How the Cookie Crumbles: BYU’s Kalani Sitake Saga

According to Dylan Dawson of the Penn State Pulse, the Nittany Lions were prepared to offer Sitake $11 million a year for six years. This would make Sitake the fifth-highest-paid head coach in college football. The deal was set to be lucrative and it was beginning to sound like Sitake might bite on the offer. There would be no way that BYU could counter an offer as massive as this, right?

Multiple outlets hinted at the deal being finalized, with just Sitake’s signature needed to become official. Many outlets reported that Sitake was on his way to State College, Penn., to sign the deal. All hope seemed lost for the Cougars, but then, an unlikely hero showed up at the eleventh hour.

‘If You Give a Cougar a Cookie’

What many failed to realize is that there are plenty of financially healthy BYU benefactors who were about to come to bat for Sitake. The pinnacle Mormon educational institution was never going to go down without a fight. BYU has far too many influential alumni to let Penn State swoop in and steal their guy. From Mitt Romney to Steve Young, all the way to Napoleon Dynamite himself, Jon Heder, plenty of wealthy BYU benefactors could have tossed their hat into the ring.

However, one major player in this story, the unlikely hero yet to be named, never even went to BYU. In fact, his company was founded by himself and a Utah State alum, which made it all the more unlikely given the in-state rivalry. The name of the unlikely benefactor was Jason McGowan, CEO of Crumbl Cookies.

“Some people are not replaceable. Sounds like it is time for me to get off the sidelines and get to work,” McGowan stated in an X post that very quickly gained viral status.

A relatively unknown person in the football sphere, McGowan and Crumbl Cookies first started supporting BYU athletics this year, when they became an unofficial sponsor of the program. McGowan, a high school dropout, started Crumbl in 2017 with his cousin Sawyer Hemsley, the aforementioned Utah State alum. Just eight years later, the company has more than 1,000 stores nationwide and is doing brand deals with the likes of Kylie Jenner and Benson Boone.

This situation is far from the first act of support for BYU from McGowan, though. In October 2025, he covered the impending fine from the Big 12 for BYU fans storming the field after beating rival Utah in a 24-21 thriller. This is what really sparked the relationship between the university and Crumbl. Just over one month later, and McGowan felt the obligation to step up once again.

McGowan wasn’t all talk. He quickly started a support sweepstakes for BYU fans to show their support for Sitake. He offered tickets to the Big 12 title game and a monetary prize for the person who shared the best memory of Sitake at BYU. His post gained so much traction that Barstool Sports CEO Dave Portnoy gave his two cents on the matter.

“I arrived in Provo as a young man with Big Noon Kickoff not knowing what to expect. I was overwhelmed with all the love I received from Cougar Nation. From Cosmo to Kalani it was all love… Coach Sitake danced his way into my heart. There is no place like Provo and Provo can’t exist without BYU football. And BYU football can’t exist without Kalani. And neither can #ProvoDave. Stay Kalani Stay!” Portnoy said in a passionate plea.

Cookies Over Cheddar

With this effort from McGowan, along with efforts from Marriott Hotels (another major company supporter of BYU) and countless BYU fans, Sitake is seemingly deciding to stay. A deal to keep Sitake at BYU has been finalized, with the coach allegedly making up to $9.5 million more a season. The exact details are not known as of the writing of this article, but it is thought that BYU has made its man one of the highest-paid coaches in the game and the highest-paid coach in the Big 12.

This does not happen without the support of McGowan and other private benefactors. In this new day and age, private benefactors have more pull than ever in college athletics. From expanding NIL initiatives to dropping pallets of cash to renovate new stadiums, private benefactors have taken on an even bigger role in the arms race expansion.

This situation is a key example of this practice, and is also a key example that the Big Ten and SEC do not rule over all. It’s a common fear among fans of non-Big Ten/SEC programs that they’re out to take over the college football world. While they certainly have a lot of power, it’s private benefactors like this and the inclusion of big names in the financial process that could save programs and even conferences from becoming crippled in this new day and age.

The Big 12, among all conferences, knows this, as they were the first conference to introduce naming rights sponsors to entities like their title game. Private equity is the wave of the future for college programs looking to keep up with the Joneses, and this situation is a mere microcosm of what is likely to come. You don’t like it? Well then, tough cookies.