It's no secret that the balance of basketball powers in the Beehive State has shifted drastically in the direction of BYU, leaving the struggling Utes far behind since both programs' entrance to the ranks of the Big 12 Conference. I'd be remiss to neglect Utah State, a team that just can't seem to stay out of the AP Poll, but with no head-to-head meetings scheduled with the Aggies, this story is all about the Holy War.
BYU and Utah squared off in the Huntsman Center on Saturday night. This is an annual clash between two storied in-state rivals. On a yearly basis, one clad in red will spit in a Southernward direction, and a blue-donning retaliator will respond with a slight directed toward the offendor's mother. It's a perpetual cycle, and one that sparks fire from across the state.
There exists no stronger evidence of this vitriol than the attendance numbers of the Huntsman Center on the campus of the University of Utah. The arena on the hill has been, well, largely empty for most games this season. Truthfully, take a look at the stands during any of the previous matchups, and you'll see plenty of red -- not from the fans, but the rows of vacant chairs.
Pictured above is a snapshot of Utah's most recent home game, in which the top-ranked Arizona Wildcats came into town to face the Utes in Salt Lake City. This is not cherry-picked evidence; if the number-one team in the nation isn't enough to sell out a crowd, that fanbase is far from committed to their team's basketball program.
And yet, the Huntsman Center was packed to the rafters when the ninth-ranked Cougars and AJ Dybantsa breached the threshold of the arena. This is the Holy War effect.
Looks aren't deceiving, either. According to attendance numbers from ESPN, this in-state rivalry lured the Utah fanbase to this contest like a fresh-baked pie steaming on the windowsill. Here are the attendance numbers for each of the Utes' home games to this point in the year.
Utah Utes Men's Basketball Attendance 2025-26
San Jose State: 5,932
Weber State: 6,214
Holy Cross: 6,570
Sam Houston: 6,299
Purdue Fort Wayne: 6,163
Cal Poly: 6,163
Cal Baptist: 6,077
1 Arizona: 8,339
9 BYU: 15,558
Nearly doubling the total of the previous high and being largely boosted by an influx of rival fans, the Huntsman Center reached its capacity for the first time all season, all thanks to Kevin Young's Cougars.
In contrast, BYU's most recent home game against Arizona State tallied 18,009 attendees.
The Utes' home environment was, admittedly, phenomenal on Saturday night. Loud, energetic, and fueling the home team to their best performance to this point in the year, one can't help but wonder why the basketball program doesn't receive the type of support that Utah's football program seems to draw on a weekly basis. Truth be told, I believe the Huntsman Center could be one of the toughest road environments in the Big 12.
But without BYU in the building, it's been a hollow shell of an arena. Data like this only feeds the narrative that many Ute fans are haters of BYU first, and supporters of their own team second.
Utah has invested a great deal into its program, mirroring BYU's acquisition of Kevin Young by hiring head coach Alex Jensen, a former experienced assistant coach for the Dallas Mavericks and Utah Jazz, to inject new life into the program during the NIL era.
But early returns suggest that fan support simply hasn't been adequate to elevate the program to that next step. If support arrives before victory, the Utah Runnin' Utes have a long journey ahead of them.