Quote Originally Posted by Two Utes View Post
And the last thing I'll say about this: I've heard 100 times the old saying "it's not the church it's the people in the church" In this instance, it's the church.
I agree with this. It's another case of the byu and the church that runs it trying to strike a balance between competitiveness in the world, and standing apart as a spiritual institution. We see it elsewhere as the byu tries to be both a university (with all the humanistic secular baggage that brings) as well as a flagship for promoting LDS values.

To some extent, I believe the leadership has made its decision to be a stand-apart institution: emphasizing spiritual growth over W-L records, or the accolades of the Academy. In a way, this is commendable. On the other hand, the mission has not been clearly enough articulated from the top to help the fans, members, and academic community understand what the overall vision and mission are. As in so many other areas, the LDS church seems to be trying to take both forks in the road for as long as it possibly can, although it ultimately has chosen morals & merits over Wins - Losses & Academic Freedom.

A pretty sharp rabbi once said something about not being able to serve both God & Mammon, but I think his exact comments were correlated by a team of lawyers and PR officers.