BYU’s challenges are mounting, as are the losses. The Cougars have dropped four of their last six and needed overtime to fend off Colorado. High-scoring wing Richie Saunders will miss the remainder of the season with a torn ACL. The defense is too soft for comfort, especially in March, and the bench is an ongoing liability. Meanwhile, their NCAA Tournament seed is sliding into the danger zone for first-round survival.

But BYU’s biggest concern is actually the Big 12’s most distressing issue: the repeated instances of hateful chants against the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that have filled both football stadiums and basketball arenas in the past 51 weeks.

Let’s talk about that here and now, not the on-court issues, because the Cougars just encountered bigotry and are returning to the scene of a hate-speech incident in a few days.

Last week, Oklahoma State fans chanted “(expletive) the Mormons” during an upset victory over the Cougars, prompting the Big 12 to fine the university $50,000.

“I got four small kids at home,” BYU coach Kevin Young said. “I’m a Mormon, and when I go home, they’re going to ask me about it, the same way they asked me about it last year at Arizona.”

On Wednesday, the Cougars return to Tucson, where the same derogatory phrase was heard in McKale Center at the end of BYU’s one-point victory last February.

Similar chants were directed at the Cougars’ football team at Cincinnati and Colorado during the 2025 season.

That makes four of the other 15 campuses — and it’s really four of 14, because Utah fans have such close ties to BYU and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

To be clear: It’s never the entire crowd or even the majority of home fans. It’s the students.

“What we’re trying to do is eliminate the behavior from happening and the apologies that come afterward,” BYU athletic director Brian Santiago told the Associated Press following the incident at Oklahoma State.

Each time, the host school issues an apology. On at least two occasions, with Colorado and Oklahoma State, the Big 12 has issued $50,000 fines.

Presumably, second offenses will be met with steeper penalties.

It’s an awful situation that reflects poorly on the entire conference, even the campuses where students have not engaged in similar conduct. (And it’s not new to BYU, which has encountered bigotry in opposing venues for decades.)

The Hotline has a few thoughts, but they all begin with this: There is only so much the Big 12 office can do. The schools empower commissioner Brett Yormark and his staff on every front, including disciplinary measures, public reprimands and monetary sanctions.

Raising the fines for first-time offenders to $100,000 or even $250,000 only works if the schools agree. Would they accept more costly sanctions knowing the hate speech is coming from a smattering of (probably drunk) students? Maybe … or maybe not.

Eradication begins with education at the local level, on the front lines of bigotry.

Arizona athletic director Desiree Reed-Francois and football coach Brent Brennan issued separate messages to fans and students before the Cougars visited in October — Brennan asked fans “to be respectful” — and there were no reported issues during or after the game.

In our view, that’s a potential model for every school. Why not provide a pre-recorded message on the stadium or arena video board that reminds fans to treat the Cougars with respect?

And if that doesn’t work, the officials should take matters into their own hands. After all, they have the authority to assess penalties for unruly crowd behavior.

In August, the Big 12 athletic directors reportedly voted 15-1 to penalize home teams 15 yards if objects are thrown on the field (after warnings). The dissenting vote came from Texas Tech, where fans had traditionally thrown tortillas.

(The option for officials to penalize home teams existed in the Big 12’s game operations manual but was fortified as a tool for crown control with the vote in August.)

That approach should be deployed by officials for anti-Mormon chants — for any hate speech, in fact — during competition.

The host schools could post a message on the video board before kickoff or tipoff that makes it clear any derogatory chants are unacceptable and will result in sanctions.

Maybe it’s a 15-yard penalty against the home team on the first offense and 20 yards on the second.

Maybe it’s two free throws and possession for the Cougars on the first offense and three on the second.

The details are easy enough to determine — but only if the schools are motivated to empower the conference office to authorize the officials to issue meaningful penalties on an escalating basis.

It’s a circular process: from campus administrators to conference executives to the game officials on campus.

Our hunch — it’s probably more hope than hunch — is that pre-game reminders from the athletic director or head coach aired on the video board, in tandem with the threat of in-game penalties, will be enough.

But that might be giving the idiot students who engage in the hate speech too much credit.