Boise State coach Chris Petersen and BYU coach Bronco Mendenhall said Monday that the 12-year series the schools begin Thursday is too long.

“That’s a lot of years strung together,” Petersen said. “… That’s like they’re in your league, and they’re not in our league.”

Said Mendenhall: “I would probably say the same. How do you know after four (games) what is going to happen or who is going to be where? So I think it’s probably too much.”

Petersen said he doesn’t see a new rivalry developing, either. Boise State has ended its rivalry with Idaho and likely will lose rivals in Nevada and Fresno State as it moves to the Big East next year.

“Our rivals are on the East Coast and in Texas and in San Diego,” Petersen said. “I don’t worry about rivalries. I know it can be healthy and good, but that’s just not where we are right now. Down the line, we’ll have some new ones in a hurry.”

Petersen and Mendenhall are friends. Petersen said he’ll miss being able to talk football with Mendenhall as much now that they play each other.

• COMING THURSDAY: We’ll take a deeper look at the potential rivalry in our Bronco Blitz section.

PETERSEN TO FANS:BRING THE NOISE

BYU struggled with false starts Saturday at Utah. Petersen noticed. “If we can have our people as loud as they’ve ever been, I promise you it will help us,” he said.

BYU quarterback Riley Nelson told The Salt Lake Tribune after Saturday’s game that his teammates would need to be more composed this week.

“We think this was noisy tonight, and we think this crowd was crazy,” Nelson said. “I played up there in Boise when I was a freshman (in 2006), and that crowd brings it.”

TICKETS STILL AVAILABLE

At the end of business Monday, Boise State had about 200 tickets remaining for Thursday’s game — mostly singles. They’re available at the Boise State Athletic Ticket Office (426-4737) and idahotickets.com.

Chadd Cripe: 377-6398, Twitter: @IDS_BroncoBeat