BY-Who? Oh, that’s the school on the North Shore, right?

That’s where some younger University of Hawaii football fans stand.

To them, losing the Cougars from the UH football schedule is less of a tragedy than if TBS canceled "Cougar Town."

Even when it was a rivalry, it was kind of one-sided — although the current UH coach might disagree with that; Norm Chow, who ran the BYU offense in a prior life, was definitely invested.

It means a lot to those of us old enough to remember all those losses — 10 in a row — and then, finally, 56-14 and 59-28 wins in 1989 and 1990. The games that made Garrett Gabriel a legend.

Who can forget Jeff Sydner’s stiff-arm pose, mocking the Heisman Trophy won by Ty Detmer prior to the game?

The thing is, a lot of fans can’t forget it because they didn’t see it. That was 23 years ago — or more than 8,000 24-hour news cycles ago. An eternity at the fast pace things move at these days.

The angst and redemption of the BYU series used to be one of the major themes of UH sports. But emphasis on WAS. Even 2001, when the Warriors crushed the Cougars 72-45 seems a very long time ago.

Recent history is bad, BYU ushering Greg McMackin out and Norm Chow in as UH coach with bitter defeats. Enough to incite the Warrior World fan base for more revenge? There’s some, but not real vocal.

Younger fans are more excited about continuing to direct their ire at Boise State since the Broncos are retracing their steps to the Mountain West back from the Big East.

At least the Cougars can’t use playing here as a recruiting carrot to lure some of the top Hawaii high school players like Chow did. How much that helps is debatable, since a lot more schools raid Hawaii for the current-day Kurt Gouveias and Micah Matsuzakis.

The bigger loss for UH is financial, not emotional.

Athletic director Ben Jay said he wants a baker’s dozen games as allowed by the Hawaii exemption, but prospects are iffy.

"Not good, but I’m checking to see what’s out there. Norm and I are ready to stand pat on 12 if needed," he said via email. "Scheduling football is just not as easy as people think. Most schools are in their conference season or already have their nonconference games set."

Jay said he’s not very excited about booking an FCS opponent. But with a schedule that also includes hosting USC and games at Navy and Oregon State, maybe a breather from the lower tier isn’t such a bad idea.

UH’s official release said this about any future with BYU: "The schools agreed to look at scheduling a future series."

That’s kind of like the cute girl turning you down for a dinner date but saying, "Maybe lunch sometime."

It’s another indefinite pause to a series that decades ago usually featured unrequited hate from the UH side, since Utah was always BYU’s real rival.

Now, from most of the pre-AARP set of UH fans who aren’t history buffs or accountants? A collective shrug.

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Reach Dave Reardon at dreardon@staradvertiser.com or 529-4783.