ASU fined by Big 12 for multiple field storms that ended win against BYU

The Big 12 on Tuesday fined the Arizona State Sun Devils $25,000 for fans storming the field multiple times on Saturday — the first time with a tick left on the clock — in a win against BYU.

The conference said the reprimand of ASU was “in accordance with the Big 12 Conference Principles and Standards of Sportsmanship,” according to a release.

“The safety of student-athletes and all game participants is our foremost priority,” Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark said in a statement. “We will continue to work with our institutions on event management policies at all Big 12 venues.”

Arizona State athletic director Graham Rossini told Arizona Sports’ Bickley & Marotta on Tuesday after the Big 12 levied the reprimand and fine that the school respects the conference’s decision.

“We had a donor step up to cover that fine so we’re moving forward,” Rossini added. “But it’s a call to action for any Sun Devil who was on the field, you got a responsibility to your university, get on SunAngels.org, give to our collective and let’s use that as a positive.”

Why did ASU fans storm the field twice in win over BYU?

The first of the two storming happened Saturday when Arizona State quarterback Sam Leavitt threw a deep incompletion on fourth-and-goal attempting to burn the last 7 seconds off the game clock. The physical clock read 0:00 at Mountain America Stadium as the rush began, but officials gathered and concluded a second was left, giving No. 14 BYU one more play.

By rule, the clock stops when the ball makes contact with an object out of bounds, and reviews showed that Leavitt’s pass landed in the stands with time left.

But fans who thought the game was over had already covered the entirety of the field, goal posts were taken down and a 14-minute delay followed. ASU head coach Kenny Dillingham was captured arguing with officials as they attempted to review whether time was left amid a crowd of fans.

“Then we found out there’s still a play under review,” Rossini said of his thoughts in that moment. “We got to be able to manage the crowd. I thought our team did the best job they could given the situation of helping everybody understand the situation, getting everybody off the field so we could finish the game and respect the competitive integrity of it.

“A lot going on. Just wanted coach to be focusing on, hey, we’ll handle what the call was later. Let’s get this team ready to go close this thing out and be able to celebrate.”

Ultimately, referees ruled a second was left. The Cougars took the ball at their own 49-yard line trailing 28-23, but quarterback Jake Retzlaff couldn’t find the end zone on a deep ball that connected with Chase Roberts that fell short of the end zone.

Dillingham took responsibility for putting his defense back on the field in the final second and on Monday said he’d do things a little differently after ASU failed on fourth-down conversions twice on its final two possessions of the game that saw BYU rally from down 21-0 in the first half.

“Obviously, it worked horribly,” Dillingham said. “I gotta coach that scenario better, I think that’s the biggest takeaway. I didn’t do a good enough job throughout the week, and I haven’t been doing a good enough job throughout the week of those scenarios at the end of the game.”

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