Cats Renew Rivalry with BYU

2006 Game Brings Rocky Mountain

Matchup Back After 29-year Hiatus

TUCSON?-Arizona will renew an old regional rivalry with the season opener on its 2006 football schedule, facing off in Tucson with the Cougars of Brigham Young University.

The game is scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 2, although a television broadcast under Pac-10 partnerships could change the date. Early selections are made later this spring and in early summer.

The teams first played in 1936 and had their last match-up in Arizona’s final season of Western Athletic Conference play in 1977. BYU won that game in Provo, Utah, by a score of 34-14 although Arizona holds a slim edge in the series, 10-8-1.  UA joined the newly expanded Pacific-10 Conference beginning in 1978. Brigham Young is part of the Mountain West Conference formed in 1998 with WAC members Air Force, Utah, New Mexico, Colorado State, San Diego State, Wyoming and UNLV. Texas Christian joined the MWC for the 2005 season.

“We’re really pleased to add a regional program of BYU’s caliber, with national appeal,” UA athletics director Jim Livengood said. “The two schools played each other 19 times over the course of a 40-year period and it’s a good match to have us meet again in football,” he said.

Livengood, who earned his undergraduate degree from Brigham Young, said the Pac-10’s new full round-robin in effect for the 2006 season ?- in which all 10 teams will play each other each season to create a nine-game league schedule ?- altered some planned future schedules and provided Arizona an opportunity to negotiate with BYU officials for a home-and-home series. The two teams are slated to play the return game in Provo in September 2007.

BYU was 6-6 last season including a seven-point loss to California in the Las Vegas Bowl in December. Its best recent season the Cougars finished in the national top 25 and 12-2 in 2001.

Arizona 2006 Football Schedule