A Heated Rivalry - Cogent and Falacious #1

I was catching up on my sports articles for the day, and I came across this story on  KSL.com, and it just said "mendanhal takes another jab at utes". Me, knowing who mendanhal is {BYU'S coach), was naturally interested in the article because, as you would have guessed it, do not like the utes. So I clicked on the article to see exactly what it meant by "takes another jab". What I found was kind of comical but also a ring of truth, but a lot of speculation as well.

BYU and Utah have played each other once a year in football for decades. One of the greatest rivalry games in the nation, that most people that live in Utah, are into for one reason or another. This is the first time in decades that the two teams wont be playing each other in a season. Many fans are very up set by this, because its become such a fun and important game to the fans of these two teams. Many want to know why. Let the speculation begin...

The article talks about the upcoming BYU vs Utah State game, and they ask Bronco how important the game is and his response was "Considering only one in-state team will play us this year, it's a huge game," said Mendenhall. "It's probably the featured game in-state. It means a lot. The two teams honor tradition. This particular game matters a lot to both teams". So what this article did now was take that comment and turn it into Bronco calling out the University of Utah for choosing to not play the coug's this year and choosing to avoid a possible loss to BYU in order to pad down their schedule and secure an easy win. All from that comment is what these people are saying.

There are many opinions as to why this game was not played. It is funny to look at the comments from people on all different kinds of articles about this game not being played this year. People choose to say and do and think so many different things and reasons as to why this game isn't played. BYU fans say its because they utes are afraid and don't want to risk a possible loss, where as ute fans will say that BYU is too easy of a game and they want to schedule a team that will be more meaningful if they win.

I found the article to be pretty cut and dry when it comes to Cogent and Falacious, I do think there were things that were valid in this debate that was supposed to be a question about a Utah State game that turned into apparently insulting the U. I do think its funny the U decides just one day they don't want to play BYU anymore and gives a terrible reason for it. Which the article makes mention of. I do think that Bronco was slightly taking a jab at the utes football team and program for copping out of playing them this year. I do think that the person who wrote this, and the people who comment don't know the full story. Yes all these little things probably play a little part, but the fallacious parts of this article to me, is the fact that we simply don't know the full story on this. Im sure there are business reasons behind the decision to not play the game as well, its not just a "we don't like BYU so we're not going to play them this year" type of thing like many BYU fans are making it to be, but I also don't think its as easy as "we want a more meaningful win than one from BYU". Like I said there are more truths to the story and the situation then the people, the fans and the writers want to admit or even care to consider for that matter.

Did the article have truth to it? Did Bronco call out the Utes? Or was he simply making a comment about the up coming game this weekend? What do you think? Whether you like either team, or like football, it's actually kind of an interesting read considering the drama behind it that the media is set on causing for one reason or another. There were definitely some truth's, but definitely some fabricated thoughts and opinions on the issue. As there usually always is...