Colorado fined for fans’ bad behaviour at game against BYU

[Calm]

Quote

A precedent has been set for Big 12 teams that continue to use a profane chant directed at BYU and members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints moving forward.

The Big 12 announced Tuesday morning that it has levied a $50,000 fine and publicly reprimanded the University of Colorado for the use of what it called an "inappropriate" chant by several fans about the Cougars and its sponsoring institution.

The chant, one of at least six that has spread across the country during BYU football and men's basketball games since 2021, could be heard over the ESPN broadcast on at least one occasion, with some half-dozen attempts at calls for "(expletive) BYU" and "(expletive) the Mormons" easily audible among the fans at Folsom Field during then-No. 25 BYU's 24-21 win over the Buffaloes.

The Big 12 referred to the chant as a violation of the league's principles and standards of sportsmanship, officials said in a short statement released Tuesday morning. Colorado's chancellor and athletic director apologized and condemned the "expletives and religious slurs" used during the game in a statement late Sunday night.

"Hateful and discriminatory language has no home in the Big 12 Conference," Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark said. "While we appreciate Colorado apologizing for the chants that occurred in the stands during Saturday's game, the Big 12 maintains zero tolerance for such behavior."

Colorado athletic director Rick George released a statement in response to the league action saying the school "respect the conference's decision, and we take responsibility for the behavior exhibited at the game."

"On behalf of our athletic department and the university, I want to apologize to BYU and the entire Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints community," he said. "Chancellor Schwartz and I also apologized personally to our counterparts at BYU on Saturday night and again on Sunday.

https://www.ksl.com/article/51383254/colorado-fined-reprimanded-for-inappropriate-chants-against-byu

Rival fans have been vulgarly aggressive against BYU for a long time.  Glad something significant has been done (might have been done before and I can’t remember).  Hopefully this will cause fans to reconsider, knowing they are likely to hurt their own teams more than BYU.

PS:  changed title to give more info and remove error as it was Saturday, not Monday (my husband shared the info with me and is a bit under the weather and I can’t remember never track time)

Edited September 30, 2025 by Calm

[ZealouslyStriving]

3 minutes ago, Calm said:

https://www.ksl.com/article/51383254/colorado-fined-reprimanded-for-inappropriate-chants-against-byu

Rival fans have been vulgarly aggressive against BYU for a long time.  Glad something significant has been done (might have been done before and I can’t remember).  Hopefully this will cause fans to reconsider, knowing they are likely to hurt their own teams more than BYU.

Interesting that with the exception of Providence, the chants have mainly come from former Pac 10/12 teams... Oregon, ASU, Colorado.

Starting to realize why that failed Conference was always recalcitrant to allow BYU in. 

 

[bluebell]

22 minutes ago, Calm said:

https://www.ksl.com/article/51383254/colorado-fined-reprimanded-for-inappropriate-chants-against-byu

Rival fans have been vulgarly aggressive against BYU for a long time.  Glad something significant has been done (might have been done before and I can’t remember).  Hopefully this will cause fans to reconsider, knowing they are likely to hurt their own teams more than BYU.

PS:  changed title to give more info and remove error as it was Saturday, not Monday (my husband shared the info with me and is a bit under the weather and I can’t remember never track time)

I was so excited when I read that the school had been fined. Not that I think the school itself needed to be fine, but there’s no way to find the people who did it so the school have to suffice.  The students who do it are just so incredibly stupid, since they are probably insulting members of their own team and definitely some in their own student body.  If you can’t convince people not to be stupid then at least you can fine them for it.  😁
 

[Calm]

13 minutes ago, bluebell said:

I was so excited when I read that the school had been fined. Not that I think the school itself needed to be fined, but there’s no way to find the people who did it so the school have to suffice.
 

And this means the school just won’t let it happen again and apologize afterwards.  They can find the people doing it while they are still at the game chanting away or otherwise being too much of a jerk.

Quote

In collaboration with our campus stakeholders, we are currently reviewing our policies with respect to fan behavior to ensure that Folsom Field is a welcoming place for every fan and that those who do not live up to our standards are held accountable. When we implement those changes, we will communicate them publicly. Any patron who is found to have violated our fan code of conduct, including engaging in derogatory chants, will face a series of consequences up to and including a ban from future home games."

