BYU says Big 12 ‘looking into’ halftime leak at Arizona State, but focus on beating Houston

PROVO (KSL.com) — No. 19 BYU was trying to move toward snapping a two-game losing skid with a win over Houston in the regular-season finale Saturday, but by Monday morning the Cougars’ 28-23 loss to Arizona State was still on the top of mind.

Many of them saw it on their social media feeds, at least.

Of particular interest was a post by an anonymous TikTok account that appears to include video of the BYU locker room at halftime at Mountain America Stadium, when the Cougars trailed Arizona State 21-3.

No faces were shown, but the recording — which was made by someone wearing a purple wristband given to a number of stadium workers on game day — shows the hallway outside the Cougars’ locker room, with several BYU staff members in royal blue shirts walking through.

It also captured a fiery halftime speech from a player or coach that included a number of profanities and the passion of a team once ranked as high as No. 6 in the College Football Playoff on the brink of a two-game skid that put a Big 12 championship game appearance out of the Cougars’ own control.

BYU head coach Kalani Sitake said the Big 12 Conference was “looking into” the recording, specifically how it was captured and subsequently leaked on the internet before it was spread through large social media influencers by the time players were viewing it late Sunday night.

“They’re reviewing everything that happened in the game — from on the field to the penalties to all these different things, and the incompletion or completion with Chase Roberts (on the final play of the game). They’re handling all of that, and even the recording,” Sitake told local reporters Monday during his weekly media briefing. “They’re looking into all of that stuff. They’ll deal with it.

“I trust the Big 12 leadership and will let them handle that. I’m more focused on what can we do this week and what can we do today to make sure we perform a lot better than we did last weekend.”

Arizona State defensive back Shamari Simmons (7) and defensive lineman Zac Swanson (92) celebrate an interception against BYU during the second half of an NCAA college football game Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024, in Tempe, Ariz. Arizona State won 28-23.

The scene, which can be heard here (warning for profanity), made BYU team captain Connor Pay “want to run through a wall again, around 11:30 last night when I heard it again on my TikTok,” he said.

“Obviously, not super appropriate I don’t think, to have an employee of the school you’re (visiting) take a video of a private team moment like that,” the senior center added. “But at the end of the day, honestly, we don’t care that much.”

Representatives from the Big 12 did not return a request for comment from KSL.com when contacted Monday. But the league did release an update of conference title game tiebreakers Sunday that may be more useful to BYU and its bid for a one of two spots in the conference championship game Dec. 7 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

Those tiebreaker scenarios, which say as many as nine teams are “still in contention” for a spot in the game including the four teams tied for first in the conference at 6-2 in Arizona State, Colorado, BYU and Iowa State, paint a picture of a BYU team that has lost control of its own destiny in playing for a conference title — and a College Football Playoff berth that could go with it — following back-to-back losses to Kansas and Arizona State.

In addition to a win of Houston on Saturday night (8:15 p.m. MST, ESPN), BYU also needs either Arizona State, Iowa State or both to lose in order to clinch a spot in Arlington. If Arizona State loses, BYU would face the Cyclones, and if Iowa State loses, then the Cougars would get a rematch against the Sun Devils.

If all four teams win to improve to 7-2, then Arizona State and Iowa State would play in the Big 12 championship. Colorado would play in the title game if BYU loses to form a three-team tie at 7-2, and the following: Texas Tech defeats West Virginia, Baylor defeats Kansas and Cincinnati defeats TCU.

“I think everybody knows a lot of the different scenarios. All I care about is focusing on the seniors and controlling what we can control,” Sitake said. “The goal has got to go 1-0 this week. That has to be the primary goal, and then we’ll deal with how everything else affects things from there.”