Provo • No date on the sports calendar has captured the state of Utah’s attention more than the annual college football rivalry game between BYU and the University of Utah.

But the series’ popularity has been mostly kept within the state’s borders.

Until now.

The No. 3 Utes will host the ninth-ranked Cougars at 10 a.m. on ABC — a game that pushed No. 7 Texas’ matchup against No. 18 Missouri to ESPN.

“These are the good ol’ days; you are in them right now,” ESPN’s Pete Thamel said of the two top-10 teams from the Beehive State. “If you are a football fan in the state of Utah, these are the glory days. Enjoy it, revel in it, go out, and scream your brains out for four hours on Saturday morning.”

Thamel saw firsthand the passion and fervor for college football in Utah when he joined ESPN’s “College GameDay” crew for consecutive stops in the state, first at BYU and then at the Cougars’ rival up north.

He called the Cougars’ “GameDay” at the central quad at Halls, “as good of an environment” as he’s seen in five years with ESPN, and the overall environment when Utah hosted “looked like an SEC environment.”

But those may just have been appetizers for Saturday in Salt Lake City.

After grinding the state to a standstill most years for the better part of a century, college football’s best-kept secret — what many have called the most underrated rivalry — seems to be out.

The common argument is that the 2026 edition of the rivalry is the biggest in the series’ history, with Big 12 championship and CFP stakes for both sides.

It’s certainly bigger than when both teams were rivals in the Mountain West, Western Athletic or Mountain States conferences.

Or when Utah moved to the Pac-12 and BYU went independent.

“I think [the game] probably got a big boost when they both joined the Big 12,” said Stewart Mandel, editor-in-chief for college football at The Athletic. “It probably suffered a little bit nationally when BYU was an independent because the game didn’t have high stakes outside of the state. But now it has conference championship and Playoff implications.”

Which is why — to the chagrin of many fans — ESPN wanted it for its premier early-window slot.

“As much as I’m sure fans locally hate the 10 a.m. kickoff,” Mandel said, “the noon eastern-time window on ABC is about as big of a spotlight as that game could hope for.”

With household names like BYU quarterback Bear Bachmeier and Utah running back Wayshawn Parker, not to mention two rising stars in coaching in BYU’s Kalani Sitake and Utah’s Morgan Scalley, the choice was (seemingly) a no-brainer.

“There is no question that BYU and Utah have the country’s attention in a way that I think, individually, they’ve had in the last couple of generations,” Thamel said, “but never collectively at the same time like this moment.”

College football has always been about rivalries, whether they be local, regional or national, NBC Sports’ lead college football reporter Nicole Auerbach said.

There is no doubt that BYU joining the Big 12, and Utah following after finding success in the Pac-12, put an extra light on a series as passionate as the one national pundits still call “The Holy War” (even if the nickname is something of a misnomer on a local level).

But the expanded College Football Playoff field adds to the intrigue and magnifies the game’s already significant stakes.

“This was actually one of the hopes of the 12-team CFP,” Auerbach said, “that more games would matter because more teams are in the hunt later in the season. So if you’ve got a big-time rivalry game that also serves as an impactful result for the CFP, it’s a double whammy.”

BYU offensive coordinator Aaron Roderick played in the game — as a “not-very-good wide receiver” under LaVell Edwards from 1996-98, he jokes — and has coached in the game on both sides since his first full-time FBS job at Utah in 2005 and the past nine seasons at his alma mater.

“This is my 23rd rivalry game,” said Roderick, who lives in Salt Lake City, “and it means a lot to me.

“I know how much it means to people in this state, and I love being a part of it,” he added.

The same goes for Sitake, who grew up a BYU fan, played fullback for Edwards and returned to his alma mater after a coaching career that included a decade at the U.

The game has always mattered to Sitake, who has had family members go to school in both red and blue.

When it comes to the game gaining more national relevance, Sitake credits the coaches who built the rivalry, going as far back as Edwards, Ron McBride, Gary Crowton, Urban Meyer, Bronco Mendenhall and Sitake’s mentor Kyle Whittingham.

In short, he thinks the rivalry is finally getting its proper respect.

“It seems like we should’ve been in a power conference a long time ago,” Sitake added cheekily. “It’s going to be a lot of fun. What a great time to be a fan of the University of Utah, and a fan of BYU.”

It might not be the only rivalry this season, either.

At the risk of jumping ahead with three games remaining in the regular season, BYU and Utah could meet again in the Big 12 championship game in Arlington, Texas.

The Friday, Dec. 4, repeat would become even more likely if BYU wins Saturday, setting the stage for the two teams to battle for an automatic berth to the CFP at AT&T Stadium.

Those outside Utah are hoping to see just that.

“The only thing better than the Holy War,” Thamel quipped, “is two Holy Wars.”

One step at a time. But can you imagine?