 

[Calm]

34 minutes ago, ZealouslyStriving said:

Interesting that with the exception of Providence, the chants have mainly come from former Pac 10/12 teams... Oregon, ASU, Colorado.

Starting to realize why that failed Conference was always recalcitrant to allow BYU in. 

 

I don’t watch sports and only follow by other people mentioning something (missing Garden Girl, she often gave me a conversation starter with my husband, lol), so am clueless about how sports fans usually act outside of knowing soccer (the true football) fans can be lethal worldwide (common story plot for the international police procedurals I watch these days).  Is BYU the only school that receives this type of treatment from multiple schools (not interested in one on one traditional rivalries) or are there other schools that get this treatment or is it even pretty ubiquitous, the difference with BYU is bringing religion into it due to being a religious school?

[ZealouslyStriving]

8 minutes ago, Calm said:

I don’t watch sports and only follow by other people mentioning something (missing Garden Girl, she often gave me a conversation starter with my husband, lol), so am clueless about how sports fans usually act outside of knowing soccer (the true football) fans can be lethal worldwide (common story plot for the international police procedurals I watch these days).  Is BYU the only school that receives this type of treatment from multiple schools (not interested in one on one traditional rivalries) or are there other schools that get this treatment or is it even pretty ubiquitous, the difference with BYU is bringing religion into it due to being a religious school?

As far as I know the only other religious colleges or universities large enough to have major sports are entirely Christian- so I don't believe they are having issues other than traditional animosities and rivalries.

[Calm]

31 minutes ago, ZealouslyStriving said:

As far as I know the only other religious colleges or universities large enough to have major sports are entirely Christian- so I don't believe they are having issues other than traditional animosities and rivalries.

So you think the PAC 12 is an antimormon Christian vibe?  Fundamentalist Evangelical or something else?

Edited October 1, 2025 by Calm

[ZealouslyStriving]

5 minutes ago, Calm said:

So you think the PAC 12 is an antimormon Christian vibe?  Fundamentalist Evangelical or something else?

Oh no, quite the opposite!

Edited October 1, 2025 by ZealouslyStriving

[bsjkki]

Coach Prime. 

Schools who have put out apology statements following chants/inappropriate behavior against BYU in the past five years: USC (2021) Oregon (2022) Stanford (2022) Providence (2024) Arizona (2025) Colorado (2025)

[Calm]

1 hour ago, ZealouslyStriving said:

Oh no, quite the opposite!

Understanding I am clueless when talking about sports, could you be explicit then why you think there is the animosity against BYU from multiple schools in the Big 12?  And this is one area of possible apologetics I have ignored except for what has been written on the board and I don’t remembering this being covered though animosity in sports has been mentioned.

 

Edited October 1, 2025 by Calm

[ZealouslyStriving]

7 minutes ago, bsjkki said:

Coach Prime. 

Schools who have put out apology statements following chants/inappropriate behavior against BYU in the past five years: USC (2021) Oregon (2022) Stanford (2022) Providence (2024) Arizona (2025) Colorado (2025)

5 out of 6... Pac 12 or former Pac 12 teams.

[ZealouslyStriving]

4 minutes ago, Calm said:

Understanding I am clueless when talking about sports, could you be explicit then why you think there is the animosity against BYU from multiple schools in the Big 12?  And this is one area of possible apologetics I have ignored except for what has been written on the board and I don’t remembering this being covered though animosity in sports has been mentioned.

 

The Big 12 teams expressing the most animosity are former Pac 12 teams. It would require a history lesson on the Pac 12 and it's relationship to BYU.

[bluebell]

6 minutes ago, Calm said:

Understanding I am clueless when talking about sports, could you be explicit then why you think there is the animosity against BYU from multiple schools in the Big 12?  And this is one area of possible apologetics I have ignored except for what has been written on the board and I don’t remembering this being covered though animosity in sports has been mentioned.

 

I assumed it was because BYU is a good team and they don't like to lose to them. But I really have no idea about college football so maybe I made that up.

[Calm]

11 minutes ago, bluebell said:

I assumed it was because BYU is a good team and they don't like to lose to them

That is the only thing that ever occurred to me.

