The BYU Cougars football team is a college football program representing Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. The Cougars won the national championship in 1984 and have a Heisman Trophy winner in Ty Detmer. Since 1965, BYU has claimed 23 conference championships and played in 30 bowl games. The Cougars became the fourth Football Bowl Subdivision Independent on July 1, 2011.

BYU Football made a brief appearance at Brigham Young Academy in 1896, but was discontinued in 1903. It did not get its official start at Brigham Young University until 1922. The team struggled during the first couple of seasons, but in 1928, BYU hired G. Ott Romney, who gave the school its first winning seasons.

Ott Romney and Eddie Kimball ushered in a new era in Cougar football in which the team went 65–51–12 between 1928–1942. In 1932, the Cougars posted a 8–1 record and outscored their opponents 188-50, which remains one of the school's finest seasons on record. Also, it was during this era that they first beat the Utes from the University of Utah. Since 1922, they had gone 0–17–3 against them. In 1942, BYU finally broke through and beat the Utes by a score of 12–7 in Salt Lake City. The university did not field a team from 1943–1945 due to World War II. In 1949, under coach Chick Atkinson, the team suffered its only winless season, going 0–11.

The BYU Cougars are the collegiate athletic teams that represent Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. BYU has 21 NCAA Varsity athletic teams. They are a member of the West Coast Conference for most sports. Other sports compete in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation, the Western Athletic Conference, and as independents. They were a member of the Mountain West Conference from 1999-2011, before that they competed in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference, the Mountain States Conference, and the WAC.

All teams are named the "Cougars", a name that was first introduced by Eugene L. Roberts in the 1920s, initially only applied to the football team. In 1924 two live cougar kittens named Cleo and Tarbo were brought to BYU and used as its mascots. In 1930 Tarbo died and Cleo was sent to the Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake City. By the 1950s all sports teams were known as the cougars and it was decided that having a person in a costume was a better mascot form than live animals. In 1953 Cosmo the Cougar was created by Dwayne Stevenson. The school's fight song is the "Cougar Fight Song". Because many of its players serve on full time missions for two years, BYU's athletes are often older on average than other school's players. The NCAA allows students to serve missions for two years without subtracting that time from their eligibility period. This has caused minor controversy, but is largely recognized as not lending the school any significant advantage, since players receive no athletic and little physical training during their missions. BYU has also received attention from sports networks for refusal to play games on Sunday, as well as expelling players due to honor code violations.

Riley Nelson (born November 8, 1977) is a Canadian professional ice hockey player who is currently playing for the Colorado Eagles in the Central Hockey League (CHL).