of course it's not standard. And yes, irreligious people can be moral and ethical, just as religious people can be immoral and unethical, but those are two different arguments you're making.

Regarding your first, BYU first "made their stand" when there was almost no collegiate competition on Sundays anyway, and the majority of universities wanted it that way. At the time, it wasn't "special treatment," it was a belief held by most people in a Christian nation that those who were devout to that specific tenet of Christianity shouldn't be penalized for it. The rest of the nation changedTHEIR stance and eroded their principles, not BYU.

And regarding your second, statistics have shown by basically any measure, morality and ethics are much more highly correlative to groups who are religious. People LOVE to point to every anecdotal incident of a religious person doing immoral things. The ultimate atheist "gotcha!" And people who would tear down religion usually piggyback it with further anecdote in which an atheist does something moral and kind to contrast with the previous one. Unfortunately, it's just that - cherry-picked anecdotes to discredit targeted institutions of religion. Irreligion does a YEWTPOOR job of cultivating morality.