The only thing constant is change.
Such was the case for sports in Utah in 2025.
We said goodbye to Utah football coach Kyle Whittingham and hello to freshmen phenoms like AJ Dybantsa and Avery Neff.
Utah’s hockey team and Olympics got new names.
And your favorite student athletes got new cars thanks to paydays unlike any college sports have seen before.
These are the stories that defined Utah sports this year.
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Utah Jazz guard Ace Bailey (19) warms up before taking on the Los Angeles Lakers.
Tanks for nothing?
The Utah Jazz’s season was set up for one moment.
For 82 games, the story was more about who didn’t play than who did; the NBA fined Utah for sitting star forward Lauri Markkanen, among other players, despite being healthy.
Losses were wins and the worst record in franchise history put the team in the best position possible to win the NBA draft lottery and draft Duke phenom Cooper Flagg, projected as a future superstar.
Instead, the ping pong balls fell against the Jazz. Not just once for the No. 1 pick, but a total of four times, as the maximum number of teams jumped Utah. Dallas selected Flagg first. Ace Bailey, an athletic wing from Rutgers with huge potential but significant risks, ended up the Jazz’s June selection at No. 5.
While Bailey looks relatively promising, the moment highlighted an ugly truth about the Jazz in 2025: The rebuild looks likely to extend far longer than management and ownership envisioned when they traded Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert four years ago.
— Andy Larsen
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) BYU Cougars head coach Kalani Sitake.
The high price of college athletics
Money can’t buy you happiness?
Don’t tell that to college athletes, coaches and administrators.
Schools across the country ponied up millions of dollars to pay players this year, as the House vs. NCAA settlement opened the door to revenue sharing.
AJ Dybantsa, the No. 1 high school recruit in the country last year, arrived in Provo with a multimillion-dollar deal and now has the Cougars ranked in the top 10 in the nation.
BYU football coach Kalani Sitake flirted with Penn State but ultimately stayed in Provo after receiving a new contract that will reportedly pay him $9 million a year.
These costs are adding up and many schools are running deficits of $20 million or more. That’s one reason why the University of Utah earlier this month became the first school in the nation to partner with a private equity firm to handle its athletics department’s revenue.
— Aaron Falk
(Bethany Baker | The Salt Lake Tribune) Members of the Miller family pose for a photo following a press conference to announce that The Miller Family is taking controlling ownership of Real Salt Lake and the Royals.
The Millers buy into soccer
The Miller family is back in major league sports.
It didn’t take long after selling their majority stake in the Utah Jazz in 2020 for the Millers’ interest in sports to be reignited. The family has led the charge for a Major League Baseball expansion bid in Salt Lake City. And in April, Miller Sports + Entertainment bought a controlling interest in Real Salt Lake and the Utah Royals.
RSL has made the postseason each of the last five years, despite being one of the more frugal teams in Major League Soccer.
— Aaron Falk
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) BYU Cougars quarterback Bear Bachmeier (47) as BYU hosts TCU on Nov. 15, 2025.
Jake Retzlaff leaves, but BYU rebounds
Before there was a championship berth, there was chaos in Provo this summer.
BYU thought it had it all figured out after a 10-win season in 2024, but a civil lawsuit rocked the program to its core.
Quarterback Jake Retzlaff — the face of the Cougars reemergence on the national stage — was accused of civil sexual assault in May. The case was later dismissed, but the quarterback admitted to Honor Code violations at the school owned and operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Facing a seven-game suspension, Retzlaff decided to leave Provo for New Orleans to play at Tulane.
In the end, it worked for both the quarterback and the Cougars.
BYU replaced its veteran quarterback with true freshman Bear Bachmeier, who took college football by storm. Bachmeier hurdled, stiff-armed and juked BYU to 11 wins and a spot in the Big 12 championship game.
Retzlaff, meanwhile, guided the Green Wave to the College Football Playoff and ultimately lost to Ole Miss in the first round.
The man they called the “BYJew” is gone. But “Air Bear” has head coach Kalani Sitake’s program taking flight.
— Kevin Reynolds
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Utah football coach Kyle Whittingham visits with Utah basketball Alex Jensen before they helped judge the gymnastics team’s Red Rocks Preview on Dec. 12.
Kyle Whittingham steps down
There has been no bigger presence in Utah sports over the last 20 years than Kyle Whittingham.