[The Nehor]

So how does this work in practice? They have to stop the fans? Or screen out fans that use chants like this?

[Calm]

12 minutes ago, The Nehor said:

So how does this work in practice? They have to stop the fans? Or screen out fans that use chants like this?

My understanding is if security hears or someone reports it, they would pull the person out. This is what has happened or said should have happened in a couple of incidents I remember hearing about.

They aren’t giving specifics besides banning forever from games iirc.  I assume that means their picture goes up in the office or maybe at entry points or just on their phone to be checked if thought necessary by the gate and security people on top of them gettimg familiar with the face as well as a red flag going off if someone uses his name/card to buy tickets.

But we are talking about a lot of fans if I understand correctly.  They would have to stop the game I am thinking.  And pay for a lot more security because the fans aren’t going to be happy and numbers tend to mean more willingness to resist typically.

Edited October 1, 2025 by Calm

[Pyreaux]

I don't want them to have ban paying fans on mass. I'd feel better if they could instead offset the fine by passing on the fine on to the fans at the risk of a ban, they can catch some of the consequence.

Edited October 1, 2025 by Pyreaux

[bluebell]

49 minutes ago, Calm said:

My understanding is if security hears or someone reports it, they would pull the person out. This is what has happened or said should have happened in a couple of incidents I remember hearing about.

They aren’t giving specifics besides banning forever from games iirc.  I assume that means their picture goes up in the office or maybe at entry points or just on their phone to be checked if thought necessary by the gate and security people on top of them gettimg familiar with the face as well as a red flag going off if someone uses his name/card to buy tickets.

But we are talking about a lot of fans if I understand correctly.  They would have to stop the game I am thinking.  And pay for a lot more security because the fans aren’t going to be happy and numbers tend to mean more willingness to resist typically.

Stopping the game and waiting for the unruly fans to leave before restarting it could be a deterrent, if the fans actually care about their team.  Like Colorado coach Sanders said though, the fans were probably drunk and high, so expecting them to care about anything other than their own fun at that point is probably asking to much.

[Tony uk]

44 minutes ago, bluebell said:

Stopping the game and waiting for the unruly fans to leave before restarting it could be a deterrent, if the fans actually care about their team.  Like Colorado coach Sanders said though, the fans were probably drunk and high, so expecting them to care about anything other than their own fun at that point is probably asking to much.

There has been issues in UK sport, and also across Europe. Mainly in soccer, although last number of years things have settled down. 

Maybe if there could be more family areas in the stadiums. And limit the use of alcohol to specific areas, may help.

[webbles]

2 hours ago, Calm said:

Understanding I am clueless when talking about sports, could you be explicit then why you think there is the animosity against BYU from multiple schools in the Big 12?  And this is one area of possible apologetics I have ignored except for what has been written on the board and I don’t remembering this being covered though animosity in sports has been mentioned.

 

 

2 hours ago, bluebell said:

I assumed it was because BYU is a good team and they don't like to lose to them. But I really have no idea about college football so maybe I made that up.

The PAC-12 conference and other conferences are more than just a sports conference.  The schools in the conference also generally share in other things, such as academics.  The PAC-12 has some really good academic schools and some of them didn't like BYU from an academics point of view.  That, plus the fact that BYU is on the conservative side of the equation and is really religious, it basically killed any chance of the PAC-12 accepting them.  They had no problem with playing BYU, and during the independence years, they were one of the more common opponents for BYU (even if you ignore UofU).

There are Big-12 schools that also have issues with BYU.  Iowa State's student body leadership complained about accepting BYU into the Big-12 (https://www.amestrib.com/story/news/2021/10/01/iowa-state-student-leaders-complain-big-12-conference-added-byu-without-input-homophobic-policies/5945731001/).

Cursing and swearing at a football game or other sports game is pretty normal throughout the country.  A recent famous case occurred in a game between Missouri and Kansas.  A student from Missouri had the chance to kick a field goal and win some money.  Instead, he lifted up his shirt which revealed "f ku" and then kicked the ball at the Kansas sideline.  Both Missouri fans and Kansas fans have applauded him for his action because it showed how important the rivalry was.  The problem with BYU is that it almost always brings in religion.  Instead of cursing BYU, they curse the Mormons.  This also occurs a few times to UofU as well since Utah = Mormons to a lot of people.  If the opposing fans just stuck to cursing BYU or the cougars, I doubt there would be any issue.  But when the religion comes into play, that is where they cross the lines.

