never once felt threatened and the negative experiences with drunk people were practically none-existent (did have one drunk SDSU fan in a Viking hat sitting a few people away and being annoying once). Oh, and I guess a 50 ish female New Mexico fan got in my ten year old's face to gloat when some other team (not New Mexico) beat BYU.

But, seriously, the negative fan interactions for the vast majority of people weren't any worse than any other neutral site or road experience.

IMO, some BYU fans don't know how to de-escalate. (Of course it isn't just BYU fans as we see from all the videos of fist fights in stands surfacing lately).

In my experience, there are some easy things to do to get along with opponent fans in nearly every situation. I typed a longer post about this a long time ago, but the abbreviated version goes like this:

1. Strike up a friendly conversation before the game. Include something nice about one of the other team's players, coach, town or whatever. If you're in a true road game, say something nice about the stadium or the scenery. Or the other team's tradition.

2. Compliment a good play made by the other team early in the game. "That was a nice throw." "That was a great shot."

3. If you think the refs blew a call in your team's favor, say something like, "I don't know about that call."

4. Cheer when your team does something well, but don't be obnoxious about it. Don't taunt.

5. If your team loses and another fan tries to get in your face about it, say something like, "Good job" or "[Opponent] played a great game." It's amazing how fast that changes the attitude of most people. After Kawhi Leonard's SDSU team beat Jimmer's BYU, a San Diego State fan was yelling and taunting, "You got Jimmered" and looking in my direction. I clapped and said, "San Diego State really took it to us today. Good job." His face immediately turned from taunting to apologetic, to friendly. He came over, shook my hand, said what a great team BYU had and that he hoped we met in the Final Four.

Of course, this isn't guaranteed, but it gets you out of unpleasant situations about 99% of the time.