Sports

Oregon Beating Penn State In Football May Have Helped Cause The Collapse Of Crumbl Cookies

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Crumbl Cookies

© Grace Tucker/Imagn


Sadly for sweet treat lovers across the United States, the Crumbl Cookies business sounds as if it may be, well, crumbling.

According to a new report from Bloomberg, the upstart cookie company that swept the nation in recent years is “battling layoffs, chaotic operations and paper-thin margins.”

And, in a cruel twist of fate, the company might be in a worse financial situation than it would be otherwise thanks to…an Oregon Ducks win over the Penn State Nittany Lions in late September?

While it takes quite a bit of connecting dots, the theory isn’t actually all that far-fetched.

Late in the third quarter of a 3-3 game between undefeated teams, Oregon, ranked No. 6, and Penn State, ranked No. 2, Ducks’ running back Noah Whittington appeared to fumble inside the 10-yard line.

Upon review, Whittington was ruled down by the narrowest of margins, and Oregon went on to take the lead with a touchdown. While Penn State came back to tie it, the Nittany Lions would eventually lose in overtime.

They then lost the next two games to lowly UCLA and Northwestern, leading the school to fire long-time head coach James Franklin.

Crumbl Cookie CEO/Founder Spent Big On BYU Football While Company Struggles

It wasn’t until two months later that we learned that the Nittany Lions were surprisingly targeting BYU head coach Kalani Sitake to replace Franklin. Sitake looked set to take the job, only to have a last-minute change of heart that reportedly involved significant financial backing from BYU donors.

Now, here’s where things get interesting.

One of the biggest financial backers of the BYU football program is Crumb co-founder and CEO Jason McGowan. McGowan didn’t graduate from the school, but he’s a Utah native, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and a huge fan.

McGowan reportedly made a big financial pledge to the university, helping it keep Sitake. Although this sparked some debate within the Mormon community. Franklin, the former Nittany Lions head coach, even seemingly trolled his former university by having Crumbl Cookies at his Virginia Tech signing day event.

Now, however, Bloomberg states that some Crumbl franchises “were turning profits so meager that one unexpected expense could send them tumbling into the red.”

Between that and cookie lovers across the country reacting in shock to the company’s insane calorie counts, Crumbl appears to be in a spot of bother.

And had it not been for Oregon’s victory over Penn State, perhaps McGowan would be better-equipped to step in and help out some of his struggling franchises financially.