[california boy]

2 hours ago, Calm said:

Understanding I am clueless when talking about sports, could you be explicit then why you think there is the animosity against BYU from multiple schools in the Big 12?  And this is one area of possible apologetics I have ignored except for what has been written on the board and I don’t remembering this being covered though animosity in sports has been mentioned.

 

When it was first announced that BYU was going to be a part of the Big 12, I thought it was inevitable that students from other schools were going to have a problem with a Mormon school and all it represents play against them.  
 

Did anyone else really not see the problems this was going to cause given the way BYU treats their LGBT students???  Not even allowing them to hold hands, date, kiss etc. etc. etc.  

How do you think you would feel if you were sitting on a stadium playing BYU and being LGBT?  Don’t you think you would want to yell out * BYU. * the Mormons?  Especially if you knew someone who was struggling with LGBT issues who was Mormon and maybe their family no longer has anything to do with them?  
 

You might not like it.  And it might not be good sportsmanship, but would that really matter to you if you knew someone or were struggling with this issue?  

 

This fine is not going to stop this behavior.  People hurt too much to not lash out. Especially college age kids.  

[webbles]

3 minutes ago, california boy said:

When it was first announced that BYU was going to be a part of the Big 12, I thought it was inevitable that students from other schools were going to have a problem with a Mormon school and all it represents play against them.  
 

Did anyone else really not see the problems this was going to cause given the way BYU treats their LGBT students???  Not even allowing them to hold hands, date, kiss etc. etc. etc.

Iowa State's student body leadership did put out a statement to stop the invitation and it was because of the LGBTQ treatment - https://www.amestrib.com/story/news/2021/10/01/iowa-state-student-leaders-complain-big-12-conference-added-byu-without-input-homophobic-policies/5945731001/.  They have no real power so it didn't change anything, but it was an attempt.

[Calm]

2 hours ago, Pyreaux said:

I don't want them to have ban paying fans on mass. I'd feel better if they could instead offset the fine by passing on the fine on to the fans at the risk of a ban, they can catch some of the consequence.

How would they do that without also penalizing fans who did not cause issues?

If caught, allow them to stay if they pay a fine?  Perhaps just once or keep doubling the fine each time because some people have too much money on their hands, though unlikely to be spending it by attending games and indulging in vulgarity. 

Edited October 1, 2025 by Calm

[Calm]

Quote

The schools in the conference also generally share in other things, such as academics.  The PAC-12 has some really good academic schools and some of them didn't like BYU from an academics point of view.  That, plus the fact that BYU is on the conservative side of the equation and is really religious, it basically killed any chance of the PAC-12 accepting them. 

So in looking for the back story before you posted (I will admit I would have probably not looked to doublecheck like a good little poster if you had posted earlier as I find you a trustworthy analyst and I am just not interested in sports culture 😛 ), I came across this opinion.  Do you disagree that they would have jumped at the chance of Notre Dame wanting to join and if not, what about with their comparison of Notre Dame and BYU as both conservative, both religious, and both lacking in research? And if not, what in addition to those things contributed to BYU not being a good fit?

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/398103-byu-is-not-wanted-in-the-pac-10-due-to-discrimination

This article led me to chalk it up mainly to the same thing that results in things like the Pew survey where we are the most disliked for whatever reason (in the past it was until someone gets to actually know a Saint that is, wondering why that has changed now…could make some guesses, but that would be pure speculation at this point).

Hmmm…might start a thread on the change.

Edited October 1, 2025 by Calm

[Pyreaux]

59 minutes ago, Calm said:

How would they do that without also penalizing fans who did not cause issues?

If caught, allow them to stay if they pay a fine?  Perhaps just once or keep doubling the fine each time because some people have too much money on their hands, though unlikely to be spending it by attending games and indulging in vulgarity. 

That's what I mean. Unless the fine was money that won't be missed, the costs will get passed along to fans somehow.