That is my opinion. It's not a cute-cuddly opinion. I'll admit it.

The adage of "Those that can't do, teach" is not entirely false in this instance.

When it comes time to review graduate applications and the admissions committee is reading a letter of recommendation (LOR) written by someone with an EdD (in a non-education field) and zero published research, it weakens your application. When the committee Googles the recommendor's name and finds the BYU-Idaho website with no faculty photos (which is hilariously low budget), it just looks sort of flimsy.

I am well aware that many BYU-Idaho students go on to graduate school (even research based programs!). The argument has never been as binary as it is being portrayed. Yes, many BYU-Idaho students do indeed find their way into graduate school. But distribution-wise, I would hypothesize that they are less likely to be accepted than a BYU graduate with the same GPA, GRE, etc. Admissions committees place significant weight on LORs. And when you have a LOR written by someone with a PhD in the subject and 15 years of published research, it just weighs a lot more than a faceless faculty member (who calls themselves "Brother Jones") who has no published research to his or her name.