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BYU volleyball: Team makes history

The shame to BYU is not in being on probation, it is in the way they treated their outstanding head coach Tom Peterson. At the peak of his career, for reasons unknown to all but a few (an unidentified few), he was tossed aside. Instead of giving him an opportunity to hear accusations against him and to face his accusers, they denied him access to information and denied him access to school support. As a master of shaping young people's lives by emphasizing truth, honesty, kindness, service to God and fellow man, hard work, team-work, and, yes, NCAA compliance, Coach Tom Peterson built lives. He built character. He built players and teams. His teams won. His players succeeded on and off the VB court. Then, someone in the BYU administration decided he was expendable and could be thrown out. As a master builder who valued and added value to the lives of all those he met, Tom Peterson deserved better. As a BYU alumnus, graduate, past player, and success story, Tom Peterson deserved more. He deserved to continue coaching for at least another few years at BYU. He loved BYU and coaching at BYU. He deserved more. He deserves more.

BYU got a taste of its own medicine. An honor code violation is a right of passage at BYU. Mine was for what was deemed an inappropriate greeting on my voice mail! (No Simpsons quote should get you in trouble...)

Quit justifying and excusing the behavior of BYU. We all have to follow rules and laws that are equally as complex as the NCAA Rules and Regulations (i.e. work rules, road laws, family rules, Faith rules, social rules, criminal and civil laws to name a few). The difference here is BYU is in the spotlight, thus they will be scrutinized and rightfully so. As for not breaking the NCAA Rules and Regulations for 105 years, if you believe this statement, I have some beach front property in AZ if you are interested.

Guarantee BYU has done a lot more things that also have been violations - they just haven't been up to reporting them. Since the compliance office didn't report these violations, they've probably not reported others!

Dave, try to forgive and let your anger fade away.

I agree 100% with JWT. I personally know Tom Peterson to be a just and honorable man. BYU threw him under the bus, no question about it.

Again, who cares? This is Volleyball. Next thing Rock will cover will be the other junior high sports of dogeball or climbing the rope. Enough already.

I have followed BYU Volleyball for over a decade. They play some of the best brands of the sport in the country, as evidenced by their ranking. This is a volleyball powerhouse. Unfortunately, this was not a "powerhouse of order"... You have to have all your ducks in a row to sustain an excellent program like this. I know Peterson, too, and he is a good guy - but it was under his watch (as well as others) that the oversight slackened and these violations occurred. It was his job to ensure compliance. No excuses. It reflects badly on him to not accept responsibility and instead to make excuses.

Let's stop worshipping athletes and put them in their places (way behind scholars)!!!

BYU administration is all about throwing coaches under the bus. People like Rollie Bestor and others are only out to protect their own interests.

The NCAA rules are a joke. Rides, money for lunch, etc...are all done to provide an act of service, yet they it's against the "rules". How does giving a player a ride to practice, or to class constitute a competetive advantage on the court or playing field?

You don't know you Peterson. If you did, you wouldn't be blaming this on him--trust me.

Furthermore, why isn't anyone questioning the fact that the official, full-time compliance officer at BYU wasn't fired. Is that his main job? If this is a sin of omission thing, and we expect our head coach to be doing more than babysitting--you know, like coaching?--then shouldn't the guy who's paid full-time to make sure this stuff doesn't happen take a bit of the heat? There's more to this than we know about. Something stinks in Holmoe land . . .

I am afraid the Church has become so obsessed with public image that what happened to Tom Peterson is not unusual anymore. It's as if image is the end all over the last ten years or so. Rather than being unique and proud of that we go to any length to be seen as just like everyone else. And according to this artice, a little probation helps us in that effort to be like everyone else.

What's so special about scholars?

Everyone who contributes to society, even the street sweeper, deserves respect. Just because many of us really enjoy sports, music, movies, etc. doesn't mean we worship the performers. In it's own way, sports is every bit as important to society as somone working in a lab.

Unless there's more to the story than we've been told, BYU should show some guts and give Coach Peterson a second chance.

The good thing about all of this is that we are finally allowed to know why Tom Peterson was fired. The bad thing about all of this is that now that we know, we cannot help but wonder - WHAT IN THE WORLD IS GOING ON?? How can you end a man's association with the school that he gave his heart and soul to, for these types of infractions? If people can be fired for these types of things, then none of us have any kind of job security. He should have been told to better monitor his players (received a slap on the wrist) and then been allowed to continue to develop the program that he loved. This is just sad and wrong on so many levels.

its not really holmoe land, its skousen land and others who are bigger than life.

Not sure if this is related at all but, per BYU's compliance newsletter available from the AD website, the head of BYU's compliance dept (Jim Kimmel) just retired after being their for 30 years.

Anonymous, you need to review the NCAA report and Tom Peterson's own statement. Peterson takes responsibility for what happened. However, the nature of these violations were subtleties that anyone who's ever been in a role of oversight knows happen all the time despite best efforts. Despite that fact, he got thrown under the bus. BYU Admin's inability to support and work with him given his commitment to BYU and his otherwise clean and respectable record is the shame here. Other Uni's have tolerated much worse to keep good coaches who are often worse people.

Could it be Death Penalty like what happened to SMU football. Maybe we should have the death penalty for men volleyball? It is possilbe. Then bring back BYU Men's Gymnastic. I know it has to be done because of Prop 9 (or what ever it was)
Go Cougars!!!!

I haven�t read all the stories on this but what happens to this season�.the number one ranking, possibility of national championship, do they have to forfeit games they have played?

This is not News, THIS IS PROPAGANDA.
Don't try to act like BYU is the only school who does not commit these infractions. We know the truth. There is a double standard with BYU and the Church for allowing these standards, or lack of.

Amen, amen, amen to Bosie Coug. Some of the above comments are extremely self-righteous and suggests there are those among you, "without sin."

Forgiveness IS The Gospel AND the very teaching of the Savior "Repentence," is not throwing someone out, its forgiving and helping and moving forward. Shame on my college, BYU, a school I love.