Brigham Young U. Investigates Improper Benefits Claims against Student Athletes
Administrators are potentially calling a “foul” at Brigham Young University (BYU).
The school is now formally investigating allegations that former student-athletes accepted improper benefits.
BYU spokesman Duff Tittle confirmed the probe to ESPN’s Brent McMurphy, but the NCAA would not comment on the matter. 1280 the Zone, a radio station in Salt Lake City, Utah, first reported the allegations.
Sam Leaf, the manager of former BYU wide receiver Cody Hoffman, told the station the school contacted his client to question him about improper benefits accepted by former players. Occurring “a couple months ago,” Leaf said Hoffman did not accept anything himself and refused to answer questions, at the time stating he wanted to focus on preparing himself for the NFL.
“We are aware of the allegations and have been conducting a thorough review of the matter,” Tittle said.
BYU is a private school in Provo, Utah and it is owned and operated by the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints. BYU has a strict student honor code, which head football coach Bronco Mendenhall has previously stated keeps athletes out of trouble.
“I would really like to be the alternative,” he told ESPN in 2011. “I’m not saying we’re perfect or there couldn’t be a violation at some point, I would really like a program to be successful and show that you can win by playing by the rules and doing it with high standards.”
BYU is the only NCAA Division I football program with a National Championship title and no major violations.
Sources told the Salt Lake Tribune BYU is investigating former director of football operations Duane Busby, who suddenly resigned in March after holding his position for 18 years. The timeline holds up with Hoffman being contacted about the allegations.
A former player who wished to remain anonymous said players naturally found their way to Busby, but the former administrator tended to single out the best skill position players on the team.
BYU Investigating Improper Benefits Allegations, Could Self-Impose Penalties on Football Program (University Herald)
Comments
BYU (Brigham Young University) has a STRICT requirement of adherence of its students to the precepts of the Church of Latter Day Saints (Mormon)about consumption of alcohol and other common drugs like caffiene.
I admire the Mormons, having lived in the west as a Methodist with many Mormon friends. As a PhD Chemical Engineer, I have attended several engineering conferences in Provo.
The thing is, dinner preparations on campus were the same as usual, with wine glasses. The glasses filled with fruit juices, as if BYU were a “normal” university serving wine with dinner.
My Mormons friends were no strangers to alcohol, as were many of their Mormon parents.
In the matter at hand, it is painfully obvious to anyone with a brain, that BYU is no different than most other universities that let their athletes do what they want to do, and keep their athletes fully funded and protected from their transgressions, some of which are legally serious.
BYU is the same as every NCAA university, no matter its stated relationship as a Mormon institution. Drugs, alcohol, sexual offences, phantom classes, etc. are protected because it is all about winning. WINNING IS EVERYTHING, no matter the downsides to the religion.