With Help From Mitt Romney, BYU Advances To Elite Eight Of Ultimate Fan Bracket

PROVO, Utah – Who needs live sports when you have a bunch of Twitter polls to get through life during a global pandemic? That’s BYU fans right now and they continue to pull off unthinkable comebacks in every poll they are part of.

The latest being a Sweet 16 victory over the University of Dayton in Fox Sports’ Ultimate College Basketball Fan Bracket.

#FOXFanVote SWEET 16: No. 11 @DaytonMBB vs No. 10 @BYUbasketball

— FOX College Hoops (@CBBonFOX) April 13, 2020

Unlike other Twitter polls and brackets, this competition has a reward at the end. The winner of this Fox Sports inspired tournament gets to place a smack-talk billboard near their rival’s campus. So for BYU, a billboard would be headed directly north to Salt Lake City near the University of Utah.

BYU’s win against Dayton in the tournament seemed improbable for awhile. The Flyers had built up a huge lead that left BYU trailing by around 30 percent, but the Cougar fans kept chipping away at the deficit.

Mitt Romney leads his alma mater to victory

One of the biggest difference makers in swinging the vote in favor of BYU was Utah state senator Mitt Romney, a BYU alum, getting involved. Romney, who has two million followers on Twitter, quote tweeted the poll and wrote, “#GoCougs.” From there, BYU and its fans were on a fast track to completing the comeback.

#GoCougs https://t.co/5jJgvWCPhq

— Mitt Romney (@MittRomney) April 15, 2020

The voting came down to the wire. With 15 minutes left in the vote, BYU was down by one percent and the social media push was on as the Cougars pulled through to earn a Sweet 16 victory over the basketball-crazed Flyers fan base from Ohio.

WHAT. A. RACE. 🤯😱@BYUbasketball *just* snuck past Dayton with a .1% margin of victory! #FOXFanVote pic.twitter.com/x6TDL5sWzA

— FOX College Hoops (@CBBonFOX) April 16, 2020

98,465 votes were submitted and BYU won 50.1 percent of the total votes over Dayton. With the victory, BYU keeps their billboard dreams alive and now gears up for an Elite 8 matchup against the Tennessee Volunteers.

With only eight teams remaining in the field, BYU is the only program left that doesn’t reside in a power conference. The final eight programs remaining include North Carolina, Indiana, Illinois, Purdue, Michigan, Texas Tech, Tennessee, and BYU.

Voting in the Elite Eight round begins today and will go through Monday.

Mitch Harper is a BYU Insider for sports.ksl.com and host of the Cougar Tracks Podcast (SUBSCRIBE) and Cougar Sports Saturday (Saturday from 12-3 pm) on KSL Newsradio. Follow him on Twitter: @Mitch_Harper.