In the past few months since Utah made the jump to the Pac-10, I’ve received countless e-mails calling me everything from simply jealous of the Utes to the dirtiest of words only Brigham Young U. haters could come up with.

However, I truly don’t feel like I have much to be jealous of right now. During the past five years, including the tenure of both Kyle Whittingham and Bronco Mendenhall, BYU has recorded four consecutive 10-win seasons and has beat Utah in three of the five rivalry matchups.

Yes, Utah went to the Sugar Bowl and won. I congratulate them on beating Alabama. However, that BCS-busting season is the only one in which Whittingham has finished higher than third in the Mountain West Conference. So yes, the Utes went to a BCS conference, but frankly I’d like to always be competitive in my conference instead of winning it big once.

Whittingham has another stat line to which Mendenhall cannot lay claim. In his five years as head coach, Whittingham has lost to every single team in the MWC at least once, losing to New Mexico and Air Force twice and three times to BYU. In all he’s totaled 12 conference losses. Mendenhall, on the other hand, has only lost to TCU, San Diego State and Utah. Am I supposed to be jealous of Whittingham’s ability to lose to the bottom feeders of the conference?

Several Utah officials have talked a lot about the team’s stellar record against the Pac-10, but as I look at it the Utes, under Whittingham, are 3-3, winning two games at home and going 1-3 on the road. BYU isn’t much better at 3-2 overall and 1-2 on the road, but at least it’s a winning record. I guess I can’t classify myself as jealous on that point, either.

I am not arguing in any way that Utah does not have a successful program. In fact, I congratulate the school and the athletic department on the success that they’ve had. However, to suggest that I be jealous of that is entirely laughable. I suppose the only thing that I could be jealous of is the Pac-10 moneys the program will receive a few years down the line once it becomes a full-fledged member of the Pac-10.

But I’m still not jealous.

Unlike others whose e-mails I’ve read and to which I’ve responded honestly, I feel no need to value my program in comparison to others. My sports allegiances have never been, and will never be for that matter, dependant upon the successes and actions of other teams. It takes a special amount of personal insecurity to determine one’s self worth in such a way.

Mendenhall has built BYU’s program on the religious principles upon which the university was founded. He’s not looking at Utah for cues or wishing he could be on the hill. Mendenhall’s goals are to make the team into a consistently successful program full of respectable young men instead of just athletes. As far as I can tell he’s succeeded in every way in those goals, and any thought that Whittingham’s perceived success could in anyway diminish Mendenhall’s is again laughable.

While Mendenhall is focused on preparing his team for the upcoming season, Whittingham started off his camp by weeding out Jan Jorgensen, a former BYU football player and current media member, from the crowd of media covering Ute camp. I don’t want to allude to Max Hall’s post-game comments too much, but there are few things that Whittingham could’ve done that day that would have been more classless or would have fit better into Hall’s assessment of the Utah football program.

In all, I respect Whittingham for who he is and what he’s been able to do at Utah. However, I am not, nor will I ever be jealous of the Utes or anything they do. I’m far too focused on doing the best I can in the world to be constantly looking over my shoulder at someone else.

So go ahead, ask me what I feel about Utah leaving the MWC.

I don’t.