The University of Arizona is apologizing after a “f— the Mormons” chant broke out after a men’s basketball game against Brigham Young University (BYU).
Per CNN, part of Arizona’s fan base appeared to break out into a chant saying “f— the Mormons” after the Wildcats men’s basketball team lost 96-95 to BYU’s Cougars on Saturday, February 22, according to videos shared on social media.
“Following tonight’s men’s basketball game, it was brought to our attention that an unacceptable chant occurred,” Arizona’s athletic director Desireé Reed-Francois said in a statement shared via X on Sunday, February 23.
“On behalf of the University of Arizona Athletic Department, we apologize to BYU, their student-athletes, coaches and fans,” the statement continued. “The chant is not reflective of who we are and should not have happened.”
BYU said the behavior from Arizona’s fans definitely “crosses a line” in a statement provided to Us Weekly.
“We can all agree that there is certain fan behavior at athletic events that crosses a line. We would hope that more people could see that disparaging someone’s religion crosses that line,” BYU’s statement read. “There have been a few highly publicized chants at our road games over the past few years, but really, we hear these types of things often, with a variety of our teams, in a variety of venues.”
The statement continued, “We understand that us having to hear some bad words is a small consideration when viewed in the wide landscape of issues in our country or even in college athletics right now. However, we also believe that words really do matter, and we believe that we as a society should examine anywhere we can eliminate prejudice and hate.”
BYU also noted that members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are not just located in the state of Utah, but in communities all over the country. “There are members of their community, fans of their school and even coaches and student-athletes on their teams who are members of the very faith they are chanting about. Ultimately, it’s our hope that in times of increasing cultural division, athletics can be a mechanism to bring people together in positive ways,” the statement continued. “While we’ll never be able to control the amount of negativity we experience at a road game, we can always control the amount of positivity that we strive to share.”
Per ESPN, BYU was able to clinch the win over Arizona after officials called a foul on Wildcat Trey Townsend (which was met with boos from the crowd), allowing BYU’s Richie Saunders to sink two free throws and bring the score to 95-95, securing the win.
“It’s a bad call. I mean, like, whatever. What am I going to say?” Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd told reporters after the game. “You hate for a game to be decided by that. I mean, [Townsend], I feel horrible for him. Guy didn’t play in the second half. I tightened the rotation. He played good defense. [Saunders] is pivoting, pivoting, pivoting. Throws his shoulder at him. Throws up a shot and falls down. It’s a foul with two seconds to go.”
He added, “Listen, it’s the Big 12. That’s what I’m told. And the guy who called it is one of the best refs. So we’ve got to live with it. But step back. They scored 93 points up to that point on our home court. That’s the problem.”
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