Might this be the foundation for a "standard" that all agree is needed?-- BYU puts principle over performance

Pat Forde ESPN

Brigham Young University Honor Code

Be honest
Live a chaste and virtuous life
Obey the law and all campus policies
Use clean language
Respect others
Abstain from alcoholic beverages, tobacco, tea, coffee, and substance abuse
Participate regularly in church services
Observe the Dress and Grooming Standards
Encourage others in their commitment to comply with the Honor Code

I can't relate to the Brigham Young University honor code. But I can respect it.

Would I have wanted to attend college at a place that has rules governing just about every aspect of your daily life, including how you dress and whether you've shaved that morning? No, thank you. In my youth I was not sober enough, chaste enough, conformist enough, dogmatic enough or decaffeinated enough to have been a very good student at BYU.

But today I am impressed by the school's commitment to its rules, even at a potentially tremendous cost to its basketball team.

When BYU suspended double-digit scorer and leading rebounder Brandon Davies from the team Tuesday for an undisclosed violation of the honor code, it might have ruined a dream season. He won't play again this season, just as the games become the team's most important ones.

And in the grand scheme of things, that really doesn't matter to the school.

"To me," said J.J. Despain, sports editor of the Daily Universe, the BYU student newspaper, "it's a testament to BYU holding to its own standards."

What makes this such a powerful testament is the fact that so many schools have cravenly abandoned their standards at such a time as this, embracing athletic expediency over institutional principle. It happens so often that we don't even raise an eyebrow at it anymore.

Player arrests or other antisocial behaviors are minimized as youthful mistakes, with strenuous institutional effort put into counterspinning any negative publicity. Academic underachievement is dismissed as merely the price of being competitive in big-time athletics. "Indefinite" suspensions often last only as long as they're convenient -- timed to coincide with exhibition games or low-stress games against overmatched opponents.

That certainly didn't happen in this instance at BYU.

Consider the situation: Key player on probably the best team in school history gets in trouble in the final week of a 27-2 season. With a Mountain West Conference title and a probable No. 1 NCAA tournament seed there for the taking, the school learns of an honor code violation on Monday, a violation that school officials said was not a criminal offense. On Tuesday, Davies is suspended for the rest of the season.

We don't know what Davies did. It might have been something that would have gotten him booted from the team at many other schools, too. Suffice to say, it wasn't a penny ante violation.

"It's more than not shaving for one day," Despain surmised.

But as of Wednesday afternoon, Davies had not been kicked out of school or suspended academically. Whatever he did has not brought public shame or ridicule to the school.

From that standpoint, the first impulse is to feel sorry for Davies -- if only he'd gone to State U, where the punishment might have been a week of running stadium steps at dawn. In April.

But Davies knew what he signed up for. Literally. He grew up in Provo and went along, eyes wide open, with the agreement saying he'd live by the BYU honor code.

From an outsider's perspective, it's remarkable that the school has been able to thrive athletically despite a code of conduct that would seem to be very limiting in recruiting.

There are plenty of socially conservative athletes to recruit. But how many of them are Mormon? Or want to matriculate in Provo, Utah? Or want to compete on overwhelmingly Caucasian teams? Or don't mind surrendering even the mundane freedom to grow a beard?

Apparently, there are enough. Because BYU has been very successful in football in the past 40 years, even winning a national title in 1984. It's been successful in basketball off and on -- especially recently, with the current team on its way to the school's fifth consecutive NCAA tournament bid.

Given the context in which it operates, Brigham Young might be the most unlikely success story in modern college athletics.

But it won't let chasing that success compromise what the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints says the school is supposed to be about.

"In general, everyone is kind of sad to hear the news," Despain said of the mood on campus. "We know how big a part he is of the team and how excited everyone is about the rest of the season.

"There are some people who think the honor code is too strict. But there also are some people who understand the importance of the honor code. That's the higher standard we have here, and we understand that coming in. … Most people respect the honor code, even though it might make us look like goody two-shoes."

The two empty basketball shoes belonging to Brandon Davies will not be filled easily in the crucial games to come for the Cougars. A dream season may crumble as a result.

But BYU isn't willing to subordinate its principles for victories. That's a rare stance these days, and a respectable one.

Pat Forde is a senior writer for ESPN.com. He can be reached at ESPN4D@aol.com.

