<ast week, Brandon Davies, Bringham Young University’s star forward, was dismissed from the school’s basketball team after breaking the school’s honor code by having sex with his girlfriend. This story summoned up a number of conflicting responses in me. Firstly: what the WHAT? What century is this?
The BYU honor code is notoriously hard to follow in today’s society – it outlaws, among other things, premarital sex, alcohol, cursing, and caffeine. Seeing as I would last about 2 hours at BYU before flipping everyone off due to a massive caffeine-withdrawal headache, I commend Brandon Davies, and all BYU students, really, for sticking it out so long without the aforementioned comforts (sins?). BYU is certainly not for everyone, and especially not for me.
But even when I try and put my initial reactions and love of caffeine and cursing (among other things on that list) aside, the whole things still seems like huge over-reaction on BYU’s part. It seems ridiculous to punish a college basketball player for having what we’re assuming to be consensual sex with his girlfriend. That doesn’t sound that horrible, does it? You’d think that BYU would focus its efforts on more pressing issues in today’s society – maybe the rampant abuse of caffeinated-teas?
On the other hand, I understand that Davies had to have been aware of what he was getting into when he signed with BYU, and so should be held accountable when he breaks his part of the deal. In some ways, it’s commendable that BYU is standing by its definition of what it takes to be a part of their team (no matter how weird the criteria). This is especially true when, as of late, there seem to be a number of reports of athletes remaining on their respective teams even after committing violent and reprehensible crimes. On any other team, Davies would have been an idea role model – he’s just on a team that doesn’t see it that way, which is really unfortunate for everyone.
So even after much contemplation, I still really don’t know how I feel about this whole issue. I do know that to BYU, I say congrats on standing by what you think is right, even though I think you might want to reevaluate that a bit seeing as, you know, it’s not 1830. And to Brandon – poor, poor Brandon, I’d have to offer my condolences. He lost his spot on the #3 ranked college basketball team in the county for behaving like a normal college student.
