BYU’s Cosmo Wins Mascot Title, Investigation Follows For ‘Voter Fraud’

PROVO, Utah – Started from the bottom and now…back to the bottom?

The mascot title matchup that everyone was waiting for pairing two 16-seeded mascots in BYU’s Cosmo and Western Kentucky’s Big Red, who weren’t in the original 64-mascot bracket, was back-and-forth as everyone expected. Both fan bases stuffed the ballot to the tune of 96,035 votes in the championship round.

SiriusXM Mascot Bracket Championship

#16 @WKUSports vs #16 @BYUCougars @WKUBigRed #GoTops @byu_cosmo #GoCougs

— College Sports on SiriusXM (@SXMCollege) April 15, 2020

BYU fans like they had done throughout the tournament catapulted Cosmo to victory earning 51 percent of the votes.

All the work that BYU fans, coaches, administrators, and Cosmo itself had put in the past two weeks was rewarded with a mascot title. So it seemed.

Shortly after the vote concluded and Cosmo appeared to be the SiriusXM Mascot National Champion, SiriusXM’s College Sports account tweeted, “The polls have closed, but due to suspicion of voter fraud an investigation is underway.”

The polls have closed, but due to suspicion of voter fraud an investigation is underway. https://t.co/BixCzMHxIL

— College Sports on SiriusXM (@SXMCollege) April 17, 2020

Voter fraud, investigation, suspicion? Now mascot polls are being mired in controversy? Is nothing pure anymore?

The accusations of voter fraud from BYU started to pile up from Western Kentucky fans.

When it’s obvious, yes. pic.twitter.com/PhjKAo7315

— Braden Kemmerer (@BradenKemmerer) April 17, 2020

At least @WKUBigRed doesn’t have to cheat to win.

This is sad. Disqualify BYU. Handle this. @SXMCollege pic.twitter.com/nEnLZs3k8r

— maddog (@MADDAWGGG4) April 17, 2020

BYU Sports Network analyst Mark Durrant gave poetic commentary to the entire situation, “I’m predicting Cosmo must vacate all his wins and Yoeli suspended 9 more games.”

I'm predicting Cosmo must vacate all his wins and Yoeli suspended 9 more games

— Mark Durrant (@DurrantMark) April 17, 2020

Somewhere a SiriusXM intern is laughing while two fan bases are melting down over the results of a mascot title that had nothing at stake. We can now only wait to see where this ends up. But for now, Cosmo can lay claim to being the best mascot in college sports until the SiriusXM’s thorough investigation is complete.

The Cosmo coronation is complete! Cosmo is the 2020 Mascot National Champion!#BYU | @kslsports pic.twitter.com/hIY6qy3Gol

— Mitch Harper (@Mitch_Harper) April 17, 2020

Later in the afternoon, SiriusXM announced their investigation was complete and that Cosmo was officially the champion of the Best Mascot bracket. So any notion that voter fraud took place can now be put to rest.

After looking into the voting of the Championship match-up, it has been determined that @BYUCougars' @byu_cosmo is the 2020 SiriusXM Mascot Bracket Champion. Thanks to all schools and fans that participated! pic.twitter.com/Y4IF5efhiu

— College Sports on SiriusXM (@SXMCollege) April 17, 2020

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.