quite often for breaking the rules? That the only school who has won a football national championship without NCAA penalties in its history is BYU? If anyone has it "figured out" it's BYU. Also, realize that BYU is of course owned by the church. That means they have much different goals than other schools. That should not be surprising to anyone.

Look, all I'm saying is BYU has different goals beyond sports. That should not be surprising. But don't take my word for it, ask the Brethren. I'm not the one making decisions, so don't get angry at me. I'm just saying that sports is not more important than academics to church leaders. If it ever came down to a decision between those two, they'd yank the sports (see BYU-Idaho).

I can say as a faculty member I have never been asked to make accommodations for athletes, besides of course excusing them for practices and away games. And I think that's good. Other schools routinely pay for their athletes tests and grades to be altered, and for them to be enrolled in sham programs. That's very routine (see The System by Benedict). I would be disturbed if I learned that BYU administration was forcing an academic program to accept an athlete that they didn't want in their program. I'd be disturbed to learn of that happening at any school. I'm just asking for us to be reasonable here ... we should not expect BYU to break rules to let athletes in. This is different for undergraduates, where there is often a minimum bar and an average, and even if a student doesn't reach the average, if they pass the minimum bar they can get in, and that's a decision the administration can make if they want. That's much different than walking into a faculty meeting and requiring a grad program to accept a student they don't want.

BTW, we've actually had students apply to our grad program whose parents are apostles or general authorities. Even then we never hear a squeak about it from BYU or church leadership about accommodating them. I think that's good that BYU doesn't try to force in students through a back door against the department's processes.