But this keeps coming up. I know that tithing being used at BYU has been brought up so many times and discussed at great lengths. It is my understanding that tithing does not directly pay for football program costs. That is handled by revenues brought in by the team (which also is used to pay for other athletic programs because it's a cash cow for the AD). Sure, the players take classes from professors who are paid from tuition and tithing funds, but that is tangential. Kind of like how any athlete at any college or university takes classes from professors who are paid from tuition and tax dollars. I don't think tithing funds are used to recruit athletes . . . . but I'm willing to eat crow if someone can prove that my understanding is wrong.

To your second point about losing Burt to USU . . . . I don't think the $1.5 million had anything to do with that. The guy is graduating and probably frustrated with his prior PT situation at BYU, so he chose to transfer to a school closer to home. And maybe he wants a graduate degree in animal husbandry?????? Your question about whether that would have happened under LE . . . well, that was a totally different culture back then. I may be wrong, but I don't recall a ton of transfers 20 years ago, other than JC guys. While I hate to see guys go (especially when they go to an in-state team) I realize that's a door that swings both ways in the current football culture . . . . BYU gets guys through transfers and loses guys . . . long gone are the days when high profile recruits were willing to sit on the bench and learn for two or even three years before getting their chance to play under the lights in meaningful game time. We live in a culture of instant gratification and people will leave and blame others if they don't get what they want, right now. Lavell never had to deal with that mentality.

It's apples and oranges.