Utah cancels 2016-17 men's basketball contest vs. BYU
The Holy War rivalry between BYU and Utah is one of the fiercest in college basketball, but will be absent from next season's calendar after Utah cancelled the scheduled game.
"I disagree with the decision," Cougars coach Dave Rose said in a statement. "I know our students, our players, our fans and college basketball fans in the intermountain area want to see this long-standing rivalry continue."
The two schools met this season on Dec. 2 as Utah emerged with an 83-75 home victory. During the contest, Cougars guard Nick Emery was ejected for punching Utah's Brandon Taylor, an incident Utes coach Larry Krystkowiak said forced him to make this decision.
"The events that have occurred in our recent games with BYU led me to ask (Utah director of athletics Chris) Hill several weeks ago if we could take a cooling off period and put the rivalry on hold," Krystkowiak said in a statement. "The level of emotions has escalated to the point where there is the potential for serious injury."
Next season's contest was to be a BYU home game, and will mark the first time since 1944 the two schools won't meet.
A small consolation for the Cougars is they will maintain the all-time series lead 129-128 for at least another full year.