Conor McGregor just sat courtside at a BYU basketball game. No, really
Conor McGregor is interviewed by BYUtv's Spencer Linton at BYU's basketball game against Baylor on Tuesday, Jan. 28 at the Marriott Center in Provo. | BYU Photo
The Marriott Center welcomed perhaps its most unlikely visitor of all time Tuesday night.
Irish mixed martial artist, boxer and mega celebrity Conor McGregor sat courtside for BYU basketball's clash with Baylor, and his presence became an even bigger story than the Cougars' tense, overtime victory.
McGregor is in Utah doing business with Orem-based sports nutrition brand Bucked Up, with whom he has collaborated for a line of energy drinks.
Advertisement
'It's so crazy, it's so fast-paced,' McGregor told BYUtv's Spencer Linton of his Marriott Center visit. 'The crowd is incredible. I'm grateful to be here, so happy to be here and see this. I always wondered what the college (basketball) game would be like, and I'm very, very, very impressed.'
Many on social media pointed out that McGregor was a rather shocking figure to see at BYU for a number of reasons, but though he wasn't officially recognized or introduced at the game, he still garnered plenty of attention, snapping countless selfies with fans and even wandering over to BYU's ROC section to lead students in a cheer for the Cougars.
McGregor even posed for a photo with BYU players following their 93-89 win over the Bears.
Advertisement
'That's probably one of the most famous people I've ever seen,' BYU guard Dawson Baker said of McGregor. 'I was kind of thinking, he's seeing this environment and he's been in some crazy environments himself ... I kind of took a step back and thought, 'Wow, I'm really a part of this,' which was really cool.
'So yeah, it's definitely special. The (Marriott Center) environment was super good tonight. It was so loud and it definitely had an effect on the game.'
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Will Guerby Lambert Miss The Season - Notre Dame Football Midweek Mailbag
Will Guerby Lambert Miss The Season - Notre Dame Football Midweek Mailbag originally appeared on Athlon Sports. Wednesday is Mailbag Day on IB Nation Sports Talk. Irish Breakdown answers listener questions about Notre Dame football and more on today's show. Some of today's topics include: Advertisement * Is Irish offensive lineman Guerby Lambert out for the season? * Will ESPN's College Game Day be at the Notre Dame - USC game if it looks like it will be the last game between the two rivals? * Does Aneyas Williams' presence on third downs hurt Jeremiyah Love and Jadarian Price's NFL Draft stock? * Do the Irish have a field goal kicker? * Should Notre Dame pursue more dual kicker/punters considering new roster limits? *What Notre Dame position groups are we most excited about this season? * More! There's even more to discuss and debate in Rapid Fire as well. See the list of topics below! * Notre Dame and Arkansas will kickoff at Noon Eastern Time when the Irish visit the Razorbacks on Sept. 27th. Are you In or Out on the early start? Advertisement * Fill-in the blank: Notre Dame greats Todd Lyght and Manti Te'o are on the 2026 College Football Hall of Fame ballot and it's BLANK that Lyght is not already in the Hall. * Is there any reason Te'o shouldn't be inducted this year? * Fill-in the blank: It's BLANK that former Notre Dame women's basketball teammates Hannah Hidalgo and Olivia Miles are among 21 players competing to make the Team USA roster for the FIBA AmeriCup Team. * Fill-in the blank: Notre Dame men's basketball hosting DePaul in an exhibition game in September is BLANK. * Major rule changes are on the way for both men's and women's college basketball this upcoming season. Both men's and women's coaches will now be able to challenge calls. Advertisement In the men's game, coaches will now be able to challenge: Reviewing 'out-of-bounds calls, basket interference/goaltending and whether a secondary defender was in the restricted-area arc.' Teams will need to use a timeout to challenge and if the challenge is successful, they'll be allowed one additional review for the rest of the game, including overtime. The NCAA says the changes in men's basketball aim to 'enhance the flow of the game.' -Do you Buy or Sell it? * In the women's game: Coaches will be issued a challenge, but their rules are different. Coaches will be able to challenge 'ruled out-of-bounds violations, ruled backcourt violations, whether a change in team possession occurred before the ruling of a foul where free throws would be involved, and whether a foul was assessed to the correct player. Advertisement But for the women, teams will not need to have a timeout to challenge. But instead, if you lose your challenge it will result in a technical foul for 'an excessive timeout.' -Do you Buy or Sell that? * Oakland A's centerfielder Denzel Clarke went up over the wall on a Statcast-projected 398-foot drive hit by Anaheim's Nolan Schanuel to rob him of a home run. Do you Buy or Sell that catch as more impressive than Derek Jeter's more famous running catch when he fell into the stands at Yankee Stadium? Be sure to check out the Irish Breakdown message board, the Champions Lounge Irish Breakdown Content 2025 Scholarship Chart 2025 Football Schedule Advertisement Notre Dame 2026 Scholarship Offers 2025 Commit Rankings - Offense 2025 Commit Rankings - Defense 2024 Recruiting Class 2023 Recruiting Class 2022 Recruiting Class Become a premium Irish Breakdown member, which grants you access to all of our premium content and our premium message board! Click on the link below for more. BECOME A MEMBER Be sure to stay locked into Irish Breakdown all the time! Join the Irish Breakdown community! Subscribe to the Irish Breakdown YouTube channel Subscribe to the Irish Breakdown podcast on iTunes Follow me on Twitter: @SeanStires Like and follow Irish Breakdown on Facebook Sign up for the FREE Irish Breakdown daily newsletter This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Jun 12, 2025, where it first appeared.
