As church leaders emphasize BYU’s religious mission, coaches seek to make it a recruiting edge

BYU sports must operate differently than teams at other schools or there is no reason to continue their existence at a university sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a church leader said this week.

“If it ever came down to ‘the only way to stay in this is to walk away from our values,’ that would be the end of athletics,” said Elder Clark G. Gilbert, the church commissioner of education and a General Authority Seventy.

Church leadership sees football and basketball as more than just games. They are part of the university’s religious mission the same way the law school and business school are, Elder Gilbert said on the latest episode of the Deseret News Y’s Guys Podcast.

“That’s why we do this. We have to do that, or else this investment is hard to justify,” he said.

It’s also why football coach Kalani Sitake, men’s basketball coach Kevin Young and BYU’s other coaches have doubled down on making the school’s religious mission part of their recruiting pitches.

Sitake launched a program this fall that has football players mentoring BYU-Pathway students in Africa. The program helps students on two continents, but it gives Sitake another pitch for recruits: Choosing to play for BYU over other schools that might offer more money will give them unique opportunities to give of themselves to serve people in unique and Christlike ways.

The football team is 7-0 and ranked 11th in the nation. Excitement surrounds Young’s first team, which tips off its season in two weeks. The cross country teams are ranked No. 1 (women) and No. 2 (men). Winning expands the platform for the religious message but comes with tension, Elder Gilbert said.

“This is a special time,” he said, “and it’s on and off the field of play. That’s one of the things that is so important to us as leadership in the church. It has to be both.”

How BYU’s coaches commit to the religious mission

“Jesus is the great example that we can follow,” Sitake said during the Big 12 meetings this summer. “It works in personal life, in business and it definitely works in football, especially at BYU.”

“Kalani is just so deeply committed to why we do this,” Elder Gilbert said. He also mentioned Young and other BYU coaches like soccer’s Jennifer Rockwood and track’s Diljeet Taylor, who is Hindu.

“These people get what it means to be at BYU. They do not see it as a constraint. They see it as our competitive advantage,” Gilbert said. “If we end up hiring coaches who want to go a different direction, it will be a double whammy. It will hurt who we are, and they won’t be successful.”

In fact, he said BYU would fail if it tried to win separate from its religious mission.

“I believe when we chase after something else at BYU, not only do we miss our core purpose, but it won’t work at BYU,” he said. “These teams have to be grounded in the mission of the university, just like everything else at BYU, and that’s one of the things I’ve been so impressed about this football team.”

Sitake told Big 12 media that he focuses his players on the right priority.

“More than anything, BYU’s success in the Big 12 depends on keeping our faith and our belief in what we know to be right,” he said. “Having faith in our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, that’s first and foremost of BYU. If we work through that, everything else will work out.”

Gilbert noted that when the women’s soccer team reached the national championship game in 2021, the team attended church the day before and one of the players opened her mission call on the eve of the final.

What the First Presidency thinks of BYU sports

Podcast hosts Dave McCann and Blaine Fowler asked Elder Gilbert what the church’s First Presidency — the chair and vice chairs of the board of trustees — thinks of BYU’s teams.

He said they are aware of rising costs, issues related to NIL payments to players and the proposed settlement that would have schools make back payments to past players and begin paying current and future players.

“They know the secular and financial pressures coming down on this industry,” he said. “They see the risks that it could have to take us away from our core mission, and they’re very in tune with that, and they want to make sure that BYU in all of its efforts always reflects the values and mission of the church, and we take that very seriously. That starts with our people, coaches, players, our alumni, BYUtv. They want to make sure we’re hiring people who fit that culture.”

Elder Gilbert said the expanded platform that winning provides — prompting multiple recent features on BYU’s Jewish quarterback Jake Retzlaff, for example — can come with a temptation to want to win at all costs. He said that’s why the church has a structure in place to guard against mission drift, beginning with BYU President Shane Reese, Advancement Vice President Keith Vorkink and Athletics Director Tom Holmoe.

“We want them to be successful, but there are a lot of pressures coming on college athletics today, and it could be very tempting to become just like another college team and think the ends justify the means,” he said.

Will BYU ever succumb to a ‘pay for play’ culture?

