week 3.
“It’s hard to plan college football in just two years,” Holmoe said. “Take an SEC team and look at their 2032 non-conference schedule, and it’s going to be full. So when you start thinking you can do it in two years, by that specific date, the pickings are slim.”
So, let’s make way for the Cowboys.
“We’re going to continue to make statements as we go,” Sitake told BYUtv after the SMU game. “We’re ready for Statement No. 3 next week and we’re going to go to Laramie and play a tough Wyoming team … in a hostile environment. It’s a good experience for our guys, so we’re looking forward to that game.”
Cougars on the air
BYU (2-0, 0-0) at Wyoming (0-2, 0-0)
Saturday, 7:00 PM MDT
At War Memorial Stadium (capacity: 29,811)
Laramie, Wyoming
Television: CBS Sports Network
Radio: KSL Newsradio 102.7 FM/1160 AM
