Why isn't Utah-BYU Holy War game played during rivalry week?

Everyone can agree the college football calendar has its issues — from the transfer portal opening during the College Football Playoff, to the national championship being held almost two months after the regular season ends, the entire slate is a head-scratcher.

Utah and BYU fans have their own gripes with the way the sport is operating, particularly when it comes to the Holy War.

As the Big 12 revealed the 2026 conference schedules for all 16 of its members Wednesday, Utes and Cougars followers alike had their Sharpies ready to circle their calendars for the next installment of the rivalry game.

The annual meeting between the in-state schools is one of college football's biggest rivalries, given the geographical, religious and coaching ties that bind the Utes and Cougars together.

Being in the same conference again has re-elevated the stakes between the two sides — as evidenced by the fallout of last season's showdown in Provo, Utah. BYU's 24-21 victory wound up helping the Cougars reach the Big 12 title game, as well as make it difficult for the Utes to achieve their postseason goals without some extra help that wound up never coming to fruition.

Next season's meeting at Rice-Eccles Stadium could have similar implications on the conference title race. But the importance of the Utah-BYU game — along with all the other aforementioned reasons as to why it's considered to be one of the best rivalries in college football — didn't force the Big 12's hand at moving it to the last weekend of the regular season, otherwise known as "rivalry week" around the sport.

That's right: Once again, the Utes and Cougars won't be playing each other when all the other rivalries around the country take center stage. Instead of playing the Saturday after Thanksgiving, Utah and BYU will go toe-to-toe on Nov. 7 in Salt Lake City.

Why is that? According to Big 12 chief football and competition officer, Scott Draper, the decision to not schedule the Holy War and a few other Big 12 rivalry games for the final week of the regular season is to preserve some traditions.

"The tradition of playing Thanksgiving weekend, all rivalry games, is not something that a lot of the games that we call 'rivalries' has occurred over a period of years," Draper said during the Big 12 schedule release on ESPNU. "So there's some history and tradition that we want to continue to maintain."

Indeed, the Holy War has been played after Thanksgiving just twice since 2011, when Utah left the Mountain West for the Pac-12 and BYU decided to go down the independent route. The lack of a shared conference affiliation essentially forced the game to be scheduled in the first few weeks of the season, with exception to the 2015 Las Vegas Bowl and the 2018 regular season meeting. There were also a couple of years without a Utah-BYU game.

Post-Thanksgiving Day meetings were more frequent when the two schools were in the Mountain West. From 2000 to 2010, the Holy War took place on rivalry week five times, including four such instances in a five-year span between 2006 and 2010.

And for those wondering how those games played out: all of them were decided by seven points or fewer, with BYU winning four and Utah claiming one victory.

So, to some degree, Draper's point has merit. But as it pertains to Utah and BYU, Draper's comments are based on data that's not relevant anymore since the decision of when the rivalry game takes place is back in the hands of a conference, and not on the two schools to work around their separate and limited nonleague schedules like it was during Utah's Pac-12 days and BYU's independent era.

Admittedly, there are a lot of moving parts the NCAA would need to figure out if it were to ever create a sport-wide calendar that made the entire country happy. But as as it pertains to the reason why the Utes and Cougars don't play on rivalry week, the Big 12 is the main culprit.

For the Big 12, maximizing the exposure of the league's biggest games is near the forefront of its decision-making as well. Of course, rivalry week is riddled with top-tier matchups, including Alabama-Auburn, Michigan-Ohio State and Ole Miss-Mississippi State, among others. Trying to pack in more rivalry games to compete with some of the others going on around the country might not be in the Big 12's best interest.

"From the value to the league and why those games are important — certainly they're important to the participating schools and their fan bases," Draper said. "But it's important that we showcase those games in the best windows and the best opportunities for the most people around the country to see them."

For reference, last season's Holy War on Oct. 18 drew about 2 million viewers, according to Nielsen. Ten other matchups that weekend drew in a larger audience, including the USC-Notre Dame rivalry game (4.6 million). The most-watched game on rivalry week was Ohio State's 27-9 win over Michigan on Nov. 29, which brought in 18.4 million viewers according to SportsMediaWatch.com.

The Big 12 game that drew the largest audience during rivalry week was Cincinnati-TCU, which had a reported viewership number of about 2.7 million. Roughly 1.8 million viewers watched the Arizona-Arizona State game.

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