1,000 sunrises. 1,000 sunsets. 1,000 calendar pages turned.
That's what we've experienced since BYU last lost a conference game, back on November 19, 2005. That's pretty remarkable. However, it's not the first time BYU has gone this long without losing a conference game.
Between a 39-38 loss to Air Force on September 25, 1982 (the inagural kickoff in the expanded Cougar Stadium) and the 23-16 nighmare at UTEP on October 26, 1985, 1,127 days elapsed. BYU would need a third consecutive undefeated season to accomplish that (in which case they would shatter the record and get to at least about 1,400 days).
All of this got me thinking about how much Bronco stresses consistently winning within the conference. Even though the team has BCS aspirations and dreams of national prominence, Bronco is always quick to point out that in the National Championship year of 1984, BYU completed its 9th consecutive conference title. Especially in the non-BCS conferences, you've got to prove dominance over a number of years. And BYU did that in the 70's and 80's. Here's the conference loss totals from 1976-1985: 1, 1, 1, 0, 1, 1, 1, 0, 0, and 1. (I promise that's not some sort of binary code - they never lost more than 1 game in a season.) That's 7 conference losses in 10 years. Pretty amazing. Then during the next 11 years, BYU only lost 16 conference games. So 23 losses in 21 years (1976-1996). That's dominance. (By comparison, Gary Crowton lost more than half that many - 12 - in just 3 years.)
Bronco is right on in putting the emphasis on winning, and dominating, the conference. The Cougars have done it two years straight. Here's to one more.
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