...the BOT are very hard-core about this. Any penny of fundraising for any purpose at BYU must be approved to specific amount. The whole idea is that anything donated to BYU is sacred funds and could have been used for other purposes, as it's the same limited group of donors that are tapped for virtually everything--from missionary fund to perpetual education fund, the BYU's, to of course, tithing and fast offerings.

But it's not just that. There are specific BOT policies that BYU will NOT be beholden to any outside influence, including donors and grants. Hence, when donors have become 'too generous' they are actually turned down. This is also why there are severe limitations on research from federal grants. They want most of the funding for everything to come from the BOT. This is where BYU athletics often skate on ice, because they are also required to be independent--but not too much.

Talk to anyone who has worked at BYU in any capacity for very long, and they'll confirm. Here's a couple of the most interesting cases: They refused to let Ira Fulton give the engineering school $100M cash for a new building 10 years ago; instead, they allowed him to give a much lessor amount to the Hinckley building. He also tried to donate a Riverbottoms mansion to BYU to act as a president's home. They refused to even accept it for cash sale; instead, Cecil Samuelson got to live in a tired, dated condo.

They also have a very hard-core rule that not one new inch of building can be added to BYU without tearing down the same amount of building elsewhere, and fully endowing the maintenance of the building in perpetuity. In order for the Marriott School to expand the Tanner Building, BYU literally shut down the agriculture department and sent it to BYU-Idaho and tore down the chicken coops, etc., to get the necessary space. Unfortunately, they came up a little short on what they needed and only had enough space banked for half of a basement (yes HALF). This actually was more costly because it required different engineering and support, and they tried to get the BOT to budge to save money; but they refused. And so that's why the goofy little Tanner building expansion has half a basement. They are very hardcore about the space thing because they want all net new space to go to BYU-Idaho...Any space creates huge maintenance costs.

You do not want to hear the financial stories on the athletics side, and I don't want to out myself and get Tom mad at me.