It's Rivalry Week in college football again, and that means my eyes are focused on the BYU-Utah game. More so this year than in previous years, in fact. The problem is that, die-hard BYU fan that I am, I'm still seeing possible reasons to root for Utah to win this game.

I have two simple guidelines that I follow when choosing whom to root for in any college football game, of approximately equal priority:

1) Root for the result that helps BYU.
2) Root for the result that hurts the BCS as an institution.

Applying those guidelines to this particular game is far more difficult than, say, the Boston College-Temple game (of course I should root for Temple, because that will knock BC down in the standings and probably make West Virginia win the Big East, and they're so piddly low in the rankings right now, it will be egg on the BCS's face for letting them into a big bowl and leaving someone like Cal or Texas or Boise State out).

Let's look at the scenario.

If BYU wins:

1) Utah loses. If my criterion is good things happening to BYU, that is equivalent to bad things happening to Utah.

2) BYU gets to go to a bowl game. This is good for BYU's image, record, recruiting, etc. Except that without Utah going to a BCS bowl, BYU (as always) stands to lose money on a bowl game. But they'd probably go to the Las Vegas Bowl, so we're probably OK.

3) Ben Olson is more likely to stay at BYU. He's probably already gone anyway, but chances are much better if we show him that the Cougs can produce a winning season with a tough schedule, and that they can beat nationally ranked opponents. His presence will draw more top recruits as well. This is a big long-term gain for BYU.

If Utah wins:

1) BYU gets $1,000,000. This is nothing to shake a stick at. There's a lot of use BYU and the other Mountain West programs could put a million smackers to. They could improve facilities, hire better staff, recruit better, etc. The long term benefit to BYU is large.

2) The BCS will be busted. Every BCS hater like me has been praying for the day that one non-BCS team will wind up ranked #6 or higher in the BCS standings, so the cartel has to let them into the dance. That would happen to Utah if they finish undefeated. As a BYU fan, I say, "Why oh why did it have to be Utah? Boise State, Colorado State, UTEP, anyone but Utah!" But as a BCS-hater, I say, "This shows that teams from other conferences can be just as good. It proves false the premise that the BCS is based on." On the other hand, this could play right into the BCS's hand. After letting Utah into the Fiesta Bowl, they could turn right around and say, "See? We're not an evil monopolistic cartel. We let in outsiders--you just have to earn it. The BCS is the best way to determine the best college football teams, and we should keep it forever." I'm not sure if it will do more harm than good if the BCS is busted.

3) Gary Crowton will be fired. Before the season, Crowton and school officials decided that 6 wins was the standard of excellence Crowton needed to achieve. Losing to Utah, he will have not attained that standard, and there is a very good chance that, without his buddy Val Hale around as AD anymore to protect him, he'll be shown the door. This could be good for BYU or bad for BYU, depending on who replaces him. I haven't been too much of a Crowton fan since the second season. He's never been a winning coach. It might be good to try something new. But who are the candidates? Tom Holmoe the loser? Steve Young the TV analyst? Andy Reid the successful NFL coach who wouldn't leave the Eagles unless President Hinckley contacted him and made it a calling?

Add all that up: If BYU wins, that's three good results. If Utah wins, that's one bad result and two indeterminate results.

Go Cougars.