the first intercollegiate athletic event in the school's history took place on november 25, 1892, when the agriculturalists defeated the football team from the university of utah, 12-0. the football program has a rich history (merlin olsen and phil olsen are alumni) throughout the mid-20th century, but has struggled lately, following two ill-fated stints as an independent program and two more years in the geographically distant sun belt conference, after the big west conference, which had housed the aggies since 1978, elected to stop sponsoring football in 2001. usu's other teams remained in that conference until the school was invited to join the western athletic conference (wac) in 2005. usu had lobbied to join its in-state rivals utah and byu in the wac for many decades prior to 2005, but were only allowed in after the two other schools had left to form the mountain west conference. subsequently both utah and byu departed the mountain west conference and usu was invited to join that conference, where they currently reside.