The last time there was a major reshuffling of conference affiliations in college football, Craig Thompson, commissioner of the Mountain West Conference, saw trouble ahead. “You watch what’s going to happen,” he told Deseret News reporter Dirk Facer in 2010. “This is going to destroy a lot of the old rivalries.”

And so it has.

Thompson has tracked the damage. He estimates that about one-third of rivalries that were 75 years old or older are finished or played on a sporadic basis. This includes several rivalries that had consisted of more than 100 games — Missouri-Kansas (the second oldest rivalry in the country, with 120 games), Missouri-Nebraska, Kansas-Nebraska (the longest uninterrupted rivalry — 105 consecutive years — until it ended in 2011), Texas-Texas A&M, Baylor-Texas A&M, Iowa State-Nebraska, Nebraska-Missouri, Iowa State-Missouri, Pitt-West Virginia.

Other great rivalries also have ended or been suspended: Nebraska-Oklahoma, Pitt-Penn State and BYU-Utah, to name three. The Colorado-Colorado State rivalry will disband when their contract ends in 2020.

Surveying the damage recently, Thompson said, “What have we done?”

It’s a sad turn of events, especially to the generations that grew up with such rivalries. But the game is big business now, which is to say money, which requires exposure, which requires the right conference, which means leaving some fine old traditions in the dust.

The BYU-Utah series — 95 games old — was one of the casualties. This will mark the second season they won’t meet on the football field; they are scheduled to resume their rivalry in 2016, 2017 and 2018. This week it was reported that the schools are discussing extending the series to 2022.

But that means something has to give, and it looks like the Utah-Utah State rivalry will end, at least as an annual event. It's the 14th oldest rivalry in the nation at 111 games, dating back to 1892, but the series was already on life support. They have played only twice in the last five years. The Utes and Aggies will play again this season and then there are no more scheduled games after that.

“It’s up in the air,” says Chris Hill, the Utes’ athletic director. “Nothing is on the books. I haven’t had a chance to talk to their new AD.”

And then he takes a deep breath and explains for the umpteenth time why Utah — as well as many other Power 5 schools — end such rivalries.

“I’ve said this so many times that nobody listens; they fall asleep,” says Hill. This is what he says (try to stay awake): Utah, he claims, is the only school in the country that plays nine league games and two in-state, non-conference rivals.

“Nobody does that!” he says. “NOBODY.”

Actually, Big 12 teams also play nine conference games (but to Hill’s point, they don’t have two in-state/non-conference rivals clamoring for a piece of them), and next year the Big Ten will require nine games. Even teams in the other Power 5 conferences that play only eight conference games are mandated to play a ninth game against an opponent from another Power 5 conference. What all this means is that teams have only three games to schedule at their own discretion.

It’s no secret that schools try to schedule an easy non-conference game or two because in the college game it's considered a no-win situation to do otherwise. Not long ago, Utah State was one of those patsy games. As Hill says, “Utah State is good now.” The Aggies are top-25 good. Hill believes it’s overly ambitious to ask the Utes to play nine Pac-12 games, plus USU and BYU.

“That’s 11 tough, emotionally draining games,” says Hill “Who does that?”

It also doesn’t leave much room on the schedule for a game against a Power 5 non-conference opponent (such as the Utah-Michigan game this season).

“It doesn’t make any sense never to play USU again,” says Hill. “I’m trying to figure out what makes sense.”

He makes a point of noting that USU plays Wake Forest in a two-for-one series — two away games, one home game. USU has not agreed to such an arrangement with Utah in the past, but clearly Hill feels the Utes are in a position to dictate terms and those might be acceptable terms.

Legislatures in a handful of states have attempted to pass laws that force the resumption of certain rivalries. Decades ago, a number of rivalries resumed after threats from the state legislature. But Thompson is probably right when he says, regretfully, “You can’t put the genie back in the bottle.” Times have changed. Consider Utah: Only a few years ago, Washington State was the Utes' big non-conference game. Now it’s one of the easier conference games on their schedule.

“People want it to be both ways,” says Hill. “They’re excited to be in a new league, but they want the old ways. You can’t do it both ways.”

Doug Robinson's columns run on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Email: drob@deseretnews.com