Davies Debacle
I think most of you are familiar with the BYU basketball player who was suspended for the remainder of the season due to an honor code violation, having sex outside marriage. I have been meaning to share some thoughts, and I am a little late but thought I would post them anyway.
I just think it is so interesting the timing of this. I haven't heard a clear answer on weather Davies went forward and told BYU, or if someone found out and told him to turn himself in or how exactly it went down, but it's just interesting that this comes out when BYU basketball is #3 and a few weeks before the NCAA tourney. Some people may think the timing is horrible, that he should have waited to tell or BYU authorities should have waited to suspend him, but this is the time that it would receive the most attention in the national spotlight, which I think does the most for the church and for BYU. Sure I have heard many national sports commentators condemning the decision, but I have also heard a TON showing respect for BYU for enforcing the honor code and not giving sports figures special treatment. Here is some ESPN commentators doing just that http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=6174077.
A few years ago I heard that BYU was deciding whether to keep their sports program, I think about the time that two BYU football players were accused of rape in 2005. But it was rumored that it was decided that the BYU sports programs were a way to spread the gospel by bringing non-LDS students to BYU and by putting good upstanding athletes in the national spotlight. But recruiting at BYU also became more strict about who they would recruit and made sure the honor code was explained to players committing to BYU and committing to live the honor code. National commentators, Jim Rome specifically, have asked questions about how a guy like Jim McMahon could have lived the honor code, but I think it wasn't as strictly enforced then. As sad as the situation is for all BYU fans, I really think that this happened to help bring BYU into the national spotlight for being a moral, honorable university. And I think that is way more important than any national Championship.
Here is an interesting article in TIME: Brandon Davies: Is BYU's Premarital Sex Controversy Good For College Sports?
And one of my friends posted this clip of a girl from BYU on Jim Rome. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tf3jnTpoxFw&feature=player_embedded
I think it is interesting that so many people ask the question, how can 30,000 BYU students live the honor code, but it is interesting that they don't realize that 14 million LDS members around the world live the honor code. Not to mention the several million people of various belief systems who live the principles of the honor code. The interesting thing is we look at them and think how can you live a life sleeping with different people drinking and doing drugs? In some cases I think we are both considering the extremes, they think we sit home and nit and we think they are high all the time, but their is a ton of middle ground that makes our lives similar. They ask, what could you possibly do for fun without alcohol and sex? We do the normal things you do, just without alcohol: watching sports, going dancing, eating, going bowling, whatever everyone does.
Another article by Trib columnist Gordon Monson brings up a lot of interesting points, but basically argues that BYU's honor code is stricter than the church's and has harsher penalties. Although I don't agree with everything he says, I do think some of the stricter rules are weird like facial hair for men, and I think they should coincide exactly with church standards. He does talk about how people who have sinned feel their Bishops are there to help and the Honor Code office is their to punish, and he argues that their shouldn't be a need for an Honor Code office that people should just work with their Bishops. That I think is a good idea.
Although it is really sad for Davies and for the team, I think overall this may have introduced people to BYU and their standards who wouldn't have normally known, especially basketball fans.
I just think it is so interesting the timing of this. I haven't heard a clear answer on weather Davies went forward and told BYU, or if someone found out and told him to turn himself in or how exactly it went down, but it's just interesting that this comes out when BYU basketball is #3 and a few weeks before the NCAA tourney. Some people may think the timing is horrible, that he should have waited to tell or BYU authorities should have waited to suspend him, but this is the time that it would receive the most attention in the national spotlight, which I think does the most for the church and for BYU. Sure I have heard many national sports commentators condemning the decision, but I have also heard a TON showing respect for BYU for enforcing the honor code and not giving sports figures special treatment. Here is some ESPN commentators doing just that http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=6174077.
A few years ago I heard that BYU was deciding whether to keep their sports program, I think about the time that two BYU football players were accused of rape in 2005. But it was rumored that it was decided that the BYU sports programs were a way to spread the gospel by bringing non-LDS students to BYU and by putting good upstanding athletes in the national spotlight. But recruiting at BYU also became more strict about who they would recruit and made sure the honor code was explained to players committing to BYU and committing to live the honor code. National commentators, Jim Rome specifically, have asked questions about how a guy like Jim McMahon could have lived the honor code, but I think it wasn't as strictly enforced then. As sad as the situation is for all BYU fans, I really think that this happened to help bring BYU into the national spotlight for being a moral, honorable university. And I think that is way more important than any national Championship.
Here is an interesting article in TIME: Brandon Davies: Is BYU's Premarital Sex Controversy Good For College Sports?
And one of my friends posted this clip of a girl from BYU on Jim Rome. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tf3jnTpoxFw&feature=player_embedded
I think it is interesting that so many people ask the question, how can 30,000 BYU students live the honor code, but it is interesting that they don't realize that 14 million LDS members around the world live the honor code. Not to mention the several million people of various belief systems who live the principles of the honor code. The interesting thing is we look at them and think how can you live a life sleeping with different people drinking and doing drugs? In some cases I think we are both considering the extremes, they think we sit home and nit and we think they are high all the time, but their is a ton of middle ground that makes our lives similar. They ask, what could you possibly do for fun without alcohol and sex? We do the normal things you do, just without alcohol: watching sports, going dancing, eating, going bowling, whatever everyone does.
Another article by Trib columnist Gordon Monson brings up a lot of interesting points, but basically argues that BYU's honor code is stricter than the church's and has harsher penalties. Although I don't agree with everything he says, I do think some of the stricter rules are weird like facial hair for men, and I think they should coincide exactly with church standards. He does talk about how people who have sinned feel their Bishops are there to help and the Honor Code office is their to punish, and he argues that their shouldn't be a need for an Honor Code office that people should just work with their Bishops. That I think is a good idea.
Although it is really sad for Davies and for the team, I think overall this may have introduced people to BYU and their standards who wouldn't have normally known, especially basketball fans.
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