My associate with insider LD$ inc connections claims that surgeon PRofit Nelson intends to do some radical cutting on BYU collegiate athletics in the future.

PRofit Nelson is only holding off on eliminating mighty and MORmON beloved BYU Football in the interest of fulfilling LD$ inc's contract with ESPN in order to avoid lawsuits on the matter. When the ESPN contract is fulfilled then BYU Football will be gone, because LD$ inc is hurting for money far more than they are letting on.

Well, then there is this that just broke in the SL Tribune:


https://www.sltrib.com/sports/byu-cougars/2018/11/09/ncaa-comes-down-byu-over/

Pretty serious I think.

WOW. Such an institution of integrity my alma mater.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/09/2018 05:58PM by Elder Berry.

Gosh Darn - Where is that “Power of Discernment” when you really need it?

BYU basketball was sanctioned today for special perks given to Nick Emery by boosters. They have to vacate 47 wins. No small thing to those who care. I don't.

Although I'd love to see it, I doubt it. NCAA D-1 football is a cash cow for colleges, especially BYU. ESPN would probably be glad to terminate their contract with BYU. It's a money loser for them. No where near the teams or viewers that they were told/predicted. There's a reason D-1 football coaches are usually the highest paid people at a University. Alumni donations are primarily from athletic fans.

Plus D-1 football typically funds other NCAA sports as well (swimming, gymnastics, track & field, etc.) If BYU football goes down, it would take a lot of other programs down with it. And at a certain point, you are looking at Title IX requirements. There has to be parity between the men's and women's athletic programs.

StillAnon Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Although I'd love to see it, I doubt it. NCAA D-1
> football is a cash cow for colleges, especially
> BYU. ESPN would probably be glad to terminate
> their contract with BYU. It's a money loser for
> them. No where near the teams or viewers that they
> were told/predicted. There's a reason D-1 football
> coaches are usually the highest paid people at a
> University. Alumni donations are primarily from
> athletic fans.

College football is not really a "cash cow". There are only a small handful of top tier football teams, like Alabama, Ohio State and Texas, where football revenue exceeds expenses. Once you get past the top 20-30 college football programs, they either break even or lose money. For collegiate athletics overall, competing at division 1 is a money loser. According to a 2013 NCAA study, only 20 of the 130 universities that compete at the major level of football, FBS, actually made money. For the other 110, sponsoring collegiate athletics is a money losing venture.

alsd Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> College football is not really a "cash cow". There
> are only a small handful of top tier football
> teams, like Alabama, Ohio State and Texas, where
> football revenue exceeds expenses. Once you get
> past the top 20-30 college football programs, they
> either break even or lose money. For collegiate
> athletics overall, competing at division 1 is a
> money loser. According to a 2013 NCAA study, only
> 20 of the 130 universities that compete at the
> major level of football, FBS, actually made money.
> For the other 110, sponsoring collegiate athletics
> is a money losing venture.

Facts like that are weighing in.

"College football is not really a "cash cow". There are only a small handful of top tier football teams, like Alabama, Ohio State and Texas, where football revenue exceeds expenses. Once you get past the top 20-30 college football programs, they either break even or lose money."

Not really, if you understand the way the accounting works. They have to spend all the money to show that they break even or operate at a small loss. That's the reason for almost unlimited spending on world class weight rooms, spa's, pools, stadiums and stadium expansions. They waste a ton of money in order not to show a profit and reduce tuition. A few good sources. It's creative accounting. If they wanted to cut costs, stop excessive spending and run it like a real company, they'd show huge profits.

https://www.thechampaignroom.com/2017/5/22/15659242/out-of-control-spending-ncaa-college-athletics


https://www.forbes.com/sites/kristidosh/2017/06/12/the-biggest-misconceptions-about-the-finances-of-college-sports/#11ec6744366f

That's wild news. There were a number of local leaders in my Texas ward who went to BYU and who loved following and talking about BYU sports, especially football. I can't imagine that a decision to eliminate college sports at BYU would be well received by the members. The church would be better off changing more drastic parts of doctrine than to do that.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/09/2018 06:03PM by derrida.

RIP in pieces BYU athletics ~

There's no indication that he was ever interested in organized sports. In his high-school years, he was engaged in an accelerated academic program that involved concurrent studies at the LDS Business College.

At University, he also went through the pre-med program on an accelerated schedule.

So it doesn't look like he ever felt any great connection to college football, basketball, etc.

Could be another longstanding Nelson pet peeve now becoming official church policy.

The glory years for BYU sports seemed to be back in the 1980s anyway.

I guess Nelson is not a very good athletic supporter.

None of his colleagues could explain to him why millions of dollars should be spent every year to encourage young latter-day saints to play with their balls and chase after tight ends.

Dammit ! A perfectly good joke ruined !

and games played therewith? I was just agreeing that the Nelson is not flexible enough to be a good athletic supporter and obviously does not possess the required elasticity in his approach to athletic support to allow a reasonable amount of ball-playing activities to continue.

