Spiritual over the Material: A College Athletics Oxymoron

Brandon Davies is a normal human being. Like me and most American men, he likes having sex with women. Like many of those men, and unlike many Republicans, Mr. Davies enjoys that sex outside of marriage. Of course, that is the drawback to being a Division I athlete at Brigham Young University: you can't enjoy many of the substance abuse and carnal experiences that are a hallmark of nearly every other university in the US, even those with religious backing. Even Utah's other universities, known for being a bit more puritan even as public institutions, have this video on the internet to speak for their board of regents (DEFINITELY NSFW for a second).

But the question remains, why sacrifice this material success? I take a lot of issues with Mormons, including the retroactive conversions of dead people, the ridiculousness of modern religion in the face of modern science (of course, there are theories on the early monotheistic religions that show similar outlandishness), and any sort of evangelization. I still complain about the Mormon Penn basketball player who was name-dropped outside of Chipotle by missionaries. I was tempted to yell at him, but I just walked on, disgusted at the way one of the lazier students in our school (loved reading my notes in recitations and saying whatever I wrote) exploited his fame to spread his religion.

So why did BYU sacrifice a possible national title as they probably bring in a national player of the year in Jimmer Fredette? Because they're holier than thou. The same can be said about the player jealous that he waited for marriage to fuck his wife while Brandon Davies ignored God and only asked for the consent of his girlfriend. BYU would rather come out on top spiritually instead of in the standings. They laugh in the face of Notre Dame's multiple football titles, because when salvation comes, they think the Earth will swallow South Bend and leave Provo unscathed, gang rape or not.

So don't mind BYU. They could care less about material success. As long as they come out on top in the moral competition, it's a victory for them. It's funny that this would be their biggest victory yet.