Sabautaged

Utah State AD Diana Sabau was back at it again, wrestling 1,000 coveted seats in the student section from Utah State University students. Did these bad optics hurt USU more than others on her watch?

» The Utah State Aggies play their biggest game of the season this Saturday, and perhaps the most important in over a decade, when the No. 12-ranked Utah Utes visit Maverik Stadium for a tilt this Saturday [1:30 p.m., CBS Sports Network].

This "Battle of the Brothers" AKA the “Beehive Boot” plans to be the most heated in quite some time, marking the 123rd time these two rivals will collide—but only the second in the last nine years. [The two are currently scheduled to battle twice more this decade, in 2026 and 2031.]

It certainly has grabbed the attention of the Utah State University campus community, not just for the simple fact that the Utes basketball program flatly refuses to play Utah State, particularly in the Smith Spectrum, one of arguably the Top 5 atmospheres in all of college athletics—let alone college basketball.

That fever has even carried over to the soccer pitch, where the Aggies womens’ soccer team coached by Manny Martins is now nationally ranked after having upset Utah in Salt Lake City two weeks ago.

Maverik Stadium sticks out like a sore bluish-grey box atop that hill, blending into the lush scenery much like the Utah-based gas station chain for which it's named. You know that like the Mav, its namesake is somewhere you can go with your Adventure Club card and grab a Bahama Mama or guzzle one of their famed flavored drinks that were a part of Utah folklore before dirty sodas.

One lady seems bound and determined to change these pastimes, however, one painful stroke of the pen at a time.

Utah State athletics director Diana Sabau [pronounced say-bo], who literally defaulted to the dual title of Vice President at the school simply because nobody else has taken it, has already in the span of a dozen short months on the job despite having no AD experience swung her sword.

In early July, Sabau axed Blake Anderson, the head football coach she did not hire, along with several staffers inside the athletics department using “trumped-up charges” according to an alum. [Two former staffers have already filed formal appeals with the University including former interim AD Jerry Bovee.]

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» Now there's more madness up in Logan. Upwards of 1,000 seats in Utah State's student section were handed back to the athletics department this past week, creating an uproar both on and off the football field. 

The student section, known colloquially as The HURD, is a huge part of what makes the Smith Spectrum for basketball, and to a lesser degree, Maverik Stadium for football, the spectacle it is on game days and nights.

An indeterminable number of seats at the stadium are reportedly going to be handed out to the general public for the purposes of one particular game, the Aggies home rivalry tilt against Utah this weekend. [Though this has not been confirmed by USU’s athletics department, Brian vs. Utah reached out to several sources with inside information on the matter as well as season-ticket holders.]  

Irregardless of that information, this rivalry game Saturday is sure to be another showdown for the ages, especially when considering that the last three games were decided by a total of six points, and one went to overtime.

But how these tickets will be divvied out remains to be seen. [The allotment at Smith Spectrum is TBD.] Will the 1,000 tix be handed to potential friends in a last-minute attempt to gain favor with the Pac-12 Conference, which, according to Ross Dellenger of Yahoo! Sports is already courting the likes of San Diego State, Fresno State, Colorado State and [gasp] Boise State, the Aggies’ bitter blue rival to the north—and may dangle invitations to two other unnamed schools? [ESPN reported early Thursday morning that a press conference will be held later today announcing the departures of BSU and the other three schools.]

That could be true, but this particular move could’ve been made in other half-empty sections of Utah State’s 25,000-seat stadium. It has the potential to anger the 24,000-plus students that are already paying upwards of $18,000 per year on average on books, tuition and housing.

Dallin Wilson HURD President Campaign Posters

It could also sever overall support from the HURD that, according to its newly elected president Dallin Wilson on X, were not “consulted” prior to the move to give back the student seats in Maverik Stadium to the general public.

“I am extremely disappointed in the decision of @USUAthletics leadership to take away 1000 student seats from section 117 and 116 in Maverik Stadium,” said Wilson, in part.