Why not? He’s close with a couple of nuts.

What’s good is running a dictatorship if you’re not going to dictate some stuff? I think Russ gets it.

I'd like to see some confirmation on this point. Not that it isn't possible, but it seems like a big mistake. Sort of like eliminating the road shows.

If you take the peanuts away, people won't got to the circus anymore.

Wow, with this and other recent actions they've taken, the church appears to be cannibalizing their foundation. Next thing you know, they'll cut out the BOM and the Joseph Smith story. The house of cards is falling.

That would make perfect sense if the insiders have their golden parachutes.

I could get behind these changes easier if Russ changed the name of BYU too. Maybe something like, "The Wendy's University of the West". WUW - pronounced whoo.

Haha! The way BYU has been playing I can see why Russ wants to nix the football team. I was in Husky Stadium when the Y played UW. It was pretty ugly.

I believe it expires after next season, although Tom Holmoe (BYU AD) has stated that he's trying to negotiate a new ESPN continuing contract. But, if this rumor is true, he may be getting a call from 50th N. Temple soon.

Hooray

Kind screws up that whole discernment thang going on there at BYU...and for mormons in general

Anyone remember Ricks College...

Before the name change to BYU-Idaho, they had a pretty good sports program going. Usually nationally ranked. Everyone was upset and couldn't believe it when they did away with the sports programs back then too.
I can see it happening. I won't lose any sleep over it.

BYU-Hawii has 2,500 students. My 5A Texas high school had 2,800+.

My HS in SLC had just over 3000 students the year I graduated in 1974......

I had no idea the Rick's College Vikings were that good. All you heard about was the BYU Cougars.

I think college sports have become so overblown they actually pollute the academic atmosphere of educational institutions. It all started out with colleges forming teams for fun. Now it's big business. College teams are nothing more than seed teams for the pros. I would rather have them out of the universities.

This wouldn't surprise me though I predict it's more like ten years out rather than sooner. The football stadium sits on prime real estate for something that's only used six to seven times a year. They could make lots of money on pricey student housing.

The days of BYU sports as a missionary tool for LD$ Inc. peaked in the 80s and has been declining since. No one wants BYU in their athletic conference because of their stance on gays and lesbians.

montanadude Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> This wouldn't surprise me though I predict it's
> more ll stadium sits on prime real estate for
> somethiike ten years out rather than sooner. The
> footbalng that's only used six to seven times a
> year. They could make lots of money on pricey
> student remains stupid /MORmON enough to be further financia housing.

You are correct!!! .....Assuming that the general MORmON membershiplly looted by sending their Children to BYU (as if other LD$ inc financial demands were not enough) to the extent that demands for housing to go to BYU are maintained at a very high level ....but that kind of interest in MORmONISM might not hold up. Of Course, then there is the MORmON elite who send their kids and grand kids to BYU at everyone else's tithing expense.

Not a BYU fan, by any stretch. But, Let's give them some credit.
BYU Men's Volleyball is always a force (Currently #1 in the Country). I'm sure a lot of Volleyball teams would love to see BYU fold.

Nominally about 5 - 7 days a year for football, but other sports & events?

Are U suggesting (seems to me) some other use for the land the stadium is on?

- How much did it cost, how old & what condition is it?
- How well has the stadium been maintained / upgraded?

As well as the other details of the finances, player recruitment & outcomes; lots of missing details which ChurchCo always holds 'sacred / secret'

WOW! eat your vitamins!!!

Seriously though, this would be a really good change in the long run. Speaking as an outsider now, I have to say that old Rusty has made some great changes for the cult... not that I intend to go back! Yes, the whole naming thing is pretty ridiculous. But I'm talking about the other stuff.

Home teaching...gone
Fossilized High Priest group meetings...gone
3 hour church - now reduced to 2 hours.

And if he gets rid of BYU athletics? That's another really positive change there.

Frankly, I hate college athletics in general. I think it perverts the functioning and the mission of institutions of higher learning. I hate the fact that the highest paid public employees in most states these days are university coaches.
Don't get me wrong. I love sports. But I don't think that schools are the appropriate institutions to be running athletic programs.

Strength in the Loins Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> WOW! eat your vitamins!!!
>
> Seriously though, this would be a really good
> change in the long run. Speaking as an outsider
> now, I have to say that old Rusty has made some
> great changes for the cult... not that I intend to
> go back! Yes, the whole naming thing is pretty
> ridiculous. But I'm talking about the other
> stuff.
>
> Home teaching...gone
> Fossilized High Priest group meetings...gone
> 3 hour church - now reduced to 2 hours.
>
> And if he gets rid of BYU athletics? That's
> another really positive change there.
>
> Frankly, I hate college athletics in general. I
> think it perverts the functioning and the mission
> of institutions of higher learning. I hate the
> fact that the highest paid public employees in
> most states these days are university coaches.
> Don't get me wrong. I love sports. But I don't
> think that schools are the appropriate
> institutions to be running athletic programs.

