Some things are bigger than sports and that’s exactly what happened between BYU and Texas Tech fans this week.

With both programs gearing up to play each other in a Top 10 showdown with ESPN College Gameday coming to town, fans started the week off enjoying a good banter and trash talk.

After all, Saturday’s game is the biggest in Lubbock since 2008 when the Red Raiders took down No. 1 Texas 39-33, thanks to Michael Crabtree’s game-winning 28-yard touchdown catch with 1 second left in the game.

Fast forward 17 years later, and college students started camping out as soon as the Red Raiders took down Kansas State last Saturday.

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However, ‘hate week’ — the time when opposing fans that week trade good-natured jabs and light hearted trash talk — quickly turned into ‘love week’ as BYU fans and even Kirk Herbstreit came to the rally of a the Ortiz family and their connections to the Texas Tech football team.

Ivan Ortiz is the barber for Texas Tech’s football team. His wife, Maddie, suffered a critical injury after being hit by a drunk driver last month, and now faces multiple surgeries and a long road to recovery, according to the GoFundMe page. Ivan, the family’s sole provider, stepped away to take care of his wife and their three-year-old son.

It took a few weeks, but help finally arrived.

Enter, BYU fans.

It all started from a social media post from BYU supporter “SportyMcSports” who rallied the BYU faithful to “Jimmer” or take over the GoFundMe and to pull up their wallets and drain it, just like Fredette did in his glory days. After posting about it Tuesday morning, the fundraiser quickly grew from $5K to more than $72K in less than 24 hours. As of Thursday evening, the fundraiser has soared to more than $150K. Even ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit got involved by donating $5,000 to the cause.

This was another great reminder of all the good in the world.

And for those that aren’t aware, BYU is the flagship university for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, otherwise known as “LDS” or “Mormons.” During the deadly attack in September in which a gunman opened fire and set a blaze to an LDS church in Detroit, church members — which embrace a spirit of service — ended up fundraising for the widow of the attacker, raising more than $300K for her family. It was a remarkable act of forgiveness and compassion. For members of the church and the BYU faithful, helping out and pitching in is nothing new, and the GoFundMe for the Ortiz family was another example of that.

Another example took place last year before BYU’s showdown with No. 13 Kansas State. Kansas State quarterback Avery Johnson announced that he’d be pledging $1K for every touchdown he scores for the remainder of the season to help Dr. Chris Botts, his former principal at Maize High School, in his battle against cancer.

The only issue was that Johnson’s fundraiser started the week of the BYU game in which the Cougars rolled to a 38-9 victory, keeping the dual-threat quarterback out of the end zone. Enter BYU fans. The Cougar faithful stepped up — even before the game — and raised more than $50K for him.

This week’s fundraiser was the most that I can ever remember that BYU fans raised as part of the football season and that compassion for the Texas Tech community did not go unnoticed as locals and Red Raiders fans all over the world took to social media to thank Cougar nation for all their help.

While the Top 10 showdown between BYU and Texas Tech should be a game to remember on Saturday, this moment serves as a reminder that compassion transcends the game.

Here’s the GoFundMe for those wishing to donate to the Ortiz family.

Follow Justin Giles on Twitter

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