BYU lifts ban of fan who allegedly uttered racial slurs to Duke players

In late August, Duke volleyball player Rachel Richardson and her teammates alleged that BYU fans taunted them with racial slurs and threats during a recent match. In the aftermath of the allegations, South Carolina women's basketball coach Dawn Staley announced last week that the program was cancelling its scheduled home-and-home series against the Cougars, including the 2022-2023 season-opener on Nov. 7.

On Friday morning, the BYU Athletics Department released a statement regarding the allegations"

As part of our commitment to take any claims of racism seriously, BYU has completed its investigation into the allegation that racial heckling and slurs took place at the Duke vs. BYU women’s volleyball match on August 26. We reviewed all available video and audio recordings, including security footage and raw footage from all camera angles taken by BYUtv of the match, with broadcasting audio removed (to ensure that the noise from the stands could be heard more clearly). We also reached out to more than 50 individuals who attended the event: Duke athletic department personnel and student-athletes, BYU athletic department personnel and student-athletes, event security and management and fans who were in the arena that evening, including many of the fans in the on-court student section.

From our extensive review, we have not found any evidence to corroborate the allegation that fans engaged in racial heckling or uttered racial slurs at the event. As we stated earlier, we would not tolerate any conduct that would make a student-athlete feel unsafe. That is the reason for our immediate response and our thorough investigation.

BYU continued:

Our fight is against racism, not against any individual or any institution. Each person impacted has strong feelings and experiences, which we honor, and we encourage others to show similar civility and respect. We remain committed to rooting out racism wherever it is found. We hope we can all join together in that important fight," the statement said. "There will be some who assume we are being selective in our review. To the contrary, we have tried to be as thorough as possible in our investigation, and we renew our invitation for anyone with evidence contrary to our findings to come forward and share it.

Additionally, the department lifted the ban on the fan who "was identified as having uttered racial slurs during the match." The statement said that the department did not find "any evidence to corroborate the allegation" and apologized to the fan for "any hardship" the ban caused.

The women's volleyball team is scheduled to take on No. 8 Ohio State at 7 p.m. ET on Friday. The Cougars don't have another match against Duke on their schedule.