For America’s first 100 years of college sports — from 1850 to 1950 — the accepted norm was for teams to avoid playing games on Sunday.
The NFL, however, began to air Sunday games in the 1920s-30s. In the decades that followed, college sports began to follow suit.
By the 1980s, it had become normal for college games to be scheduled on a Sunday — with a dwindling number of exceptions on religious campuses.
Although an estimated 22 schools of the NCAA’s 1,100-member schools currently have written or partial policies discouraging Sunday sports, these tend to be flexible and not universally followed (e.g., religious campuses like Liberty University and Oral Roberts University compete in postseason tournaments on Sunday when required).
That has made BYU’s policy to avoid all Sunday games or practices more of a cultural enigma — standing out more and more in a leisure society gawking at those who still see something sacred about a Sabbath day.
Several years before BYU was officially invited to join the Big 12, sports writer Alex Kirshner wrote about accommodating the school’s religious commitments as a conference. He summarized: “There are no Cougars games on Sundays, ever, for any reason. BYU’s is the only major athletic department in the country to observe this rule.”
“BYU is a school for a religious minority,” Kirshner continued. “Its student-athletes happen to be really good at several sports. For the Big 12 to embrace those players as competitors while respecting a long-held Mormon norm would be an example of open-mindedness that college sports could use.”
Thankfully, the NCAA has long had a rule that when it comes to a holy day being observed by a school like BYU, tournament schedules should be adjusted to “not require its team or an individual competitor to compete.” That’s why BYU teams competing in the NCAA men’s basketball tournament have been scheduled in regions playing on Thursday/Saturday, rather than Friday/Sunday.
However, other collegiate sporting organizations haven’t shown the same willingness to accommodate. Last fall, The Washington Post reported on a petition from 1,600 students and fans asking organizers of collegiate-level pickleball tournaments to avoid Sunday tournaments to accommodate a school like BYU.
The head of the National Collegiate Pickleball Association has resisted, insisting that pickleball helps him “spread the name of Jesus to as many people as God will allow me.” But the director of United Pickleball Association’s college arm, Hunter Aiono, confirmed changes were being considered to accommodate teams like BYU.
National curiosity at schools opting out of Sunday play continues. This last week at a Sunday press conference for the WBIT (Women’s Basketball Invitation Tournament), a reporter noted that “three other teams” were practicing that Sunday, but not the Cougars.
Sophomore guard Delaney Gibb was then asked “about the pros and cons of playing on the Sabbath” as they anticipated their quarterfinal matchup with Kansas the following Monday.
Gibb acknowledged how this may be seen as a barrier — something that could understandably be perceived as limiting the Cougars’ prospects on the court: “Obviously, we don’t have that day to prepare and to be able to improve and get better. So when you’re looking at it from that standpoint, it might seem unfair or just a bit more challenging.”
She then explained why that perspective is limited: “But I think when you step back and look at it from a perspective of our team and the culture that we’ve built and the faith that we have,” she said, Sunday is “a day that we get to, you know, have a different perspective on life.
“There’s things that are bigger than basketball and Jesus Christ and having faith in him is something that’s bigger than basketball.”
“So for us,” she added, “it’s an opportunity to step away from kind of the worldly things and focus on the relationship that we are building with our Lord and Savior.”
Sophomore forward Brinley Cannon then added: “Personally, Sabbath day worship is really important to me — as it is for a lot of our (team).”
“Obviously we’re a religious school,” she continued, “and I think that there’s a lot of pros that come from taking that day a week to focus on, like what Delaney said, things that are bigger than basketball.”
“For me personally,” Cannon said, “it’s just a day to rest and reflect and really just recenter my life on Jesus Christ.”
“And I think that our team — honestly, I think it really helps to have that day for us to come back Monday, everyone’s rejuvenated, everyone’s kind of had their break and rested and re-centered and ready to focus.”
It’s important to appreciate how student athletes across many campuses continue to cherish a day of Sabbath rest. In fact, Yeshiva University just this year requested a similar accommodation to play on a day other than their Saturday Sabbath after making the Sweet 16 in the Division III tournament.
While BYU was a “program of faith,” BYU head coach Lee Cummard clarified at the same press conference that “it’s not just our faith — there’s several faiths represented within our program, and we have that Sabbath day for everybody to kind of reflect and have the day off, have it to themselves to do what they want.”
More personally, Cummard said the weekly reprieve was “something that I really value, that I know every Sabbath day or Sunday a week, I’m going to be at home with my wife and kids and be able to worship the way that I choose.”
In a world that sees Sunday more as a holiday than a “holy day,” a school like BYU will continue to stand out not simply for basketball prowess — but for a way of life cherished by its students, coaches and teachers.
To the reporter wondering about the downsides of missing Sunday practice, Cannon spoke for many Latter-day Saints when she said: “Honestly, for me — that’s kind of the way I’ve lived my whole life. So honestly, I don’t think that there’s a ton of cons that come with that.”