Frontpage Features

BY LIZ GORKOWSKI

We all know by now that BYU has suspended Brandon Davies from the basketball team for the rest of the season.   Rumor or truth?  I don’t know which, but it is because he had premarital sex.  Honestly I don’t care what transgression he committed as he navigates his way through his college life, it is not my business.    In my opinion his mistake should be between himself and his school.

Brandon Davies, his teammates and all student body members sign an Honor Code when they enter BYU. If a student chooses to violate the Honor Code that is their choice and with choice comes repercussions.  When I coached at Hawaii Pacific University several years ago, our opponent BYU-Hawaii did not suspend one of their female players when she became pregnant; instead, they kicked her out of school.

So are the consequences of the Honor Code at BYU applied consistently? Why is the female player kicked out of school, but the male player has so far been allowed to remain enrolled in school?  Each committed the same indiscretion but received very different consequences.  What about the student who is not an athlete or a participant in extracurricular activities?  How are they punished when there is no love of the game to take away?

The world of NCAA athletics is fraught with players and coaches cutting corners, violating rules and then refusing to accept responsibility.  Jim “I don’t think less of myself” Tressell can’t figure out whom to report a violation to at Ohio State.  Even though I am 100% positive he has an NCAA Compliance Office in his athletic department and an Athletic Director who could tell him how to find it if he is that confused.  Thank goodness part of his punishment is going to be to attend compliance meetings.  Then again this is the man who convinced the NCAA that his players who committed a violation should sit out games next season and not the Bowl game that was next on their schedule.  (Perhaps the NCAA accepted this because of the money bowl games generate?)  Course we could always reference the precedent set by Tennessee basketball coach Bruce Pearl who cried on television about his mistakes after lying to the NCAA about his cheating ways.  Then several days later “bumps” a recruit while out on the recruiting trail.  Yes, yes I think he learned his lesson well.  I say fire the athletic directors who allow them to get away with this nonsense.

My point is that BYU is an institution that is actually enforcing their rules, their regulations and their Code.  They shouldn’t be commended for enacting their rules, but they are finding themselves in the spotlight because so few schools actually hold their players, coaches and administrators to the standard that is set for them by the NCAA.   My heart breaks for Brandon Davies because the entire country is now aware of the “sexual” misconduct he and his girlfriend committed, since BYU chose to handle their mistake on a national stage, when it is most certainly not any of our business.

FOR NOW I AM GOING TO DRINK A COKE WHILE I GO REMOVE BYU FROM MY ELITE 8 BRACKET.