Colorado State did one important thing before Saturday’s game was even over: it named the behavior plainly and apologized to the people who had to hear it.
An anti-Latter-day Saint chant came predominantly from the student section before BYU’s 41-23 win at Canvas Stadium, according to Associated Press reporter Pat Graham. CSU issued a statement late in the fourth quarter apologizing to BYU, its athletes and fans, and members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
“Mocking anyone’s faith has no place at CSU,” the statement said. “BYU’s players, coaches and fans deserved better. We are addressing this with our students.”
That was fast, specific and better than pretending a full stadium somehow made nobody responsible. It also leaves one sentence unfinished. What does “addressing this” mean after the press box statement is gone?
CSU already has an answer in its published football game-day policy. The school says profanity and intimidating actions directed at athletes, coaches or team representatives are grounds for removal. It also says an ejected fan’s attendance and student tickets will be suspended for at least 12 months.
The useful next step is not a harsher apology. It is a visible connection between Saturday’s conduct and the rules CSU already wrote.
Sitake refused the easiest kind of outrage
Kalani Sitake was given an opening to turn the incident into a story about BYU gaining emotional fuel. He declined.
“I think the chants, mostly a minority of people and fans,” Sitake told reporters after the game. “There’s some amazing fans here in Fort Collins, so not too worried about that.”
He added that BYU would not judge an entire fan base by the people responsible for the chant. That distinction matters. Condemning religious bigotry does not require declaring every Colorado State student or alumnus guilty. In fact, a blanket accusation would make the school’s job harder by inviting thousands of uninvolved fans to defend themselves instead of asking what happened in their section.
Sitake’s answer was generous, but it was not an acquittal. A minority can still create the sound that visiting players and families hear. The institution responsible for the venue still has to respond.
LJ Martin offered the football version. He said the Cougars were self-motivated, then acknowledged that silencing the noise with their play was enjoyable. His three first-quarter touchdowns did that quickly. BYU led 21-7 after one quarter and 31-7 at halftime.
The game itself deserves its own analysis: 332 rushing yards, 559 total yards and a road win that moved BYU to 3-0. The chant should not erase what the players accomplished. The score should not erase what visitors were asked to absorb before kickoff, either.
Both facts fit on the same page.
The timing made CSU’s apology stronger
Most institutional apologies arrive after a video circulates, public pressure builds and a communications office has time to polish every verb. CSU distributed its statement during the game.
That does not solve the problem, but it tells us officials did not need a news cycle to decide whether mocking a religion crossed the line. They heard enough, reached a conclusion and put the school’s name behind it while the teams were still on the field.
The statement also identified the harmed groups. It did not hide behind a vague regret that “some fans may have been offended.” CSU apologized to BYU, its student-athletes and fans, and members of the church. It said they deserved better.
Those are meaningful choices. There is still a gap between acknowledging harm and preventing a repeat.
CSU’s game-day policy gives the school more than a values statement. It gives staff a standard for intervention and a stated consequence. If the school can identify students who led or continued the chant, it should apply that policy consistently. If the section was too large or the available evidence is too poor to identify individuals fairly, CSU should say what it changed for the next home game: student-section reminders, visible conduct rules, quicker warnings from event staff or an in-stadium announcement that stops the behavior while it is happening.
A public list of punished students is neither necessary nor wise. A public explanation of the process would be useful. Accountability can protect student privacy and still show visiting fans that the words “we are addressing this” led somewhere.
This is a repeat problem, not a Fort Collins invention
Colorado State did not invent this chant. That is precisely why the response cannot stop at treating Saturday as a strange one-night failure.
Deseret News reporting has documented apologies after similar incidents involving USC, Oregon, Providence and Cincinnati. The Big 12 fined Colorado $50,000 after religious slurs during BYU’s 2025 football visit to Boulder. In February 2026, the conference fined Oklahoma State $50,000 after investigating a chant that referenced the Latter-day Saint faith during a men’s basketball game against BYU.
Those cases do not make Colorado State less responsible. They show that schools hosting BYU have enough warning to prepare before the crowd arrives.
CSU also sits in a different enforcement structure. The Rams officially joined the Pac-12 on July 1, so the Big 12 penalties against Colorado and Oklahoma State are precedent for BYU’s conference peers, not an automatic penalty schedule for CSU. The immediate responsibility belongs to Colorado State and, if it chooses to act, the Pac-12.
That distinction is worth keeping clean. Calling for a Big 12 fine here would sound forceful while asking the wrong conference to police another league’s member.
The more useful question is whether athletic departments can recognize the pattern early enough to prevent it. BYU’s national schedule and faith affiliation are not surprises. Neither is the way a profane rivalry chant can mutate from attacking a team into attacking a religious group that includes people far beyond that team’s roster.
Fans are free to dislike BYU. They can boo the Cougars, mock a play call, complain about a flag and make Canvas Stadium miserable for a visiting offense. College football would be worse if every road crowd behaved like a library.
Religion is not a play call. Once the target changes from the team to a faith and its members, the chant has left ordinary sports hostility behind.
The next home game is the first test
Colorado State hosts Oregon State on Oct. 3 in its first Pac-12 football game. That is the practical deadline for showing what Saturday changed.
Nobody needs a solemn pregame ceremony. Fans need clear expectations, event staff empowered to act and a student section that understands the line before somebody tests it. CSU’s existing policy already says removal and a minimum 12-month ticket suspension are available. The school does not need to invent a consequence after the fact.
BYU has its own next assignment. After the bye week, the Cougars visit TCU on Oct. 3. The permanent TCU game center still lists the kickoff time and television assignment as TBA, and the football schedule will update when BYU publishes them.
Sitake’s team can move on because it handled the football part. Martin ran for 176 yards, BYU controlled the line of scrimmage, and the Cougars left Fort Collins with their first road win of the season. Sitake also did Colorado State a favor by separating a bad section of the crowd from the whole fan base.
CSU should accept the grace without using it as an escape hatch.
The apology was prompt. The policy is already written. Now the school has to make those two things meet before the next crowd fills Canvas Stadium.
Sources and further reading
- Associated Press, Sept. 20: Colorado State apologizes to BYU for the timing and text of CSU’s statement, the student-section context, and the directly sourced Sitake and Martin responses.
- Deseret News, Sept. 19: Colorado State fans shouted an offensive chant directed at BYU for the statement as distributed in the press box, prior incidents, the 2025 Colorado penalty, the 2026 Oklahoma State penalty and Brett Yormark’s comments about student-section education.
- Colorado State football game-day guide for the published sportsmanship policy, grounds for removal and minimum 12-month suspension of attendance and student tickets after ejection.
- Colorado State Athletics, July 1: Rams officially join the Pac-12 for CSU’s current conference membership and first Pac-12 football date.
- BYU Athletics: 41-23 win at Colorado State and Colorado State Athletics’ game account for the game result, first-half sequence, Martin’s rushing line and each team’s postgame football context.
- Associated Press, Sept. 30, 2025: Big 12 fines Colorado and Big 12’s 2026 Oklahoma State action for the two $50,000 conference precedents discussed above.
