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The Utah football team celebrated a 63-9 blowout of Cal Poly on social media this week. In the process, it exposed its online burner account.
Questions have now been raised regarding potentially shady behavior. Can the Utes be punished?
I am not a lawyer. I am simply relaying information seen on the internet. Speculation surrounding copyright law is rising following Utah’s recent social media activity.
Utah football exposed its burner account.
𝐈𝐭’𝐬 𝐟𝐮𝐧 𝐭𝐨 𝐰𝐢𝐧🙌pic.twitter.com/5Ti1bLLnFZ
— Utah Football (@Utah_Football) September 8, 2025
The social media team posted a video of sights and sounds following the win over Cal Poly. Utah was not the initial publisher.
The original clip was posted by account @videoz12345. It its the Utes’ burner account.
The timeline is filled with Utah hype videos and game highlights, which have been later reshared by school. But why? Some hint that the Utes are attempting to skirt possible copyright violations.
How are burner accounts useful?
An investigative report into Barstool Sports shed light on how these burners can be used. The company has been accused of “pass[ing] their own original work through a burner if there’s the slightest chance of a copyright violation, usually whenever a video includes licensed music.”
This network has laundered incalculable amounts of copyright-protected sports and entertainment videos and reaped billions of views over at least the last four years.
-The Daily Beast
Essentially, Barstool was accused of swiping copyrighted material through burners and reposting it to their main sites to gain views. In doing so, they exploited a loophole. Video creation could not be traced direclty back to the company.
Is Utah football doing the same?
I haven’t seen a major account do this in awhile. Tweeting out a video with copyrighted music from a burner account and then “video 1-ing” the video on Twitter so legally they didn’t post it 😂 https://t.co/sGFv5qZU08
— Joseph Peter (@JoePallas54) September 9, 2025
Followers suggest legal action could be taken if so. “It’s creative for sure… I just don’t think it’ll hold up in court when they get sued,” said Joseph Peter on X.
Let’s be clear. Utah is not the only program doing this. They are just the latest to be singled out.
Attack everything.
pic.twitter.com/HFoD8q0r2w— Nebraska Football (@HuskerFootball) August 28, 2025
Media companies use the tactic daily. In most cases, it seems punishment comes in the form of the original video being removed from social media.
By that point, the account sharing the clip has already gotten the views. We’ll see if Utah continues to use the burner account moving forward.