Some people are not happy with the optics. But, it's apparent that Jesus wants a successful football/basketball team, just like he did in the New Testament. From the SLT:
https://www.sltrib.com/sports/BYU-couga ... big-money/The Cougars are spending millions to recruit high-profile athletes. The school’s athletics department says that only helps advance BYU’s spiritual mission.
And that is the disconnect, according to scholars like Harris. The main goal of Alabama’s teams, after all, is to win. BYU’s athletic teams, at least on paper, largely exist to promote the faith, he said. As Gilbert said last year, “If it ever came down to the only way we stay [competitive] is to walk away from our values, that would be the end of BYU athletics.”
Harris said he is still struggling to understand how faith meshes with the money being spent on sports.
“They’re paying millions of dollars, and that changes the equation,” he said. “It’s just the perception. This is such a spiritual university, its mission. And all of a sudden now we’ve turned into a program that’s paying these kids, making these kids millionaires, right? How is this maintaining the spiritual mission of the university?”
Gilbert has heard these questions in his own dealings. “I have others who say, ‘We are the church of Jesus Christ on earth. We care about repentance and the gospel. We are helping poor people around the world. How can we be spending this much money on a game?” the education commissioner said.
Harris isn’t satisfied with BYU’s answers so far.
“They haven’t been able to articulate, in my opinion, a coherent vision of how all of this relates to their religious and spiritual mission,” he said. “One of the contradictions was, we’re competitive. We’re in this to win. Then in the next breath, they are saying‚ ‘We’re not spending nearly as much as other people.’ I’m just like, ‘Guys, you’re already in the water, own it.’”
Added Buchanan, the BYU fan: “Maybe we’re not number one for the bidder. But it’s millions of dollars, and it feels like a disconnect to me.”
Gilbert alluded to his disconnect last year, saying he would rather see BYU field average teams that hold true to the school’s mission rather than excellent teams “if the team doesn’t reflect the values of the church.”
“Then the rug got ripped out from under BYU. They’re now in one of the world’s most competitive conferences, and they have to pony up all this money to compete. That something they were not expecting,” Harris said. “Now they’re scrambling to figure out how all of this money going out is compatible with the school’s mission.”
