​BYU head football coach Kalani Sitake and BYU athletic director Brian Santiago fist-bump during a press conference regarding Sitake’s contract extension with the football program, held at the Student Athlete Building on the campus of Brigham Young University in Provo on Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2025.
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Isaac Hale, Deseret News
BYU shook up its athletic department on Thursday, splitting football off from the other 20 sports.Head football coach Kalani Sitake will report directly to a university vice president while athletic director Brian Santiago will oversee the remaining programs.The decision’s dramatic timing, nine days before the season’s first football game, underscored both the hurtling rate of change in college sports and rumors about friction between Sitake and Santiago.“BYU Athletics shares a common focus on helping our student-athletes succeed not just on the field, but also in the classroom and, most importantly, in their Christian discipleship,” advancement vice president Keith Vorkink said in a statement.
BYU head football coach Kalani Sitake speaks as he’s joined by BYU athletic director Brian Santiago during a press conference regarding Sitake’s contract extension with the football program, held at the Student Athlete Building on the campus of Brigham Young University in Provo on Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2025.
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Isaac Hale, Deseret News
Sitake now reports directly to Vorkink, who is also Santiago’s supervisor.“Given today’s dynamic athletics landscape,” Vorkink said, “we feel it’s important to be providing more administrative support, not less. We’ve made recent hires with that in mind, and we’re also organizing in ways that we believe will support BYU’s world-class programs.”The sudden disruption comes a month after Sitake, without naming names or making specific requests, called publicly for additional investment in the school’s flagship sport to help it get over the hump and into college football’s playoff.“There’s so much that really can be accomplished and it’s really low-hanging-fruit stuff,” Sitake said in an ESPN The Fan radio interview on July 30.Sitake has gone 23-4 over the past two years with back-to-back bowl victories. The Cougars completed those seasons ranked No. 11 and No. 13