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BYU volleyball: Statement/release from former head coach Tom Peterson

I had the pleasure of covering the men's volleyball team for two years, and I have nothing but pleasant things to say about Coach Peterson. He is as good a man as you can find, and he was an outstanding volleyball coach. I wish him well.

Definitely some hard-core violations that clearly gave BYU a huge advantage on the court. Personally if I were a player being recruited, I'd at least ask for a scooter or free bus pass... it has to be a better perk than use of a bicycle. Was it at least a ten speed?

It is sad but typical that this BYU administration turned on Coach Peterson and forced him to resign over an issue so inconsequential.

I played on the BYU volleyball team with Tom Peterson and know him to be a man of honesty and integrity. It's sad that BYU chose to "throw him under the bus," so to speak, to satisfy the demands of this witch hunt by the NCAA that was spurred strictly by jealousy from rival schools and coaches of BYU's volleyball success. I wish all the best to Tom and his family.

Ouch!

This response from Dr. Peterson suggests that there is big discrepancy between what the university claims and what he thinks. BYU has a moral obligation to respond.

Yet again the NCAA shows its interest in detail is more based on trying to create a facade at the expense of the student-athletes (and coaches). The NCAA rules are written with an American student in mind and really make it difficult for a lot of foreign students to be able to use an athletic scholarship to gain an education...and isn't that what athletic scholarships were originally about?

How do the rules address a foreign student who arrives and has his housing fall through? Working usually isn't an option. And a ride from the airport is a violation? C'mon! Give me a break. Well, maybe we could leave a bicycle there for them. No? Maybe they could hitchhike. No? What a joke.

We're behind you Coach Peterson.

Unfortunately, the NCAA does not have the ability to make common-sense exceptions on a case-by-case basis, so the letter-of-the-law rather than the spirit-of-the-law has to be followed. BYU may have disagreed with the overall decision, but they were probably forced to throw the NCAA a bone and make Coach Peterson a scapegoat, even though the bottom-line purpose of the rules, gaining an unfair recruiting advantage, was never the intent, nor the outcome, of BYU's violations.

I find it amazing that the volleyball program runs on 4.5 scholarships. Try that in BBall or Football. So roughly 3 quarters of your team are non-scholarship athletes. Seems to me that the NCAA should worry about other things like allowing more scholarships.

I played under Tom and have the highest regard for his ethics and character. He's a giant in the industry and I wish him well. We know the NCAA rules are challenging and designed to level the playing field for all teams and the NCAA determined that we (Go Cougars!) did not follow these rules exactly as written so a probation and penalty were assigned. I can appreciate that� Certainly we pushed the envelope a bit too far and we probably bit off more than we could chew. The next time we have the opportunity to recruit a Stellar Cuban National Team Player and Defector to Provo Utah we should probably think twice. The rules are there to level the playing field and I believe we gave ourselves an unfair advantage. 3King

What a colossal waste of talent and resources. I wish *I* could say I was guilty of such conscientious "violations." Not sure I could afford 18 months of silence to win the honor, though.

BYU preaches one thing and does another, they don't they stick up for their coaches, rather they frame it as the "coaches decision". BYU step up to the plate, be honest.

Am I the only one who thinks this is all nonsense? Why do we NEED these NCAA rules at all? What is so wrong with giving these student-athletes a FAIR inducement for services provided? If the university can hire a scholarship accounting student to perform some bookkeeping, why can't it provide a bicycle to a volleyball player? My view: Let the player shop his abilities in the free market, just like anyone else with a particular capability. I've never had anyone clearly explain to me the moral downside of an athletic freemarket system. The big boys will still be the big boys, the have-nots will still have not, but at least the players will finally be compensated fairly for the value they provide to their school. AND we can send the NCAA and their "letter-of-the-unnecessary-law" attorneys back into the adult freemarket world to get a real job that provides an actual service.

I know from trying out for the men's tennis team that there was (about 6 years ago) only one scholarship for the whole team, while the women's teams generally have scholarships for each player.

This is a Title IX issue, where schools have to have equal numbers of scholarships across the board. It is the football team that makes the difference. You have what, 50-some scholarships in one male-only sport that have to be made up in others. This is why wrestling and men's gymnastics programs were cut, and this is why men's soccer couldn't become D1 again.

In essence, the term 'equal' in Title IX has been determined to mean "total number of women's scholarships must equal total number of men's." While it's probably not equal in the eyes of most male student-athletes, it does create lots of opportunities for our daughters in an effort to counter past discrimination.

Whether you agree with that or not, that's the general reasoning behind it.

(To Cougar Alum) If its any consolation: this really wasn't the "coach's decision." Tom loved coaching at BYU.

Classic NCAA. USC will likley get their wrists slapped (if anything) after sports agents gave Reggie Bush HUNDREDS of THOUSANDS of dollars, but BYU gets 3 years probation for giving rides from the airport, loaning bikes, and helping a young man stay out of Cuba.
BYU's "support" makes me ashamed to be a BYU alumni. I hope Tom can make Utah Valley's team a force and knock BYU off it's perch in the years to come. BYU administration makes me sick.

Thrown under the bus...

NCAA itching to get some negative press on them pistol packin Mormons...string 'em all up!

Worse....BYU AD appears to be helping tie the rope!

Interesting how the speculation evolves as facts come to light. The comments following this story go after the coach, maybe the player, the booster, the fans, or the NCAA, and then BYU, but as it turns out, everyone involved is just doing what they think is best. The rest of us have no idea what judgement to cast, but since we are on the outside looking in, maybe we don't have that right any way, given our lack of information and the biased perspective of an outsider view we all come from. Give it a rest!

Get rid of it, or fix it! Why, in an effort to counter past discrimination, do we reverse our discrimination, entirely?

Now nearly all of our daughters, who want to play college sports, have that opportunity coupled with a scholarship. That serves one side of the equation, while the majority of our sons, who want to play sports, no longer have that same opportunity. In other words, equal amounts of scholarships not only does not equally serve the need, but cuts in to the other side of the equation's needs.

I am telling all my daughters to play golf. Bad or good, they are bound to find a full ride scholarship through college, because there isn't enough interest among the girls, for these college programs--that we created, for equality--to exist. Someone's got to take the scholarship, and rather than forfeit what girls could do without, my girls are going to take that scholarship, so I can pay for my sons to play football, basketball, soccer and whatever else they have devoted themselves to doing, on top of school, all these years.

Its defrinatley a raw deal for small technical violations. I agree with Lezoave, he should have held out for a Moped and a bus pass!

I blame the system man... Its a conspiracy man... Its all a conspiracy.