Did the Utes deserve to lose?

The highlight of my weekend was attending the annual BYU-Utah football game/feud. The Utes came from behind, scoring 11 4th quarter points to force overtime. Then BYU quarterback Max Hall played the hero for the 2nd time in 3 years and stuck a dagger in the Utes with a touchdown pass to win the game.

Max Hall had to get some things off his chest after the game. He said he hated the University of Utah, its football program and its fans, they have no class and deserved to lose. Max had a terrible game against the U of U last year, and he put up with an entire year of taunts and insults. His family was also abused at that game. I understand his animosity, and share the sentiment to some extent.

I have my own experience with low-class behavior of U of U fans. I went to a game there and endured three hours of having obscenities yelled at me by drunken fans. When I didn't respond they resorted to throwing trash and food at me and stealing my hat and tossing it around.

Then there's the med school snub (twice). I applied to the U of U, the only state medical school, with excellent MCAT scores and grades and didn't even make the waiting list. It turns out that in the name of diversity they're more interested in filling their class with disproportionate numbers of racial and religious minorities, and being a returned missionary actually hurts your chances. I still went to medical school but had to move out of state and pay 3 or 4 times the amount of tuition. I curse the U of U every month when I write my student loan check.

So does Max have a good point? I also have real issues with their fans and the university itself. On the other hand, I have some good friends and family who have class who are Ute fans and I have no personal experience with the university outside of the medical school. We were right next to the Utah fan section Saturday and they were reasonably well behaved. So while I completely understand the sentiment I think Max should apologize for making such generalizations. That kind of talk only inflames the knuckleheads on both sides and makes it worse for the majority of us who do have class.