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As a college football fan, Cameron Banning sees all of the reasons why Brigham Young University would make a good fit for the Big 12. As an experienced in-game announcer for that sports conference, he would like one day to take in a game from a box at LaVell Edwards Stadium.
But that hardly means Banning, as an openly gay man, wouldn't have some trepidations about making the trip to the Provo campus.
"I've announced BYU in many sports when they've played Big 12 teams," said Banning, who worked four years as an announcer for Kansas State basketball, volleyball and baseball before recently moving to Austin, where he now works part time in the University of Texas' athletics department. "Every interaction I've had with a BYU student, faculty and fan has always been great. Zero issues. But there is that code. As an LGBT person working in the Big 12, it could be a problem."
BYU's Honor Code has come under fire again this week, with more than two dozen advocacy groups asking Big 12 officials to exclude The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints-owned school from being considered in the league's expansion plans because of the institution's polices toward lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer students and faculty. The letter, signed by Athlete Ally and GLAAD, among other advocacy groups, and delivered to Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby, asserts that BYU "actively and openly discriminates against its LGBT students and staff."
"Given BYU's homophobic, biphobic and transphobic policies and practices, BYU should not be rewarded with Big 12 membership," the letter states.
And according to a report Wednesday from The Dallas Morning News, the letter already is having an impact in the conference's discussions. Citing "multiple industry and Big 12 sources," none of whom the newspaper named, "BYU's strong football tradition, national following and 63,000-capacity stadium may not be enough to secure Big 12 membership."
"It is a serious issue," one anonymous source was quoted as saying. "Whether it keeps them out or not, it is a serious issue."
The concerns of gay athletes about traveling to events at BYU has only added to the seriousness of the issue.
Former University of Oklahoma pole vaulter Tanner Williams said he was quickly embraced by school and conference officials when he came out as gay during his college career.
"I was accepted right off the bat. There were LGBT programs set in place for students and coaches for training and other student-run organizations as well," he said. "The Big 12 has shown no type of exclusion during my process. When I asked for my name to be changed, they changed it, both at OU and at Big 12 competitions with no questions asked. I would like to see any athlete feel comfortable to be who they are in the Big 12. Adding a school that is homonegative can destroy that type of atmosphere."
Williams said he would refuse to travel to BYU for a meet were he still competing.
"LGBT athletes should not have to compete at a school where they do not feel comfortable or accepted," he said.
Vince Pryor, a former Texas Christian University defensive end and linebacker who came out as gay to his teammates during his senior season in 1994, said he would also be apprehensive traveling to BYU.
"What would happen if someone found out I was gay, playing football at the facility there?" he said.
The response from BYU officials, meanwhile, is that nothing would happen. They say the school's Honor Code doesn't, and never has, applied to visitors.
"LGBT players, coaches and fans are always welcome to the BYU campus. Everyone should be treated with respect, dignity and love," BYU Athletic Director Tom Holmoe wrote on Twitter this week.
One gay, former BYU athlete who reached out to The Salt Lake Tribune, said he believed Athlete Ally's letter was well intentioned but misguided.
"I never received any discrimination," said the man, who asked not to be identified because he has not come out publicly. "On the contrary, as I came out to a handful of close friends and teammates at BYU, the initial surprise was quickly met with love, acceptance and toleration. The LGBT cause is being furthered at BYU, just in a different method."
The BYU alumnus said he believed those who have expressed fears about LGBT athletes competing in Provo were speaking from ignorance.
"It's a different environment at BYU. It's a church school. But there's never a situation where a gay person should feel threatened," he said. "I never felt that way. The Honor Code is different. But you know what the situation is going in, whether you're gay or straight.
"I heard more [anti-gay] things at other schools where we competed," he added, "than anything at BYU."
Still, BYU, ranked by The Princeton Review as one of the nation's least LGBT-friendly campuses, packs a perception that troubles many.
"The issue, if you are LGBT, is fear — fear that something could happen because of that stance," Banning said. "Do I think something would? Probably not. But there's a percentage that it could happen, and that's scary to those who just want to compete."
In a time when more and more athletes have shown the courage to come out as gay, Banning worries that the addition of BYU to the Big 12 could keep athletes closeted.
"We're getting better … and people are getting more and more educated and more and more accepting of it," he said. If BYU were to join the league, "someone may not come out because they know they might be going to Provo and they've got that fear. Fear alone keeps many people in the closet. It definitely could hinder the progress that the Big 12 and many other schools across the country have made."
At BYU, one LGBT student group estimates there are between 1,200 and 3,000 gay students.
The unsanctioned BYU group called Understanding Same-Gender Attraction was not among the 25 organizations urging BYU's exclusion from possible Big 12 expansion, but President Addison Jenkins said "we definitely welcome the conversation."
"We're not talking about changing [LDS Church] doctrine," Jenkins said, "but there are a lot of ways that BYU could welcome its LGBT students and provide resources."
TCU and Baylor — two Big 12 schools with Christian affiliations — either have adopted a nondiscrimination policy that includes sexual orientation and gender identity or, in Baylor's case, recently removed policy language that specifically targets LGBT students.
Jenkins would like to see BYU follow suit as well as offer resources such as group therapy and sanctioned clubs for LGBT students, along with cultural-competency training for incoming students and faculty.
"As the flagship educational institution of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which prides itself on following the example of the savior, I would hope that BYU doesn't need public pressure to do the right thing," Jenkins added. "I think BYU can and should live up to its own very high expectations of how we treat one another as children of God without any external pressure."
Pryor, meanwhile, believes the issue of LGBT protections should be one for the NCAA, rather than leaving it to individual schools and conferences. If BYU is welcomed into the Big 12 without making a change, Pryor said, he would be "disappointed."
"This is a huge opportunity for people on both sides of the fence, the Big 12 and BYU, to make a statement about what kind of organization and what kind of conference they're going to be.
"These organizations and schools need to be on the right side of history and make the right decisions," Pryor said, "because it affects everyone."
Twitter: @aaronfalk