BYU: Davies' honor code dismissal not criminal

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I have been sent 16 emails with links to the incident above since it broke. Everyone of them expressed "outrage" at us/the circus shooting it's self in the foot again. But as is typical given the "friendly/big happy family" scenario of the circus, nobody wanted to touch it publicly. They wanted me to. I waited to see if anybody else was going to touch it, particularly the "history channel" who touches everything that appears to "pick on the circus." Quite honestly I was surprised, but proud and happy to see it addressed by Showfolks, and commend President Torres(why do you only have 4 circus blogs linked to Showfolks. Is there a requirement?), because I don't think it would have been addressed 5 years ago. Even Show Biz Dave surprised me, although his reaction was the same as mine when as a child I learned Mr. Ed wasn't really a talking horse.
It has been "suggested" to me, so many times over the past few years that I have forgotten, that this blog is read by animal activists and thus hurts the "circus cause." That's false but, if you will look at the 12th link above, if you want to put that accusation at my door you better be willing to put it at everybody's door. It's America you numbnut's, not the alley behind Showfolks, everybody can join in!!!!!

I posted enough links so that before somebody decides to play the "pity party/poor picked on us" card, they might see and accept that it isn't about us, it's a bitch that the whole animal world is dealing with. How we as an industry deals with it, say's a lot about how interested we are in fixing it. As it is up to every industry to deal with it as they see fit.

I thought I should take my son's name off of this blog as a contributor as I get ready to go where I am about to go. But I thought that would be very disrespectful of his courage and integrity. He asked to be listed as a contributor a few years ago, after 3 of the original founding contributors asked to be removed as they were taking too much heat from fans and folks in the circus, and they had to deal with them. Because I respect my son's courage, I am going to leave his name on as he asked me to long ago. But rest assured folks, this one's on me, he has nothing to do with it.

John Pugh, whom I have never met was quoted in one article, "I didn't know he(Davenport) didn't have a license before I sold him the elephants!!!!!!" I am going to go out on a real thin, long limb once again and ask a "sacred cow," WHAT????? As an alibi that may sound good, but when I consider that next to Hawthorn and Davenport, Clyde Beatty Cole Bros./Cole Bros has more more dealings an issues, right or wrong, I don't know, with the USDA then anybody historically in the circus. How could you not know? How could you not know every single regulation, and what is required to possess exotic animal? As an alibi "I didn't know" is a dandy, but as a patch it is as lame as lame can be. The industry cries about regulations, paper work, etc. etc. and I'm here to tell you it all sucks, but it sucks for everybody. Anybody who looks at, studies, and loves the history of captive animals and can't see that as an "unregulated industry" it was way out of control, is just plain ignorant. I did some things when I first started training animals, that I am not proud of. I did it because that is how I was taught, that is how everybody did it, and I thought that is the way it was supposed to be done. But very quickly into my career, I had to go "wait a minute, this isn't right." I has been quoted, "I was an Astrix animal trainer, during the GGW era," which is fun to hambone about. But what about "I was an animal trainer during the ar movement." Do we ignore it and play the pity card? Do we comfortably "take our loot and get out of it?" What kind of legacy is that to leave for our son's, daughters, and the next generation to follow(hell, if there is even one?)

BYU has a code of conduct, a "standard." The young man at the top of this thread found out they are serious about it. Pete Rose didn't break the law when he gambled on baseball, but he did violate baseball's code of conduct, their "standard." He may have been one of the greatest baseball players of all time, but he isn't going into their Hall of Fame. He found out they are serious about it, and there are no "do overs."

I have posted a number of links to Standards/code of ethics that many, many other animal organizations have adopted in an effort to "fix" their history. Where's ours? Do we have one? What happens when somebody in our industry, makes our industry look like a bunch of unregulated, I'll do what I want, screw you buffoons? How do we show the world it is not "us" as a whole, but rather an "individual?" How do we show the world we are sincere about changing, and doing every thing, with in reason, right by our animals?

I love history, and I love looking at old pictures. I consider myself blessed to have been a part of the circus and it's fabulous life. I went from "America's youngest wild animal trainer" to "America's Own" to an old timer on an incredible journey that passed in the blink of an eye. But I also saw some things, and said nothing. I did some things that were wrong out of ignorance. I often think of the final scene in Lonsome Dove, where the reporter say's to Captain Woodrow F. Call, "they say you were a great man, that you had vision." To which Captain Call, looking into the past replies, "vision ya say........yeah, one hell of a vision......."

There are oldtimers out there who are older timer then me. We were animal trainers at the start of the animal rights era, and we watched it steam roll an industry we loved. We were forced to comply. Who want's to accept responsibility for the legacy that we left the next generation and who want's to keep whining "foul?" Anybody? In that case, I will. I'll accept responsibility. It is the least I can do for my son and his circus future.