BYU AD Reveals What Happened Behind Closed Doors After Playoff Snub

BYU athletic director Brian Santiago joins John Kurtz to reveal the real story behind BYU’s College Football Playoff snub and what happened behind closed doors at Big 12 meetings.

Santiago says BYU “100%” deserved to be in the playoff conversation and explains how other Big 12 schools stood up for the Cougars, calling BYU’s treatment disrespectful to both the program and the conference.

He also discusses Kalani Sitake’s decision to stay at BYU after interest from Penn State, why he believes Sitake will be in Provo for a long time, and how that situation created even more momentum around BYU football.

Plus, Santiago shares the story behind BYU’s new series with Notre Dame, confirms both schools want the relationship to continue beyond 2027, and explains why BYU’s national rise is only beginning across football, basketball and the entire athletic department.

Topics include:

• The real story behind BYU’s College Football Playoff snub
• Big 12 schools defending BYU behind closed doors
• Why Brian Santiago says BYU unquestionably belonged
• Kalani Sitake choosing BYU over Penn State interest
• Sitake’s long-term future in Provo
• How the Notre Dame football series came together
• Interest in future BYU-Notre Dame games and other sports
• BYU’s growing national brand
• The future of BYU athletics in the Big 12
• The Protect College Sports Act and the future of college athletics

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#BYU #BYUFootball #BYUCougars #CollegeFootball #Big12 #CFBPlayoff #KalaniSitake #NotreDameFootball

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Yeah, 100%. Uh, we deserved uh to be a hundred percent in our minds in the college football playoff.

SPEAKER_01 0:08

Can Brett Your Mark do more on that front? Do you think? Welcome back to Open for Business. I'm John Kurtz, joined now by Brian Santiago, athletic director at uh at BYU. Brian, I appreciate you taking some time again. Good to see you here.

SPEAKER_00 0:19

Happy to jump on you, John.

SPEAKER_01 0:21

What was the biggest lesson or like the biggest welcome to be in the the head honcho in charge moment from the first year for you?

SPEAKER_00 0:27

Well, it's it doesn't take long, and it didn't take long in Provo for me to realize that when challenges come, uh there's only one phone that they're calling. They're not calling uh Tom anymore, they're calling me, and that happened early. Uh, but it was also something I felt like I was prepared for based on having one of the best mentors in the business and Tom Holmwell. Uh, he prepared me for what was gonna come at me, and and uh you just realized real fast that you gotta you gotta be able to stand with confidence in the decisions you're making. And uh it's at BYU, it's certainly helpful to have alignment with up our ladder to the president.

SPEAKER_01 1:08

Yeah, well, and one of those things that you got faced with was you have a head coach that's in demand, right? Kalani's a talkie, uh Penn State comes after him. What was that whole process like for you as you're trying to navigate that and make sure that you can keep your football coach?

SPEAKER_00 1:22

Well, the biggest challenge, John, is it came right in the middle of of you know a storied season when we were making incredible inroads, uh chasing a Big 12 title, and uh the timing of it was a challenge. It was a challenge for sure, it became a very emotional issue for Cougar Nation. But in the end, uh what I'm grateful for is I'm grateful that Colony Satake chose BYU. Yeah, uh certainly there was a lot that went into it, but he chose BYU. He wants to be at BYU, and uh he's gonna be at BYU for a long time. And there was a that was a powerful momentum build for us to to have him tell Cougar Nation, tell the world I'm right where I want to be and and want to carry on uh the chase for excellence at BYU.

SPEAKER_01 2:10

Well, I would imagine too, there's a way you can almost I mean, my take on it was I thought this can be a good thing. It galvanized everybody to support the football program even more, right? I mean, do you feel like it's it's in a better spot because of that?

SPEAKER_00 2:20

Yeah, well, it's it's yeah, it it was in a great spot and it's gonna continue to grow. But one of one of the things that it did is it just kind of launched another level uh of momentum and excitement. Uh certainly was thankful we were able to get it all uh locked in before you know we actually came to the Big 12 championship game. Yeah. But yeah, Cougar Nation as a whole uh loves Kalani, loves our football program and loves the the elevation uh of it to a national stage. Like we're no we're familiar with the national stage. We were national champions in 1984. There's a history of success, but since we've joined the Big 12, there's been a whole nother level of excitement and enthusiasm and elevation of our program. You know, what we've done back to back years, the last two years has been pretty phenomenal, and we're super excited about what's to come.

SPEAKER_01 3:17

Do you guys think about? I know Kalani will never get into this, which I totally understand as the football coach, but you know, I mean, I sit here, I'm like, you guys should have at least been on the graphic, right? On ESPN for the college football playoff and just not in that discussion enough. Like, do you do you sit there and think we've got to try and do something else to get get more attention, more focus, whatever it is?

SPEAKER_00 3:35

Yeah, 100%. Uh, we deserved uh to be a hundred percent in our minds in the college football playoff. For certain, we should have been part of the conversation. Yeah, when you look at all the metrics, when you look at our strength of schedule, when you look at all of it across the board. Uh, in fact, at our most recent league meetings, it wasn't us in the room calling foul, it was the other schools in the conference speaking up, saying what happened was disrespectful to BYU and our conference, uh, that they weren't even getting mentioned as part of the conversation. The thing I love about Kalani is he just says he's it uses it as resolve to be even better so that we don't leave it up to other people. That's why he's a great coach, that's why he's a great leader. And but we as a conference need to continue to elevate. And I liked what uh Brett Yormark talked about. How are we gonna elevate the brand nationally so that we have the respect in the room? Because if you look at the metrics, there was no question we belonged. No question.

