Two female students under investigation after appearing topless at Utah university football game

A University of Utah spokesperson said the women could face “potential noncriminal sanctions”

Two female students at the University of Utah have have been placed under police investigation following reports of two women attending a football game while topless.

The university said in a statement on Monday that the alleged incident occurred at the weekend’s game against Southern Utah University.

“Two women attended the game topless and wearing body paint on their torsos,” the university statement said, while adding that “a female officer asked them to put on their shirts. They complied with the request.”

While the university said initially that detectives “will follow up this week to screen for any potential criminal charges,” a University of Utah spokesperson Christopher Nelson told Deseret News the students could face “potential noncriminal sanctions.”

Pictures from the Rice-Eccles Stadium, where the Utah Utes football team played on Saturday, appeared to show two women wearing body paint in the form of red shirts with a white “U”.

The university’s own branding guide, as Axios reported on Tuesday, features topless male students with similar painted red shirts white a white “U”.

Utah is one of only three US states that bans women from exposing bare breasts, which women’s rights campaigners and advocacy groups such as Go Topless have challenged because such laws treat women differently from men.

One witness who attended the match, Melea Johnson, said in an interview with Deseret News that she and her husband witnessed the two students entering the stadium and were surprised that the duo were allowed-in by security.

“Our first reaction is to create like a wall or shield in front of our children so they can’t see it,” said the YouTube personality and mother of two. “There’s a police officer standing there and I think ‘There’s no way he’s gonna let them in.’ And they just walked right past him”.

The University of Utah added in its statement that it referred students to its guide on behaviour at athletics games, which does not specifically mention clothing but does encourage fans to help promote “a family friendly experience”.

The Utah Utes football stadium in Salt Lake City, Utah (Getty Images)

“We want to be very clear that profanity, public intoxication, rude and disrespectful behaviour, racial and derogatory comments or verbal attacks directed at individuals or groups will not be tolerated,” said Utah university President Taylor Randall and Athletics Director Mark Harlan in a letter to football ticket holders.

“Anyone who engages in unsafe or inappropriate conduct will be removed from the premises, may lose all privileges and access for future university events and could be reported to law enforcement,” the letter added.

On Twitter, many expressed disbelief at the police investigation into the female students following recent admission from the same institution that it mishandled allegations of domestic violence against women, as The Salt Lake Tribune reported.

“So they’ll look into Women wearing body paint but, don’t look into stalkers or dangerous men who are a danger to our coed’s?,” wrote one social media user. “ F****** ridiculous!”

Referring to a recent incident of alleged racism at a Duke University game, Democrat Utah Senate candidate Nate Blouin added: “Is there any doubt they’re (the Utah students) going to get banned but the BYU racist isn’t?

Another Twitter user meanwhile wrote: “I was with my kids in the tailgate lot where they were. They walked right by us. Without taking a long look, they looked no different than if they hard shirts on as they had body paint on. This is Utah…the state…in its finest. And go”.