I went to BYU just like most of the readers of this blog did. Chances are if you are reading this you love BYU as much as I do and you take it to heart when someone besmirches the name of the institution you care about so much. I know that Dead Spin isn't an actual news outlet, but they do a good job at making me laugh at some of the foibles associated with the world of sports. The hatchet job they allowed on their website about race, BYU sports, and the Honor Code was so unbalanced, poorly researched, and ignorant I had to write something about it. http://deadspin.com/#!5791461?comment=38346747:38346747

I didn't play intercollegiate sports at BYU, my athletics were limited to the intramural variety. My freshman year I lived in the same building as a few of the athletes, and as I moved away from BYU I have made friends with a few guys who played for BYU at one time or another. I am not so naive to think that people don't break the Honor Code. I was by no means perfect in that regard. The author's suggestion that race had anything to do with the dismissal of players from BYU is completely and totally wrong. The players who were dismissed or left the program did it because they broke the rules. Rules that were posted throughout the school. I wasn't the only one who saw the big posters in the Wilk, signed the honor code, and received an ecclesiastical endorsement.

I was as bummed as anyone when Brandon Davies was suspended from the BYU Basketball team. He made a mistake and there were consequences. However they were personal and it was unfortunate that he had to have his private life made public, something he didn't sign up for. But he knew what the Honor Code was, and that comes first, even before extended March Madness runs.

I can say for certain that not every non married Mormon was having sex, that BYU is not Nazi like, I never encountered a secret army of honor code informants and that the reason anyone is dismissed from school is because of what they did, and not who they are.