Re: Gordon Monson’s column of Dec. 13: “Is religious bias keeping BYU out of a Power Five conference?”
Has Monson, after years of trying out for the position, finally become the leader of the FARMS apologists’ chapter for the BYU football program”? Looks like it as he sings the tune of the Y being held to a “religious” test for exclusion from Power 5 conferences. Maybe it’s not that they don’t want a Mormon school, per se, it’s that they simply don’t want the “output” of what that school’s process produces in the world of college academics, plus athletics.
“Semi-secret” Honor Code rules, failed DNA science, strange religious practices, male-dominated societies, and just poor general believability in an otherwise academic/collegiate world. What he is trying to describe is simply not a religious test for PAC 12 entry, but a reality test, based on their historically adding “reason”-based, not faith-based institutions.
Clearly, the Y’s athletic product is more aligned with the Jesus Christ conference; I mean WCC, not a Power 5-level product. Gordon, please advise that the Y go back to MWC football, go undefeated twice, totally rout a perennial national champ to finish No. 2, like Utah already did, then reapply for P-5 acceptance.
Your historical comparisons to the 1980s Bosco/Detmer years is simply not a legitimate argument anymore.
Best regards and keep up the great work at The Tribune.
Jeff Clawson, M.D., Holladay