Pac-12 membership comes with consequences for Mormons

The other day, my mother called from Seattle, where my parents recently moved to live with my sister. Mom called to tell me my nephew Jarrett Finau, my sister's oldest kid and a freshman defensive end at the University of Washington, just learned from head coach Steve Sarkisian that he made the traveling squad.

He's going to be in Salt Lake on Saturday to play Utah.

As we spoke, it suddenly dawned on Mom what that meant.

"Do you think they'll let Jarrett stay to attend the priesthood session?" she innocently asked.

"No, Mom," I replied, suppressing a laugh. "Coaches don't like to leave their players behind on road trips. Especially 18-year-old college freshmen."

Our conversation did provoke some thoughts on the propriety of scheduling games in Utah, especially Salt Lake City, on conference weekend.

Traditionally, BYU always played Utah State on Friday before conference, whether it was in Provo or Logan, in order to free up Saturday for General Conference. Utah typically played on the road or adjusted kickoff so it wouldn't interfere with General Conference, though that's difficult to do with sessions at 10 a.m., 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. on Saturday.

But the Pac-12 doesn't care about General Conference. Neither does it care about playing Sunday games.

Protecting Conference Weekend in Utah, so far as I know, was not in the bylaws of the Western Athletic Conference or Mountain West Conference when Utah and BYU were members. It was done out of respect for BYU's fan base and Utah's dominant religion because the WAC and MWC relied heavily on both schools for its existence.

The same way that the NBA was respectful of Larry Miller's request that the league avoid scheduling Sunday games for the Jazz in Salt Lake during the regular season. NBA commissioner David Stern couldn't do anything about the postseason because of its TV contract, but he had more control over the regular season so the commish did his best to accommodate Miller's request.

If the NBA plays at all this year, EnergySolutions Arena will still be locked out — on Sundays. The Jazz haven't played a home Sunday game since the 1999-2000 season. That speaks volumes of the juice Larry Miller had with the league. NBA owners aren't pious as much as they are savvy businessmen and in marketing their product. Apparently, they don't see financial sense in playing Sunday games in Utah because of the prevailing LDS culture.