College Football: Colorado State condemns hateful fan chants aimed at BYU's faith
The latest incident came during the Cougars’ 41-23 road victory and followed similar episodes in recent seasons
B YU ’s 41-23 victory over Colorado State should have been remembered primarily for another strong performance from an unbeaten team. Instead, the night also produced a familiar and troubling subplot when a section of the home crowd directed a profane anti-Mormon chant toward the Cougars .
The chant of “f*** the Mormons” was heard inside Canvas Stadium during Saturday’s game, prompting Colorado State to issue a formal apology to BYU, its athletes, supporters and members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
“Mocking anyone's faith has no place at CSU,” the university said. “It runs counter to our community's values and to who we are. BYU's players, coaches and fans deserved better. We are addressing this with our students.”
The incident continued a pattern BYU has encountered at road sporting events in recent years, including a similar episode involving Colorado football last season.
Sitake refuses to let small group define Colorado State
BYU coach Kalani Sitake chose not to dwell on the chant after the game and instead made a point of separating the people involved from the wider Colorado State fan base.
“I think the chants [are] mostly a minority of people and fans,” Sitake said. “There's some amazing fans here in Fort Collins, so I'm not too worried about that.”
He added: “We're not going to judge an entire fan base on a few … of the ones that made their chants.”
Sitake later praised the overall atmosphere and said he knew too many good people connected to Colorado State to allow one incident to shape his view of the school.
“Everyone's human and I'm not going to dwell on that,” he said. “I know amazing people that are Colorado State fans and alumni and I'm just going to focus on the beautiful people that are positives.”
His response echoed BYU ’s broader approach to similar incidents.
BYU repeatedly called for religious respect
After comparable chants at previous events, BYU has argued that criticism of its faith reaches far beyond the players and coaches wearing the school’s colors.
“We can all agree that there is certain fan behavior at athletic events that crosses a line,” BYU said in a statement last year. “We would hope that more people could see that disparaging someone's religion crosses that line.”
The school also stressed that members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints can be found throughout college sports, including among opposing fan bases, coaching staffs and athletic departments.
Colorado was fined $50,000 by the Big 12 last year after a similar chant, with commissioner Brett Yormark saying the conference had “zero tolerance” for hateful or discriminatory language.
Other schools, including Oregon, Arizona and Cincinnati , have also apologized after incidents involving BYU teams.
Saturday’s episode therefore felt less like an isolated outburst and more like the latest example of an issue BYU has repeatedly confronted.
