BYU

Wofford will defeat BYU today in the first round of the tournament. They will win despite the fact that BYU has the best scorer in the nation. They will win because the school, BYU, made a puzzling decision several weeks ago that resulted in the elimination of another key player on the team.

The starting center for BYU was suspended for inappropriate conduct. One might think the administration at the school deserves credit for sticking to principle despite the likelihood that the center's absence will preclude the team's advancing far in the potentially lucrative tournament. Maybe I will be wrong and Wofford will lose today, but I don't think so and even if BYU wins they are not going to win many more games without their starting center.

So, isn't this good? Isn't it good that a school adheres to rules and places conduct above basketball prowess and the financial bonanza that can come from victories in the ncaa tournament?

No. This is not good.

The center was suspended because he admitted to having sexual relations with his girlfriend.

I could write about my feeling about such an unnatural proscription that flies in the face of normal and healthy desires. There does seem to me to be a whole lot of shaking going on, and advertisers sure seem to me to acknowledge the lure of physical intimacy when they peddle their products, and movie producers sure seem to me to hire actors and actresses who, in addition to their acting capabilities, are alluring and suggestive. However, I don't have a corner on the philosophic wisdom market, and I am not going to write that BYU administrators are unequivocally wrong in their belief system.

But I will write that their suspension of this student is wrong.

It is wrong primarily because if you are to suspend him for having intimate sexual relations and do not suspend the others you are declaring that the other players on the team do not have intimate sexual relations. This, I doubt.

This player is being suspended because he acknowledged what he is doing, not because he is doing what he acknowledged.

BYU goes down today.