The Utes’ head football coach has won 177 games, three conference titles and a trio of national coach of the year honors during his illustrious career.
But after two decades in charge, Whittingham announced this month that he is stepping down from his role after the Las Vegas Bowl on New Year’s Eve. Defensive coordinator Morgan Scalley has been named the program’s next head coach.
It’s the passing of the torch that had long been planned for — only now it has a twist.
Whittingham hasn’t committed to retiring. Instead, the 66-year-old said he might consider coaching somewhere else after leaving Utah.
It will be strange enough not to see him patrolling the sideline at Rice-Eccles Stadium next year. It would be far stranger still to see him wearing another school’s colors.
— Aaron Falk
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Utah Mammoth center Barrett Hayton (27) as the Utah Mammoth host the Los Angeles Kings, NHL hockey in Salt Lake City on Monday, Dec. 8, 2025.
Utah hockey gets a new name
Tusks up, Utah hockey fans.
After playing its inaugural season as the blandly named Utah Hockey Club, the state’s NHL franchise has a new name and identity.
The Utah Mammoth might not have been owner Ryan Smith’s first choice, but it has quickly been embraced by the thousands of rowdy fans who fill the Delta Center now.
The team unveiled its new logo, uniforms and mascot this year.
Now all that’s left is for the franchise to take the next step in its rebuild and make the playoffs.
— Aaron Falk
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) BYU football fans during a game at LaVell Edwards Stadium this year.
Anti-LDS chants mar college games
Arenas and stadiums became hostile environments for the BYU faithful this season.
Opposing fans shouted “F— the Mormons” on several occasions, targeting Brigham Young University’s religious affiliation. It happened at Arizona, Colorado, Cincinnati, and Providence.
BYU administrators grappled with how to respond to the derogatory chants — with some wanting a forceful condemnation and others wishing for fines and more actionable penalties.
As the year closes, there is still no concrete answer. Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark said whatever policy the league adopts, it needs to change people’s behavior.
“We are going to come together as 16 institutions following this football season and figure out how we can get better,” Yormark told The Salt Lake Tribune. “It’s about changing behavior, and we will do that.”
— Kevin Reynolds
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Utah Royals forward Ally Sentnor (9) during their season opener at America First Field Saturday, March 16, 2024, in Sandy, Utah.
Royals sell their star
The return of the Utah Royals has not produced many wins on the field.
But there was hope that the team could build around the rising star U.S. Women’s National Team player Ally Sentnor. The No. 1 pick in the 2024 NSWL draft, the 21-year-old Sentnor was a bright spot for the struggling franchise.
But when Sentnor asked for a trade, Utah quickly acquiesced, selling the midfielder to powerhouse Kansas City in exchange for $600,000.
– Aaron Falk
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Avery Neff performs on the floor, during the Utah Gymnastics Red Rocks Preview.
Freshmen phenoms
Experience is nice.
Talent is better.
So it went in 2025 as freshmen athletes dominated at Utah and BYU.
Utah gymnast Avery Neff burst onto the scene despite battling serious injuries, helping lead the Red Rocks back to the NCAA Final Four.
In Provo, quarterback Bear Bachmeier got the Cougars to the Big 12 title game for the first time. AJ Dybantsa is on track to be one of he first names called in the NBA draft. Runner Jane Hedengren, meanwhile, was arguably the best of the young BYU trio. The cross-country sensation finished second in nationals, setting a number of records along the way.
— Aaron Falk
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Brad Wilson, CEO of Salt Lake City – Utah 2034 Olympic and Paralympic Games, speaks with Mayor Erin Mendenhall as local Olympics organizers reveal a new name — Utah 2034 — at Salt Lake City International Airport on Monday, Nov. 24, 2025.
Naming the games
What’s in a name? When it comes to the official title of the 2034 Olympic and Paralympic Games, not Salt Lake City.
Instead of adhering to the moniker used during the International Olympic Committee’s bid process — Salt Lake City-Utah 2034 — they opted for something considerably less verbose:
Dropping Salt Lake City from the name will make the event more inclusive, said Brad Wilson, CEO of the 2034 organizing committee. He noted that the footprint of the sporting events spans 13 venues in five counties.
Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall said she wants the 2034 Games to “uplift the state.” Yet, of her city’s exclusion from the new name, she said: “It hurts.”
“I don’t think anyone expected a name change,” she added, “because it’s not a typical thing to do.”
— Julie Jag