Will BYU ever allow Sunday play?

[jay santos]

I was watching a little of the women's NCAA tournament yesterday and realizing how much women's BB relies on Sunday play, and thinking about the BCS conference realignments and rumors/hopes on that end, I thought about this topic.

There are doctrine/principles and there are policies. A doctrine/principle would be something like "Sunday is a special day". One policy stemming from that is "no Sunday sports for BYU teams". There are plenty of precedents to show policies like this change all the time.

LDS policy on these types of things is "let's evolve with the world in terms of worldliness but try to stay two steps behind". i.e. if beards were rebellious 40 years ago but 20 years ago they became mainstream, we will still try to quash beards but at some point we'll give up. ditto for women wearing pants, blacks getting the priesthood (joke!), etc.

I can definitely see a day BYU allows its sports teams to play on Sunday. It might not be for at least another generation, but I definitely see it on the horizon.

[Indy Coug]

No. Not ever. Period.

[Clark Addison]

I was watching a little of the women's NCAA tournament yesterday and realizing how much women's BB relies on Sunday play, and thinking about the BCS conference realignments and rumors/hopes on that end, I thought about this topic.

There are doctrine/principles and there are policies. A doctrine/principle would be something like "Sunday is a special day". One policy stemming from that is "no Sunday sports for BYU teams". There are plenty of precedents to show policies like this change all the time.

LDS policy on these types of things is "let's evolve with the world in terms of worldliness but try to stay two steps behind". i.e. if beards were rebellious 40 years ago but 20 years ago they became mainstream, we will still try to quash beards but at some point we'll give up. ditto for women wearing pants, blacks getting the priesthood (joke!), etc.

I can definitely see a day BYU allows its sports teams to play on Sunday. It might not be for at least another generation, but I definitely see it on the horizon.

Ever is a long time, but I would be very surprised to see this in my lifetime.

[il Padrino Ute]

I don't think the Y will ever participate in Sunday play. It would be interesting to see what would happen if the BYU women's basketball team made it to the Final Four or if the baseball team got to Omaha.

[TripletDaddy]

There is no reason to allow it.

BYU already competes in college athletics to a level of success commensurate or superior to most D1 programs, BCS or otherwise. And this without Sunday play.

What would be the need to play on Sunday?

[il Padrino Ute]

There is no reason to allow it.

BYU already competes in college athletics to a level of success commensurate or superior to most D1 programs, BCS or otherwise. And this without Sunday play.

What would be the need to play on Sunday?

College World Series.

[kccougar]

I don't think the Y will ever participate in Sunday play. It would be interesting to see what would happen if the BYU women's basketball team made it to the Final Four or if the baseball team got to Omaha.

They would probably ask for a rescheduling and if it wasn't granted, they would withdraw, as past cougar teams have.

There was an article just this morning about a BYU diver that withdrew from competition after a delay to the start of a tournament shifted everything from Th-Sat to Fri-Sun.

[Moliere]

College World Series.

I doubt BYU will ever have to worry about that.

[wuapinmon]

It always seems odd to me that there is a prohibition about playing on Sunday, but the athletes travel on Sunday, commercially, all the time. Hell, my MTC flight to my mission was on a Sunday.

I'm all in favor of keeping the Sabbath; I think, however, if you're going to do it, KEEPING it in private is just as important as in public.

[RC Vikings]

If it's so important not to play on Sunday why is it not in the TR questions? I say let them play as long as they attend one meeting that day.

[Clark Addison]

Some may remember this, but in 2002 the women's basketball team made the sweet 16. The women's semi-final or final game is played on Sunday. At the time, BYU announced that they would not play in the Sunday game, but would forfeit if they advanced. The crisis was averted when they played Tennessee in the next round.

[ERCougar]

They would probably ask for a rescheduling and if it wasn't granted, they would withdraw, as past cougar teams have.

There was an article just this morning about a BYU diver that withdrew from competition after a delay to the start of a tournament shifted everything from Th-Sat to Fri-Sun.

Was the diver competing as an individual or part of the BYU team? Individual events would bring up an interesting dilemma. What if the athlete had no problem with competing on Sunday? Would BYU force him/her to withdraw?

[TripletDaddy]

College World Series.

True and yes there are definitely some sports that engage in Sunday play. My point was that, by and large, BYU's current participation in D1 athletics is pretty much unfettered even with a ban on Sunday play.

The risk of BYU ever playing in the CWS is very low. Likely not enough to merit a total change to how the Church approaches the Sabbath. And when we are good enough, the sport seems to change for us. See rugby.

[Surfah]

BYU will never play a Sunday game. Ever.

[SteelBlue]

Was the diver competing as an individual or part of the BYU team? Individual events would bring up an interesting dilemma. What if the athlete had no problem with competing on Sunday? Would BYU force him/her to withdraw?

I would wager that BYU did force the diver to withdraw. I can almost guarantee you that anyone who swims/dives at the D1 level swam on Sundays to get there. Assuming we're talking about the NCAA championships here, only qualifiers get to go but they do compete as a member of the BYU team and therefore BYU would have every right to make them withdraw from Sunday competition.