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SALT LAKE CITY — University of Utah Athletic Director Chris Hill has created quite a controversy with his explanation of the two-year hiatus of the BYU-Utah football rivalry.
Hill told the Deseret News that he doesn't revisit the decision to not play BYU "too much" in an article published Monday:
Deseret News: Given the controversy it stirred up, do you ever revisit your decision to not play BYU in football every year? Chris Hill: Not too much. The deep, dark dirty secret is our fans are not disappointed. That's a hard thing to say, right? There are three groups. There's our fans, who say it's only two years (off), we get to play Michigan here, it's not like every year we're not going to play them, it's not that big a deal. Then there's the media, bless their hearts, but it kills their self-serving jobs. What are you going to talk about on the radio if you don't have the BYU-Utah game? What are you going to write about? And of course BYU wants us to play every year. But my job is what's in the best interest of the University of Utah, and the Michigan game this year at our place will be the most-watched game out of Salt Lake City ever.
His comments in the Deseret News, which were the talk of the Utah sports world on Twitter and radio Tuesday, caused some "inflammatory statements" from a local radio host that Hill took exception to. Here's today's full release from Hill:
"I was very disappointed at the inflammatory statements made today by a local radio host toward me personally in regards to the Utah-BYU football rivalry and I feel it is important to shed some light on the topic. "The message I have received loud and clear from Utah season ticket holders is that they support our decision to take a two-year hiatus from the BYU rivalry in order to play Michigan at our place. "With a nine-game Pac-12 Conference schedule, we are not going to hand our football coach and team a non-conference schedule with Michigan, Utah State and BYU in the same year. Utah State and BYU are very good teams and instate games take an emotional toll that could impact our success in Pac-12 play. "The Michigan game is attracting more national publicity than we've had for maybe any non-conference home game in our history. There is a tremendous excitement surrounding the game from our fans. We anticipate it will also draw the largest TV audience we've had for a game televised from Rice-Eccles Stadium. "I've talked to (BYU athletics director) Tom Holmoe on several occasions about our future scheduling. We are already scheduled to meet in 2016, '17 and '18, and on Tom's desk is a contract for 2019 and 2020, which we sent on July 30. We have also discussed tentative dates for 2021 and 2022. "Neither Tom nor I like to announce things until we have signed contracts in hand, but the circumstances today, when my personal integrity was attacked, led me to believe it is important to let people in the state know our future plans."
Austin Horton, producer of 1280 AM's "The Big Show" with Spence Checketts and Gordon Monson, called Hill's statement above a "public response" to comments made by Monson earlier in the day. Early Tuesday morning, Monson told the "DJ and PK Show" that "Every poll I've ever seen shows that the people of Utah want that game."
Monson continued, saying "He's full of it. He's absolutely full of it. His comments were self-serving to him, and for him to say that the media wants it because they have nothing else to talk about is absolute BS."
"Chris Hill flat-out lied," finished Monson.
BYU associate athletic director Duff Tittle confirmed to KSL that BYU has received a potential contract for games in the series through 2020, while adding that BYU's legal counsel is currently reviewing the contract and will announce the decision with details once the series has been signed.
**Contributing**: Andrew Adams 