I fully agree. College sports has become big business and has no place inside of educational institutions. What originally began as playing other schools for fun is now something else.

It is no different than it was before, just a different name. My TBM daughter lives here. I just saw her go ministering the other day with her female partner to see several women in the ward.

AND Dave the Atheist, your joke was not lost on me and I'm sure many others got it immediately, too.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/11/2018 11:27AM by cl2.

I think this would be a childish attempt for the MORMON church to cover up the failure of BYU athletics. It's always sleight-of-hand with the Mormons: "Look over here, everyone! This is why we're doing this!" They'll make all kinds of fake excuses why BYU sports become defunct.

The real reasons are the two that Montanadude pointed out: prejudice against gays and lesbians, and MONEY--always a Mormon motive. The stadium is a waste of profitable land, plus the football program is a financial drain.

There's another reason--loss of face. This happened when BYU was not picked up by the Pac-12. BYU said they didn't want the PAC-12, and preferred to go independent (after they were rejected.) They said they would have media coverage with their OWN TV station, so there. Instead of "God's team" being trampled by more talented teams, and going under as losers, they will turn up their noses at the whole notion of college football.

Neener-neener! We don't want to play your stupid game, anyway.

At a party, I told a MORMON that I graduated from BYU, but didn't like the stultifying atmosphere there. He said, "At least you got a superior education!" I almost gagged.

BYU will brag that they are solely an intellectual institution, and all that sports nonsense offends Jesus Christ.

Having BYU on my resume never hurt me. I had a good time there actually but I was very bad at following the honor code. I graduated with a bachelors of business administration degree. Accounting and finance classes at BYU are probably the same as anywhere else.

I don't care about athletics and don't know the lingo. I know that cutting the athletics would really piss many Mormons off, and potentionally threaten much loss of money to the school.

I wonder if Nelson is more up to date on the medical literature than we assume. Traumatic Brain Injury is the stuff of lawsuits in the NFL. When will it trickle down to NCAA? Better to get out now.

Good point. I hadn't thought of that.

But, its not just football. its all athletics.

Strange.

he seems to be shrinking a lot of things. Even things that are money makers. Is it because the sun is going down on him that he feels the sun needs to go down on everything else?

No fun! I want peace and quiet in my retirement years! -The profit.

He’s clearly on a power trip. Wendy loves it.

My only comments are that football, while fun to play and watch, is dangerous and should be banned everywhere.it seems Only now are we realizing the dangers of TBI’s and multiple concussions, or only now is anyone doing anything about it.

If football became a sport in the era of modern medicine instead of 90 or so years ago I predict it would be disallowed at a collegiate level because of the obvious health risks.

I enjoy football. I liked playing pickup games as a kid and I love the Chiefs. It just seems like it takes way too many lives. And cripples even more.

Unfortunately it is such a profitable institution that I doubt anything will Happen to change the dangers inherent in playing it.

As for BYU football, whether it goes away my guess will have to do with whether it can sustain profitability. If it can’t, my guess is it will go away.

College athletics are corrupting institutions. And college football is the worst offender, with college basketball a close second. And I love college basketball. I don’t love 6 million Dollar yearly salaries payed out to folks like bill self and John Calipari- paid out of public funds for publicly funded universities like KU and UK.

Especially when it’s illegal to pay the student athletes or even gift them athletic equipment.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/12/2018 01:59AM by midwestanon.

But it's also not really something that schools (especially public schools) should be pouring tons of money into to promote.

For the vast majority of students at any particular institution it's just a spectator event anyway.

I know several guys who wanted to be star football players and poured themselves in it 100%. Sadly, many of them ended up with injuries that have plagued them for life. Stiff/trick knees. Damaged joints, etc.

Although the star players are looked at as the epitome of strength, speed, stamina and excellent physical condition during their peak years, the nature of the sport is such that they're actually often causing irreparable damage to their bodies. By the time many of them are in their forties and fifties, they're hobbling around like men in their eighties.

Yea. It seems like every so often I meet someone at the methadone clinic who was a star athlete and ‘almost went pro’ except for that torn ACL their junior year or whetever. Then there were surgeries, painkillers, the path from there to the methadone clinic is pretty fill-in-the-blank at this point.

And it’s not that I think football would be ‘illegal’- it’s just if someone arbitrarily invented the game now, in the age of steroids and modern medicine and everything we know about brain injuries people would think twice about creating a national league destined to cripple or kill an unacceptable amount of its participants.

I know that scenario doesn’t really make sense- football is a huge reason steroids are such a big deal, for example- but it’s just a hypothetical. I don’t think the people playing it thenor organizing the creation of leagues or college teams foresaw the dangers that occur in it now- or that it would be dominated by such physically huge and strong men which further increases the risk of injury.

For a time, basketball was seen as a sport where being tall was considered disadvantageous, and people like George Mikan, Bill Russell, and Wilt Chamberlain were considered freaks. Look how that worked out.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/12/2018 02:12AM by midwestanon.