of all participants, should pay "no bearing on whether he gets into the program or not"???
There are valid reasons that schools make accommodations for kids like this, BYU would be wise to follow their lead on this one. We aren't talking about some lazy bum. This kid has excelled at what he does.
Finally.... take a look at the sports broadcasters out there. How many are ex-athletes? Won't the fact that this kid played competitive D1 sports mean he's much more likely to land a sportscasting job than just about anyone else in that grad program? His experience on the field is real world experience for the sports reporting business. BYU would be unwise to discount that experience.