Jeopardizing its chance to be a serious contender in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) tournament, last month Brigham Young University (BYU) suspended double-digit basketball scorer and leading rebounder Brandon Davies for violating its honor code. By having sex. With his girlfriend.
Because college athletes in top programs are routinely slapped on the wrists for much worse offenses, the severity of Davies’ punishment made headline news.
Did BYU overreact or is it merely managing its brand?
A private university owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, commonly known as the Mormon church, BYU has what many would consider a strict, perhaps old-fashioned code of conduct.
Among its tenets, one must not engage in premarital sex. Whether passé or not, students must agree to and sign the honor code every year.
During an age when many schools find excuses for pardoning top athletes’ bad behavior, BYU dismissed a key player for a violation that they could have ignored. How could that possibly be a good idea?
A recent Sports Illustrated investigation found that seven percent of the players in the preseason Top 25 teams (204 individuals) had been charged with or cited for a crime. Nearly 40 percent of those involved serious offenses such as assault and battery, domestic violence, and robbery. Such incidents are very rare among BYU athletes.
One of the foundation elements of a strong brand is integrity. If others observe that we are willing to manipulate our own standards for competitive gain, they will automatically assume we will not be true with them.
As I mentioned in a former blog entry entitled, “Branding, It’s Not Just For Cattle,” a strong brand also delivers a promise. For my parents Ike and Kathy, sending me to BYU answered the age-old question, “It’s 2am, do you know where your kid is?” BYU’s promise to them was to provide a home away from home — a living and learning environment consistent with their standards.
As a student, BYU’s promise included career opportunities. As a whole, BYU students have a reputation for being honest, principled, and well-behaved. These are among the traits sought after by companies who recruit on campus such as American Express, Amgen, Boeing, Chevron, DuPont, Ernst & Young, Ford Motor Co., and IBM.
Businessman Don Galer sums it up best, “Integrity is what we say, what we do, and what we say we do.” It may not win us the next sports tournament, but what it will win is a world of respect.
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