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Kentucky Bigfoot calling contest is a scream
STANTON, Ky. (FOX 56) — Music, food, and crafts at a recent festival in Stanton brought people out of the woodwork. It was also hoped the event would bring a creature out of the woods. 'If you talk about Bigfoot in certain circles, you're going to get laughed at,' said Steve Lindsey, one of the hosts of the Kentucky-based 'News Worthy??' podcast. 'Everybody is either here because they believe or they want to believe.' Kentucky Bigfoot calling contest is a scream Louisville's Cave Hill Cemetery: A final resting place full of history and mystery A ferry is still a loved way to cross the Kentucky River The first-ever Bigfoot Festival celebrated that there have been dozens of reports of the legendary creature in the nearby Red River Gorge. The cryptid would have been welcome at the festival, so much so that dozens of people lined up to call for him in a contest that was a real scream. No words can describe the variety of yells, whoops, and whistles performed by the crowd. Charlie Raymond, founder of the Kentucky Bigfoot Research Organization, leads local hunts for the creature. He was the perfect person to judge the contest, because he believes he's heard the real thing. 'You could tell some of them have done their homework,' he said. He said whoops and guttural growls are closer to the real thing. Read more Spirit of the Bluegrass stories In the end, 10-year-old Easton Tennison took the top prize, belting out a deep groan that went on for several seconds. The crowd in the audience roared in approval. 'I can do long laughs and stuff and make a bunch of weird noises, so I just kind of knew what I would do,' Tennison said. Bigfoot didn't answer the call at this festival, but the creature sure has a fan club in these parts. You have to believe that if he ever comes out of hiding, he'd want to make tracks here. 'We were taken aback by how many people were excited about Bigfoot and Bigfoot calling. It was a successful event,' Raymond said. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Sky Sports News' golden age at an end as rival platforms turn up the volume
A constant in pubs, gyms and hotel breakfast rooms, almost always with the sound down. Perhaps not since cinema's silent age have faces been so familiar without the general public knowing their voices. The vibe is more casual than in previous times, shirt sleeves rather than business suits, but the formula remains the same: a carousel of news, clips, quotes, quips, centred around highlights, all framed within a constant flow of results, fixtures and league tables. Sky Sports News hits 27 years of broadcasting in August, having been launched for the 1998-99 football season by BSkyB. As the domestic football season concluded, news came of changes within the Osterley-based newsroom. Seven members of the broadcast talent team would be leaving, including the long-serving Rob Wotton and the senior football reporter Melissa Reddy, within a process of voluntary redundancies. Advertisement Sky sources – not those Sky sources – are keen to state the changes are not a cost-cutting exercise, instead a redress of SSN's place within a changing media environment. Ronan Kemp, the One Show presenter and Celebrity Goggleboxer, is understood to be in discussions to join Sky and despite Wotton's departure, Ref Watch will still be serving those who get their kicks from re-refereeing matches and VAR calls. Rolling news, which became common currency around the time of the initial Gulf war with Iraq is no longer the go-to information environment. Sky News, SSN's sister organisation, is going through similar changes, including the loss of the veteran anchor Kay Burley. The smartphone, where news alerts supplant even social media, takes the strain of keeping the world informed of Micky van de Ven's latest hamstring injury. Desperate to hear even more from Jamie Carragher and Gary Neville? There are podcasts and YouTube channels available at a swipe. In the US, ESPN's SportsCenter and its accompanying ESPNews channel were the progenitors of a medium copied globally and by Sky in launching SSN. SportsCenter is a flagship in marked decline from a golden 1990s era that made American household names of presenters such as Stuart Scott, Keith Olbermann and Dan Patrick. ESPN, an organisation in the process of taking itself to digital platforms as cable TV gets mothballed, closed