The Colorado Buffaloes are reeling after a 24-21 loss to BYU over the weekend dropped Deion Sanders's squad to 2-3 on the season. On Tuesday, more consequences from the defeat were revealed.
Colorado was hit with a $50,000 fine by the Big 12 for the vulgar, anti-BYU chants that came from Buffaloes fans during the game. Commissioner Brett York said that "hateful and discriminatory language has no home in the Big 12 Conference" and there is "zero tolerance for such behavior" from the fans.
Colorado and Sanders both already apologized for the chants, which were reportedly aimed at BYU and Mormons.
"The University of Colorado Boulder strongly condemns the use of expletives and religious slurs by individuals in the stands during the recent football game against BYU," Colorado chancellor Justin Schwartz and athletic director Rick George said in a statement on Sunday. “Such behavior is deeply disappointing and does not reflect the values of respect, inclusion and integrity we expect of our campus community."
Sanders denied any knowledge of the chants in his initial comments but apologized on behalf of the school and fanbase during his weekly press conference on Tuesday.
"On behalf of CU, on behalf of our athletic department, we would like to apologize to our opponents from a week ago for whatever derogatory statements were made by our fans," Sanders said, via KDVR. "That’s not indicative of who we are, our student body, our kids are phenomenal. So don’t indict us, just based on a group of young kids that probably was intoxicated and high simultaneously."
Colorado next plays TCU on Saturday.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Big 12 Fines Colorado $50K for 'Inappropriate' Chants During Loss to BYU .
