They don't officially represent the church, but they still represent the church whether they or you like it or not. It's like Charles Barkley back in the day saying, "I am not a role model." He was a role model whether he liked it or not. If I do something stupid at a football game it doesn't reflect poorly upon the church to the fans of the other team. If I act like an idiot on other team's message boards it doesn't reflect poorly upon the church. If I was an Aggie football player and implied my team was more righteous and we therefore won or spewed off a bunch of lines about hating another team and school it wouldn't reflect poorly on the church. I'm sorry, but we're just not on equal ground. I know a small portion of BYU fans and athletes are like this but some are and in my own little opinion it reflects more poorly than positively on the church and I, for that reason, don't like BYU athletics. Am I sinning? As far as BYU being an academic institution, I get annoyed by the attitude of some students/alum, but beyond that I harbor no ill feelings toward the school and think its grads have done a lot of good for the church. I read an article the other day about successful BYU grads and I beamed with pride.