I was in Salt Lake this week, and had dinner Tuesday night with an acquaintance, a law professor at Utah who is from out of sate and went to an Ivy League school. He mentioned that BYU has adopted an explicit policy that whenever there are two comparable candidates for a faculty position, one being a Mormon and the other a Gentile, the Mormon will get the job.

It occurred to me that under President Bateman's stewardship, the Mullahs really have taken the palace at BYU. Former BYU heads Dallen Oaks and Rex Lee, intellectual giants by any measure and University of Chicago alumni, craved the limelight and broad acceptance for BYU, and valued diversity, even as they appreciated its distinctive culture and rules.

BYU steadily drifts further from the mainstream, coming to appear much more like Liberty University than Notre Dame, which may portend the end of its status as a big league college sports school. My BYU friends are dreading the upcoming Brent Musberger-hosted program on the BYU Honor Code--Musberger has never been an admirer of BYU, dubbing it "Bo Diddly Tech" three years ago as BYU followers clamored for an Alliance Bowl bid after their team had beaten not a single top 20 team, and lost to a mediocre Washington team. It has been reported that former BYU athletes who have suffered the blow of BYU's Honor Code Sword of Damocles, and their families, will populate Musberger's show.

Thanks to Utah Boy, we are constantly reminded of the darkly humorous, Orwellian "BYU Cybersnitch form." My bishopric friends tell me that the Mormon Church shows much more compassion for rank and file members--particularly young adults and youth--who succumb to the temptations of alcohol, premarital sex and even illegal drugs, than BYU does to non-Mormons it has recruited, a disproportionate number of whom are minorities. According to the Sunday Tribune article a few weeks ago, BYU's renewed zeal for enforcing its Honor Code is prompted by a hard core group of influential alumni. No doubt these fringe elements would expect their school and Church to show more compassion to their sons and daughters than they tolerate for the young, non-Mormon athletes who have overcome adversity to come to BYU and bring it fame and fortune.

Can BYU athletics survive these extremist impulses (to say nothing of the devastating effect on BYU's reputation as an academic institution of expelling professors for exercising their First Amendment rights)? Following Lavell Edwards' impressive record will be plenty stressful for his successor without regard to BYU's increasing isolation from the main stream. What promising candidate would want such an impossible job? Steve Cleveland, after three straight losing seasons, is on the heels of BYU's most disappointing recruiting year in years. My prediction: unless BYU administrators curb their zealotry, before long the overriding purpose of Cougar Stadium and the Marriott Center will be as sites for massive Sunday night firesides in Summer and Winter, respectively. The Greatest Rivalry in America is endangered. I for one will miss it, even though I take a back seat to no one in my antipathy for BYU.

While this "greatest rivalry" is certainly debatable...let's see USC-UCLA and Ohio -State - Michigan come readily to mind.....what about this firing professors and violating their 1st. amendment rights.....details....details please....

Finally....as a self-described expert on the Mormon faith....how much independence do you really think Bateman exerts??....This deviation from the "mainstream" is probably more a reflection of the attitudes and direction taken by the First Presidency rather than Bateman himself...However, the direction that seems to have been taken is not good news for the football and basketball programs at BYU.....

: how much independence do you really think Bateman exerts??....This deviation from the "mainstream" is probably more a reflection of the attitudes and direction taken by the First Presidency rather than Bateman himself...However, the direction that seems to have been taken is not good news for the football and basketball programs at BYU.....

Well, duh. Hinckley is a Ute Fan. He is secretly orchestrating the downfall of BYU athletics. Your post made it very clear to me. He is a man of great wisdom and power. He will make it happen. You heard it here first!

This post is true comedy. The only chance this rivalry has of dying is if BYU decides to stop carrying the weaks of the west (Utah, CSU, Wyoming, etc..) and moves on to a real conference that will give BYU the respect that they have deserved for years.

News flash--BYU is an LDS school, espousing LDS teachings.

: BYU steadily drifts further from the mainstream, coming to appear
: much more like Liberty University than Notre Dame, which may
: portend the end of its status as a big league college sports
: school.

Have you ever heard the expression a peculiar people? I'm sure you have, but it's obvious you don't get it.

Bo Diddly Tech was a name given to BYU in 1984, the year BYU won the national championship--that's right, Bo Diddly Tech was Number 1 in the nation. It wasn't Musberger who said it--it was some un informed african american who is still searching for a job after getting booted off NBC and having a failed attempt at night time news.

If BYU didn't hold these players to the same high standards that they hold students, people like you would be bitching and moaning that BYU has compromised its integrity all for the love of sport.

: Following Lavell Edwards' impressive record
: will be plenty stressful for his successor without regard to
: BYU's increasing isolation from the main stream. What promising
: candidate would want such an impossible job?

The line has started forming of with very talented, heralded, and respected coaches. None of which would even stoop to coach anywhere near Salt Lake. Crowton, Holmoe, Reed, White. If you don't recognize any of these names, go ask someone who knows something about football to explain to you why these guys would want the "impossible job".

Until then, if it makes you feel better, keep preaching your doom and gloom about BYU on their way down. But when BYU is spanking your ass in November, will you be around on this board talking your smack? I think not. When BYU continues to kick you tails in football recruiting how will you explain that in your big doom and gloom picture? When BYU returns to their old ways and out recruits your basketball team, your only claim to fame, then will you shut your uninformed hole? What might it take?

Crowton, Holmoe, Reed, White.

Are all of these guys LDS, and in good standing? Because if they're not, BYU taking Cleveland over Herrick ought to tell you what the main criteria is.

: even though I take a back seat to no one in my antipathy for BYU.

Whether you dislike the athletic teams or not is one thing all in good fun, but do you have "antipathy" for BYU the institution, paid for and governed by the Church? You probably meant "animosity", but that seems to be a strange attitude for a card carrying member, I know it exists, but it never ceases to amaze me. OTH, perfectly rational for a non-LDS residing in Utah. You have animosity, or "antipathy" for any sports teams. Strange.

I have a lot to get worked up about, but sports aren't one of them.

You may have hit upon something without knowing it. The Sunday issue may kill the athletic programs, not something I'd lose sleep over, even it seems that it might violate the NCAA charter of non-discrimination on the basis of religion and other non-discrimination laws. I doubt BYU has enough clout to prevail and the NCAA showed during the Tarkanian that they will fight until it doesn't matter, irrespective of how many losses they suffer, sort of a war by attrition. By that time, it may be moot because even if BYU prevailed, it would be a Pyrrhic victory. So may yet get your wish to see the total demise of the BYU athletic program.

However, I think you have over-stated the academic issue. Its business departments and some others will keep it rising in economic circles, from a financial point of view. With that its alumnae will be able to contribute more and the school should continue to be more selective. Who knows how long Bateman will stay. These appointments aren't for an eternity. I doubt you're very close to what efforts are employed to diversify and what efforts are not.

So I think you're batting .500, with the athletics poised to fail and the academics poised to succeed. If I had to choose one or the other, I'd root for academics. Athletics is just a pasttime.

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