The most bizarre aspect to this sudden seizure of the student tix? The new visitors to the stadium will be located directly behind that HURD, a section that tends to stand, cheer and sway the whole game.

What’s something else that rankles you about Sabau? Shoot me an email.

» This move to excise 1,000 Maverik Stadium seats from student control was just one of several that left both locals and Utah State alums baffled.

Firing Blake Anderson on a roster stocked to the brim with talent and replacing him with a defensive-minded guy in Nate Dreiling who had no prior head coaching experience, but was a defensive coordinator at New Mexico State, was just the tip of the proverbial iceberg.

The only thing that Sabau and her department had to say on the matter of the student tickets initially was about as bland as the statement she offered when Anderson and other football staffers were let go:

After the HURD filed a formal complaint with other student agencies, the athletics department issued a sort of mea culpa—with a caveat:

“Athletics leadership is working with student leaders and the HURD to address their concerns and communicating directly with them to provide more information and clarification. To both affirm our commitment to the Hurd while also working to help ensure our crowds are as large as possible, additional students will be allowed into any ticketed campus event, as long as there are available seats. The major change students are seeing this season is they need to claim a ticket prior to attending the event. There are no additional fees or limits on how many events students can claim tickets for.”

Incidents are starting to pile up on Sabau’s short watch though, during what is arguably one of the most critical and pivotal times in the school’s history as it dangles on a cliff of either being relevant or forgotten in college sports.

That also might have as much to do with Sabau as anything else. Instead of holding a public memorial service for New Mexico State transfer cornerback Andre Seldon Jr after he drowned at Porcupine Reservoir this past summer following a cliffdiving accident, Sabau didn't let the Cache Valley grieve that loss, however large or small it felt. It was so unlike what Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham allowed the University of Utah’s campus community to do on two separate occasions that it raised a few eyebrows.

With a capacity of 25,513 in a city that has a total population of about 52,000, Maverik Stadium has definitely been a place that has had its issues staying full over several football seasons—that much is true.

But Sabau isn’t helping matters. Instead of offering any sort of public explanation pertaining to Seldon, Sabau simply kept it in-house and created a one-word slogan that never caught on with students. [Funeral services for Seldon will be held in Michigan at a later date, his obituary read.] Whether or not that was due to the fact that school was out for the summer when he passed away, and that football took precedent, was also something that was never shared publicly.

Head basketball coach Danny Sprinkle, another non-Sabau hire, left even before one year of his multi-year deal with the Aggies was up. [Sabau replaced him with Youngstown State head coach Jarred Calhoun from her native Ohio, one an alum said is “not a like-for-like”.] That felt like a major blow, too.

In fact, the only things Sabau discusses publicly are matters that seem to have a profound effect on Utah State University, as she continues to wield some sort of sword over a campus where she probably won’t stay for long, anyhow. The timing of this latest blow couldn't be any worse with membership in the Pac-12 reportedly up for grabs. For students like Dallin Wilson though, her latest move felt cold-blooded.

“The @usuHURD is a key part of the gameday experience, and to take away seats permanently to profit off of one game shows how much the department values the Hurd,” said Wilson after the fact. “I wish the leaders of the athletic department would have come to us to work on a mutually beneficial solution." UPDATE: On Sept. 13, Utah State Athletics announced it would add 1,000 Maverik Stadium tickets back to the students.

UPDATE 2: On Sept. 24, Utah State announced it would be moving to the Pac-12 Conference, effective at the start of the 2026 school year.

UPDATE 3: In July 2025, Sabau announced she would be vacating her roles at Utah State to become the associate AD at Maryland. «

Read about Utah State’s greatest moments in my new book SPORTZZ FRUM HOME, available now on Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D3YWPNJ1

» Thanks for reading Brian Vs Utah. Be safe and be well and I’ll see ya next time.