Since Brigham Young — the university, not the leader — moved on, the University of Hawai'i football team has been looking for someone, anyone, to call its Western Athletic Conference rival.

It has looked in Ruston, La., Fort Worth, Texas, and a half dozen outposts.

Currently, fans point to three possibilities: Fresno State, which UH plays tomorrow at Aloha Stadium, Boise State and San Jose State.

In an effort to clear up the confusion and settle, for the time being, the issue, we offer a checklist of ways to prove that Fresno State is the Warriors' arch rival.

Indeed, you know the Bulldogs are your rival when:

1. Fresno fans have chanted the name of the UH quarterback's mother.

2. A UH team physician once told Fresno hecklers after a lopsided loss: "Yeah, but at least we get to go home to Hawai'i; you have to stay here in Fresno."

3. The Bulldogs' coach refuses to let your media talk to his players the week of the game, two years running.

4. The Bulldogs' coach has said, the games are "only close over here, never at our place."

5. A former Hawai'i TV sportscaster was so upset by not winning that he said on the air: "All this way for a (bleeping) tie."

6. UH players celebrated their first win in Fresno State's campus stadium by stomping on the Bulldog logo and are confronted by the coach.

7. The UH coach later said of the incident: "In my day I would have jacked the guy up. In fact, I was kinda hoping one of our guys would drop him to be quite honest for cursing as he was at our guys."

8. A sportscaster from Hawai'i got in a bloody fight in the stands at Fresno's stadium.

9. Three years after a screwdriver was alleged to have been tossed near one coach it is still a bone of contention with the other coach.

10. Witnesses who actually saw a screwdriver fly from the stands are hard to find but the story has long since become urban legend.

11. A former UH coach once made up a tale about a Fresno coach tying a UH helmet on a rope and dragging it around a Fresno parking lot behind his truck.

13. When the other team wears blue and you see red.

14. A former athletic director once said of a former FSU coach: "I'd just like to punch that bleep in the mouth. Even if I got fired it would be worth it."

15. Your players run through the other team's tunnel and the other team says it helped inspire them to a 70-14 victory.

16. Fresno State's coaches make a policy of searching the plane for playbooks after rumors that one that went missing in the past was given to UH by airline employees.

17. A Fresno State assistant athletic director once said his team was late to the stadium because Honolulu police never showed up to escort the Bulldogs' bus.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8044.