Instead, church leaders provide guiding principles. One, he said, is that BYU can never have a “pay for play” culture.

“We would undermine everything at BYU if that wins out,” he said. “It’s tempting to buy one player, one person at a time, (but) if they don’t fit the mission, we’d unravel everything.”He said BYU will pay competitively but never chase the highest salaries for coaches or players.

“We have to be drawing on what’s unique about the culture. If we don’t, I don’t think you win here,” he said.

He didn’t think BYU ever will have to walk away from sports because everyone from the board to the coaches is committed to it.

“We have a culture here that is exceptional, and I’m confident it won’t happen,” he said.

“We have to do it the right way, and we’re going to continue to have pressures to be different and I just am so grateful for the coaches we have, the players we have, the athletic administration, this president, but I’m also grateful for the governance that’s in place at BYU to keep it grounded to its core mission and its core purpose. And as much as I love cheering on our Cougars, there’s a deeper reason we cheer for them, and that’s because of the mission of Brigham Young University.”

Recruiting

McCann and Fowler, who cover the team as game announcers and studio hosts, talked about their public and private discussions with Sitake and Young about recruiting. They pass on some recruits as they look for players who are cultural and spiritual fits, and their pitches lead with the BYU experience.

That’s not easy to convey. Elder Gilbert noted that Retzlaff didn’t fully understand how the university’s culture would fit his Jewish faith until he got on campus, but he explained it to CBS and other outlets in recent features.

“Authentically, his experience around faith at BYU has been transformational from long before he became a star,” Elder Gilbert said.

He said BYU there is a “good, better and best” component to BYU recruiting pitches, centered around the school’s mission and its honor code, which has students commit to being honest and chaste while avoiding alcohol, drugs and profanity.

• Good, Elder Gilbert said, is when the recruit understands the honor code and signs up to comply with it.
• Better is when an athlete can see BYU as a place to play without distractions, making the honor code a competitive advantage.
• Best is aligning with players who believe in what BYU stands for.

All of the coaches have found players who are not Latter-day Saints who embrace the university.

“They’re good kids, and they came to BYU for those deeper reasons, and Kalani recruits that way.,” Elder Gilbert said. “It’s not like, ‘Well, someone tell them about the honor code at the last minute.’ He recruits for the family culture, the love-and-learn culture. He teaches the Honor Code.”

BYU has looked for ways to connect those players to their faith at the same time it tries to connect to other faith-based schools and players of faith on other teams. One way Sitake’s team does all of those things is to pray with opponents after games. BYU football players, coaches and staff have knelt at midfield for prayer with their peers at Wyoming and Baylor this year.

It’s one reason Elder Gilbert thought the Big 12 was the perfect fit for BYU. Baylor President Linda Lovingstone is a friend of his and Reese, BYU’s president. Elder Gilbert noted that she has said Baylor is unambiguous about its commitment to Jesus Christ.

What does the future hold for BYU sports?

While Elder Gilbert said BYU football must maintain the courage to be different or become just another team, he pointed out that it doesn’t mean the university’s supporters, students or players think they are better than anyone else.

“We’re not perfect, and we’re not going to be perfect. There’s no one in this church who’s perfect,” he said. “There was one perfect person, and that’s the Savior, Jesus Christ. But we’re striving to be our best, and that’s what BYU has to do. We have to be something more. We have to have the courage to be different.”

The podcast hosts asked him where he sees BYU in 10 or 15 years, given the recent dramatic and rapid-fire changes in college sports. Elder Gilbert said he couldn’t speak for the whole church.

“From the commissioner standpoint, I need to make sure that everything we do reflects the values of the church, everywhere we go,” he said. “I don’t know where college athletics is going to go. I don’t know if it’s going to go places we don’t feel that we can follow, but I can tell you, if we don’t stay true to our mission, to our values, to our standards, it’s going to be a lot harder to go to those other places.”

BYU has a strong following — “We talk about Cougar Nation, but we’re Cougar World,” he said — that draws good TV ratings and social media follows.

Elder Gilbert said growing those numbers isn’t the priority if teams and coaches don’t represent the values of the church.

“If it doesn’t reflect our values,” he said, “it doesn’t matter.”

Watch the full Y’s Guys podcast here.