SPEAKER_01 4:37

Do you do you have to can Brett Yormark do more on that front? Do you think for the I think the con I think the conference as a whole?

SPEAKER_00 4:44

I think the conference is it continues to elevate the the play. It it always comes down to what happens on the field. And like we talked about, what we could have done is we could have played better against Texas Tech, yeah, in both those games, and then it maybe is a different conversation. But what I do like is the focus of the entire conference to elevate uh the brand, this the play on the field. Uh, we have some of the greatest coaches in the game in the Big 12. And I I think as the conference continues to elevate, it'll take away all those conversations, and people say, whoever it is, we hope it's BYU, but whatever school it is in the conference that's in that same situation, they deserve to be in. And uh that's what we're gonna continue to do is control everything we can control, play great football, put ourselves in a position so that uh if we have an opportunity, we can go take advantage of it.

SPEAKER_01 5:39

Well, one of those games this year is gonna be against Notre Dame, which obviously is a monster opportunity. How did that series get started? Can you take me through the the genesis of like who who called who first?

SPEAKER_00 5:48

Yeah, what what I would tell you is we were we've had very respectful conversations uh with Notre Dame. Uh both of our institutions have a what we look at as a bigger mission, yeah, uh bigger than sport when it comes to faith. We're both faith-based institutions. And uh Pete Bavakwa and I have a great relationship, and we'd had some uh conversations, and there's a very respectful relationship there. And uh we just both agreed that if there was an opening uh and it fit that we would uh we would jump at the chance to to do it, and it just so happened uh that the opening came sooner than we both thought it would. And uh there were some very respectful phone calls between the two of us, and uh we're able to make it happen for this 2026, and then we returned to them in 2027. And what we like is that we're talking about having it continue on into the future between the school two schools because of the faith-based nature of it, because of the two institutions and the and the national relevance of both of our schools. Uh, we we hope that this will continue far into the future, not only in football, but in other sports as well.

SPEAKER_01 6:58

Okay, so yeah, I love that. I was about to follow up and ask that. I mean, that would it would be such a great thing, obviously for you two, but for the conference too, for it to continue. So you think there's there's interest on the Notre Dame side to make it back?

SPEAKER_00 7:07

100%, 100%, and very respectful. And they're hopeful, and we're hopeful that on in multiple sports we can continue into the future and scheduling. We think it's great for both schools.

SPEAKER_01 7:17

You mentioned BYU and how things have elevated here. I mean, with AJ DeBonsa and the the NBA draft and everything that's been happening, like how crazy has been to watch BYU's brand grow over the last, I mean, really, since you guys entered the league, I think is a good time stamp on that, right? Like, how could you have envisioned at that point that it would have grown to the point that it has now?

SPEAKER_00 7:36

Yeah, only because I believe in the mission of this institution. Yeah, uh, and we really stand on the shoulders of some of the greatest coaches and players in the history of sport across the board in all sports. When you start talking about Lavelle Edwards, when you start talking about some of the great quarterbacks and athletes that have come through our football program, the NFL prowess. Uh I I I envisioned it because we've grown with incredible momentum. The the program's elevated, but I I really believe the future is bright. I believe that we're going to continue to climb the mountain. We want to get to the top of the mountain. We want to continue across all sports to compete at the highest level. And you do that by our current coaches standing on the shoulders of some of the greatest coaches, and our current athletes standing on the shoulders of some of the greatest athletes and continue to leave a legacy of greatness at BYU, and we want to do it in a unique way that fits the mission of the school.

SPEAKER_01 8:34

How do you, as an AD, follow everything that's happening? We've got a Senate bill right now, right? Just the big picture stuff, right? Your Mark was just talking about it, that he's going to be in on the hill in Washington next week. How how concerned do you have to be as an athletic director with the minutia of what's going on with that?

SPEAKER_00 8:50

Yeah, I think we all have to be invested in it. Uh, you know, this Protect College Sports Act is important. There needs to be some order, there needs to be some leveling of a playing field so that there's consistency year to year and a sustainable model that we can all operate in. Uh, it's unsettling. I don't think there's an AD in the country that wouldn't say that the current nature of college athletics is not unsettling. But we've got to find some order and a sustainable model that is that is empowering and gets everybody enthused and excited about moving forward and and and able to compete at a level where everybody seems to be on a level playing field. Uh, we all want to compete at the highest level. But right now it's it's been it's been a very uh unsettling state of college athletics, and we're really looking forward to hopefully, and as an athletic director as a conference, hopefully a model that's a sustainable model moving into the future that protects the integrity of college sports and also protects the the future for these young student athletes that are that want to chase our dreams as well.

SPEAKER_01 10:03

Are you on board with like you think the Protect College Sports Acts will do that?

SPEAKER_00 10:07

Yeah, without getting too much into the weeds, uh hopeful. We're hopeful. Uh we're hopeful that there's a model that brings some some uh sustainability and just some order, if that's the better word. Yes. Uh to college athletics, because right now it's been it's been challenging.

SPEAKER_01 10:25

Has it been a tense time in the league with like everything that's been happening with the Brendan Sorsby situation combined with Protect College Sports Act? Do you feel like there's some some tension in the league at all?

SPEAKER_00 10:35

Uh you know what I love to point to is Commissioner Your Mac Mark talking about 16 strong. That's gotta be our focus. 16 strong. If everybody's pulling together, if we're united front, uh, I think the the future of the Big 12 is very, very bright.