Premarital sex ended Brandon Davies' dream season for BYU, shocking basketball fans. McKay Coppins on why the Mormon honor code outranks March Madness.
Earlier this week, the star forward on Brigham Young University's nationally ranked basketball team was suspended for the season after violating the school's Honor Code. The 6-foot-9 sophomore didn't plagiarize any term papers, nor did he commit any felonies. No, Brandon Davies was booted from the team after admitting to administration officials that he'd had sex with his girlfriend. (Commence the "scoring" jokes now.)
Related story on The Daily Beast: Eyewitness to the Firing Squad
The news came at the high point of the team's best season in decades. Fresh off a road victory last weekend over No. 6 San Diego State, BYU was being projected as a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament, and some pundits were talking about them as national-championship contenders. With all eyes already on the BYU Cougars, the suspension has lit up call-in radio shows nationwide and baffled the sports blogosphere. Is getting lucky with your girlfriend really so heinous a crime that the school is willing to blow its team's dream season-and maybe even a student's academic career?
BYU, which is owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, has mostly tried to stay away from that question. Rather than wade into a philosophical debate about the merits of chastity, officials have simply explained that all BYU students are required to live an Honor Code that requires, among other things, sexual abstinence before marriage. The rules are unambiguous, the argument goes, and to make an exception for an athlete would be an indefensible double standard. As BYU Head Coach Dave Rose put it, "A lot of people try to judge whether this is right or wrong, but it's a commitment they make. It's not about right or wrong, it's about commitment."
But as a former BYU student who isn't beholden to any approved list of talking points, I can answer the question a bit more directly. Does the BYU administration really see premarital sex as such a serious offense that it's worth blowing a national championship over?
Does the BYU administration really see premarital sex as such a serious offense that it's worth blowing a national championship over? Absolutely.
Absolutely.
The thing about BYU's Honor Code is that it isn't treated on campus as some vague set of academic policies that's forgotten after freshman orientation. It's a lifestyle-utterly linked to Mormon theology, and enforced by a mix of peer pressure and personal conscience. It's debated constantly in the pages of the campus newspaper, and local Mormon bishops frequently preach obedience to student congregations.
From BYU's website, here's the basic list of Honor Code principles: