Tom Holmoe Memo/Bronco Speech to Boosters

Was not sure exactly where to put this, but thought I would share. BYU is tkaing these issues seriously. Here is the Memo TH sent out via email today, with attachments(not included here).



Dear BYU Athletic Booster,



I am quite certain that most of you have been following the recent news regarding collegiate student-athletes across the country receiving extra benefits that are deemed illegal by the NCAA. Schools such as Ohio State, Boise State and USC, to name just a few, are currently dealing with major infractions that will have far reaching effects on individual student-athletes and coaches, not to mention the detrimental penalties to current and future teams.



The BYU Athletic Department has processes in place that can help safeguard against potential violations, but I would be naïve to think we could be compliant without your most serious attention to the details we describe in our booster education.



Over the past few years we have notified you several times to alert you to what we feel are the most pertinent issues that you should be aware of as someone who supports BYU Athletics in any way, shape or form. Simultaneously, we have educated our student-athletes and coaches on the primary issues that they need to pay constant attention to. If all our student-athletes and coaches as well as boosters “do the right thing”, we will have little to worry about. However, if we have individuals from any of these groups feel they are above the law and chose not to follow the NCAA rules, we will be in for some tough days ahead.



It has come to my attention that some boosters have become lax in following the athletic department procedures for providing student-athletes NCAA permissible “occasional meals”. We allow “occasional meals” to be offered to BYU athletes at booster’s homes ONLY AFTER the proper procedures have been completed. It should be noted, that it is also not legal for one student-athlete to eat meals at multiple booster’s homes in a short period of time. The occasional meal is limited to the student-athlete, not the booster.



These procedures include notifying the BYU Athletic Compliance office ahead of time concerning your intentions. If this process isn’t followed, BYU Athletics is out of compliance and is breaking NCAA rules. Please do not intentionally break NCAA rules and please stay abreast of the rules education that we make available to you.



I have mentioned just one illegal extra benefit above, but please know that there are many more that are found in the NCAA Manual. For example, did you know that both the student-athlete and the employer must fill out paperwork prior to beginning work? I intend to keep every rule in the book and will not look the other way on any illegal matter, no matter how insignificant it may seem to others.



We have such generous boosters who have contributed great gifts to BYU Athletics that allow us to grow stronger in ways that are not possible without you. Many of you contribute because you enjoy assisting these young men and women to become their very best. Along with your financial contributions to the department you have given wonderful emotional support to our kids. In some cases, boosters have had very positive influence in the lives of our student-athletes as you have mentored, motivated, and encouraged them to give their very best efforts on the field of play, in the classroom, and in the community. Sharing your life’s experiences with young people can help them make good decisions and sometimes lead to establishing lasting relationships. These relationships will be anything but good if rules are broken and penalties dealt out.



The BYU Athletic Department mission is to create a distinctive, exceptional athletic program that is fully aligned with the mission and values of Brigham Young University and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. To help accomplish this we need every BYU booster to be in compliance with the NCAA rules. This letter has the backing and full support of Coach Mendenhall, Coach Rose and the other coaches on our athletic staff. Our coaches are all very much aware of the potential for disaster as student athletes are tempted to break NCAA, WCC and university rules. The coaches continue to educate their players on making good decisions regarding all rules, please do your very best also.



Please read carefully the included Policies and Principles page to help you more fully understand how you can stay in compliance.



I am so grateful for all of you and plead with you to do the very best you can, in every way, to support the Cougars.



Respectfully,



Tom Holmoe

Director of Athletics

Brigham Young University

I like the fact that he states that he intends to keep every rule. Just as we all should strive to keep every rule and every agreement we have openly and knowingly entered into.

I like it! I don't mean to get too cheezy on here, but it feels good to know that we support a program that gives its absolute best effort in keeping all of the rules and regulations. Add to that the quality young men that Bronco mentors and the inspirational aspects of his program like Thursday's Heroes, band of brothers etc. and it makes it very satisfying, for me, to be a cougar fan. Even if they're losing, at least they can sleep at night; however, when you consider the winning records of both Bronco and Rose it makes this a truly unique program! Go Cougs.

I also love that he will keep the WCC rules1

Glad to see Tom Holmoe has changed his ways. His football program at Cal was punished by the NCAA for violations.



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Every AD talks this game. How many programs actually live up to it is the question.

Guess I should talk with my bishop. Our ward has a missionary meal sign up sheet and a BYU student athlete meal sign up sheet...

Obviously Tom Holmoe reads CougarCorner.com and read Sno's recent comments about Cougar players getting their restaurant bills picked up.

hawkwing wrote:
Obviously Tom Holmoe reads CougarCorner.com and read Sno's recent comments about Cougar players getting their restaurant bills picked up.

That was my initial thought too ("Crap. I knew I shouldn't have posted that!") Not sure everyone read that one, but yeah--I have family who have paid for meals for basketball players after games at Magleby's. They intercept the waiter and pay the ticket before the players even know what's going on.



Rules get broken every day by people the AD has no control over, and the players can't really do much in that situation other than either (a) never go out to eat, or (b) go back to the compliance office and report it right away. I doubt there are any NCAA repurcussions when the players can't do much about it, but the moral of the story is that the rules are next to impossible to perfectly enforce, but you have to do everything in your power to limit the people you can control.

So, if you're Mom or Dad or you are a booster and you're dating a student athlete, do you have to notify the athletic department everytime you take your date out?

My favorite quotes are: "deemed illegal by the NCAA" and "do the right thing." I wish TH and the athletic program would just come out and say, most of these rules are lame and have nothing to do with things that are wrong or immoral and the rules cause more problems than they solve, but BYU has to maintain the appearance of avoiding evil even if we know nearly all of these rules are a load of bunk. One can dream.

I think we can all agree that many of the rules are archaic and lame, but I still agree with the reason behind them. A rulebook revision is needed, though.



For those listening to The Herd this morning, he talked about a very interesting debate that raged between Jay Paterno and Jay Bilas on what the NCAA should do for athletes. Herd says nothing, and that school is enough. He even put an economic value on the education the kids get for the time they spend playing ball(tuition, books, housing, training table, etc), and it was actually pretty huge, and it was realistic. For a part time job, the average university forks out $40k or more per year on these athletes. Not a bad gig.

Lawboy wrote:
I think we can all agree that many of the rules are archaic and lame, but I still agree with the reason behind them. A rulebook revision is needed, though.



For those listening to The Herd this morning, he talked about a very interesting debate that raged between Jay Paterno and Jay Bilas on what the NCAA should do for athletes. Herd says nothing, and that school is enough. He even put an economic value on the education the kids get for the time they spend playing ball(tuition, books, housing, training table, etc), and it was actually pretty huge, and it was realistic. For a part time job, the average university forks out $40k or more per year on these athletes. Not a bad gig.

BSU players even get their CDL!



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jvquarterback wrote:
My favorite quotes are: "deemed illegal by the NCAA" and "do the right thing." I wish TH and the athletic program would just come out and say, most of these rules are lame and have nothing to do with things that are wrong or immoral and the rules cause more problems than they solve, but BYU has to maintain the appearance of avoiding evil even if we know nearly all of these rules are a load of bunk. One can dream.

Violations would run rampant and BYU would be no better than any other school.



We have a squeeky clean image and we are proud of it.

Y12 wrote:



We have a squeeky clean image and we are proud of it.

So did Ohio State and their religious Jim Tressel

Lawboy wrote:
He even put an economic value on the education the kids get for the time they spend playing ball(tuition, books, housing, training table, etc), and it was actually pretty huge, and it was realistic. For a part time job, the average university forks out $40k or more per year on these athletes. Not a bad gig.

Except it is a bad gig for the ones that are worth far more than $40K.

Y12 wrote:

My favorite quotes are: "deemed illegal by the NCAA" and "do the right thing." I wish TH and the athletic program would just come out and say, most of these rules are lame and have nothing to do with things that are wrong or immoral and the rules cause more problems than they solve, but BYU has to maintain the appearance of avoiding evil even if we know nearly all of these rules are a load of bunk. One can dream.

Violations would run rampant and BYU would be no better than any other school.



We have a squeeky clean image and we are proud of it.

I disagree. I do a great many things just to avoid the appearance of evil even though those things have nothing to do with evil. Why would TH stating the obvious make any difference in our behavior?

Why do you go to church every Sunday? Why do you have FHE, or home teach? Why watch conference? Aren't the lesson topics pretty much always the same? Perhaps because we need reminders and repetition to achieve mastery.

Those are things that are in and of themselves praiseworthy. The questions to prove the point would be why do I avoid drinking hot chocolate or grape juice when everyone else is drinking coffee or wine? Why do I pay my taxes? Why do I stop at a stop sign? Why do I put a filter on my internet that prevents me from researching breast cancer at home?



If TH said the NCAA is full of a bunch of foolish people hired by the schools with the intent of extracting as much value as possible from players and abolishing freedom through the use of force, but we still would like you to abide by their rules so as to avoid the appearance of evil, would you be more or less likely to abide by the rules? Why or why not?

Please keep posts on topic or they will be removed. As a reminder, the topic is the contents of the memo Holmoe sent out, not hypothetical morality. Thanks.