Wasn't Going to Happen Anyways

Just so I'm not the last person in the universe to have an opinion on the BYU Honor Code situation, here goes:

It kind of sucks to be that guy. The best BYU basketball team in at least 30 years, and it just went out the window. But as it has been said - it's not like he didn't know the rules.

It's been interesting to hear the opinions of some of the local sports media the past couple of days. I always listen to Vic and Gary in the morning. Vic Lombardi is a sportscaster for CBS4. He attended Notre Dame and admitted that while Notre Dame had an honor code, it wasn't quite as strict as the one at BYU. However, he praised BYU for having values and sticking to them.

Mark Kiszla had a column in the Denver Post this morning about it. He basically said that BYU had done the kid wrong by booting him off the team, but at the same time he seemed to praise BYU for sticking to their guns. That's pretty high praise considering Kiszla is probably the most negative person in the Denver sports media.

Obviously, being a BYU graduate, I don't disagree with the decision and certainly wouldn't expect anything less. When I was a student there, I remember them holding star running back Luke Staley out of a football game because he had dropped a class and wound up under the minimum credit hours. So BYU benched him to keep on the right side of the NCAA law.

While BYU does love their sports, they do take a back seat and you'll never see them sell their souls to the devil for a chance at a national championship the way many other programs around the country do.

As for the notion that the suspension cost BYU a chance at the Final Four - let's be serious, folks. The Cougs were probably not going to the Final Four, with or without Brandon Davies. This is a program that hasn't made the Sweet Sixteen of the NCAA tournament since 1981. Regardless of whether or not they would have received a #1 or #2 seed, they probably would have been out in Round 2 just like every other year. How's that for pessimism?

While I think it is really cool that BYU was 27-2 and ranked #3 in the country just six days ago, I'm not a rabid Cougar fan the way many other alumni are. I'm glad to see when they do well, but I don't walk around sporting BYU gear and I'm too indifferent to even drive to Colorado Springs or Fort Collins to see them play. And I don't have the right TV package, so I can't even watch any BYU games on TV if I wanted to, because I don't get that Mtn. channel.

It would have been interesting to see what would have happened if BYU had made a run at the Final Four, given that the semifinal games are played during the Priesthood session of General Conference, and the final is played on Monday night - smack in the middle of Family Home Evening time. BYU doesn't play football on the Saturday of fall conference and back when I was a student they didn't play basketball on Monday nights unless it started after 10.

And now we'll never get to find out how they would have handled it. Maybe it's a good thing we had this controversy first. It kind of preempts the controversy which was to come.