SportsCenter's Los Angeles studio in March. Linear TV's death will be slow, but it is dying nonetheless as streaming, all bundles and consumer choice, takes hold. Meanwhile, YouTube channels, with production values way below industry standard, amass huge audiences for fan-owned, independent media. Advertisement The time of viewers tuning in for 10pm highlights voiced over by presenters' catchphrases – Scott's 'boo yah!' being the prime example – has long passed. Social media and YouTube have killed the demand. Though live sports remain the foundation of broadcasting contracts, highlights and analysis can be watched at the time of the viewers' choice. Digital is where the eyeballs go, and what the advertising dollar is attracted to, despite the ubiquity of Go Compare et al. Viewing figures remain healthy but the game is now about far more than ratings. SSN's imperial period was the early millennium days of Dave Clark and Kirsty Gallacher's toothsome double act, to a time when the yellow ticker of breaking news held great sway, though not always delivering on its promise of earthquake journalism (news of Nicky Shorey's Reading contract extension, anyone?). Millie Clode, Di Stewart, Charlotte Jackson, Kelly Cates: a nation turned its lonely eyes to them. Then there was transfer deadline day, more important than the football itself. Long, frantic hours spent hearing Jim White's Glaswegian whine declare anything could happen on this day of days. In the early years it often did, from Peter Odemwingie's mercy dash to Loftus Road to the brandishing of a sex toy in the earhole of reporter Alan Irwin outside Everton's training ground. Another reporter, Andy 'four phones' Burton, labelled the night the 2008 window closed: 'The best day of my life, apart from when my son was born.' Eventually, though, it became too knowing. Not even White's yellow tie, as garish as his hype, accompanied by Natalie Sawyer's yellow dress, could stop the event from becoming desperate hours chasing diminishing returns. Live television is a challenging environment, especially with nothing to feed off. Advertisement Though many presenters have been lampooned – abused in the more carrion social media age – the difficulty of 'going live' with an earpiece full of instructions and timings should never be underestimated. How does Mike Wedderburn, the channel's first presenter, make it look so easy? When, in a broadcasting-carriage dispute between Virgin and Sky, Setanta Sports News was given brief life in 2007 – 22 months as the Dagmar to Sky's Queen Vic – it was made apparent how hard, and costly, the business can be. Over-exposure to SSN – as happens when someone works in a newspaper sports department, say – can lead to contempt. The joins can be seen, too. Haven't they done that same gag for the past six hours and each time pretended it was an ad lib? Just what is Gary Cotterill up to this time? Why did Bryan Swanson always use such portentous tones? From morning till night, it would be ever-present. On weekend evenings, when you caught the skilled veteran duo of Julian Waters and the late David Bobin running through the day's events, you knew it was time to leave the office, down that late drink, question your life choices, the pair's clipped tones taking on the effect of a lonely late-night cab ride. SSN is forced to move with the times. As is the case across the industry, journalists have often been supplanted by influencers, as the mythical, perhaps unreachable, 'younger audience' is chased. That is not to say the channel is short of decent reporting. In the aftermath of the 2022 Champions League final in Paris, chief reporter Kaveh Solhekol produced a superb account of the ensuing chaos and danger while others floundered for detail. Advertisement SSN, like SportsCenter across the Atlantic, is now more a production factory for content being sent across the internet, published to multiple platforms, than it is a rolling news channel. Within press statements around the redundancies there was the word 'agile', a term repurposed – and overused – in the business world, but meaning doing more with less. Next season, as heavily trailed on SSN right now, Sky will have 215 Premier League live matches to show, including every game played on Sundays. That requires the company's shift in focus, for Sky Sports News in particular. Though look up wherever you are and it will still be on in the corner, almost certainly with the sound down.
