Separation of Church and State...in Collegiate Athletics?

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof"

The First Amendment created the "separation of church of state" that we know today in America.  This applies to many venues of our society, with some areas being black and white in definition and others in a "gray area." 

Allowing freedom of speech while also allowing freedom to exercise one's religion is a very interesting and touchy subject in America.

How does this concept affect collegiate sports in the arena of conference affiliation and creation for private religious-based universities?

Certainly, the biggest fish (note the symbolism here) in the collegiate sports world that is affiliated with a religious institution is the University of Notre Dame. 

The annual question of when/if the Fighting Irish will join a conference feeds the off-season with enough fodder to keep everyone interested until spring football starts. 

The Irish have maintained that they value their football independence too much to join a conference and risk losing their identity as a "national" team.

I truly respect that.  Their alumni and fans are not "midwestern" or "northeastern," they are spread all over the country and to serve them, the Irish need to have flexibility to pick and choose as many games at different locations as possible.

Another university that fills the "flagship" role of an entire religion is Brigham Young University.  The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints founded and owns the school, which has the second largest private campus enrollment in the U.S.

The recent indication that the Pac-10 Conference is looking at expansion to increase revenues for their members has brought a lot of discussion about whether the liberal-minded conference would seriously consider the BYU Cougars as a candidate.

While conferences are formed for athletic competition purposes, the structure of leagues, like all organizations, depends upon the partners having some common goals.

Decision making, rule creation, scheduling, and many other conference issues have their roots in a shared conference vision.  Because of this, the member institutions have to have common respect for each other.

The Pac-10 members see themselves as a collection of peer institutions that are (mostly) top-flight academic institutions at both undergraduate and graduate levels.  All of the member schools have a large research focus, led by Stanford, USC, Cal-Berkeley, UCLA, and Washington.

The issue with BYU as a potential candidate for Pac-10 membership is summarized in the dichotomy of the First Amendment. 

Pac-10 members are notorious champions of "Freedom of Speech" as it applies to academic research and social issues.  BYU is a notorious champion of "Free Exercise" of their religious beliefs.

This has come into conflict in two visible instances:

1) The Statement on Academic Freedom that BYU enacted in 1992 places limitations and punishment on violations to institutional freedoms while also trying to balance individual freedoms.

"At any religious university, including at BYU, there always will be the possibility of friction between individual and institutional academic freedom.

There is no way to eliminate these tensions altogether, except by eliminating the claims of one kind of freedom or the other."

Statement on Academic Freedom at BYU

Having such a code, and enforcing it, has caused conflict with the American Association of University Professors.  While it is immaterial to discuss the ethical/moral issues of those claims for this article, knowing that there is a conflict is what is important. 

The claim from the AAUP:

"infringements on academic freedom are distressingly common and that the new climate for academic freedom is distressingly poor."

I fully support any private enterprise that seeks to maintain its identity and values especially any religious institution, so please do not misunderstand my point on this issue.  The point isn't to debate the merits of the conflict, simply to acknowledge that their is a conflict.

2) Proposition 8 in California.  This highly charged amendment to the California constitution that is designed to define marriage as only between a man and a woman was fiercely supported by the LDS Church, both financially and politically.

The conflict with Pac-10 member institutions comes from the demographics of their service areas.  Stanford and Cal-Berkeley are located in the epicenter of the most prominent anti-Prop 8 population.

While BYU and the LDS certainly have the right to support amendments and voice their religious views on any issue, that also applies to any counter viewpoints as well.

Again, the point is that there is a conflict on a moral/religious issue that proves that a "common goal" cannot easily be found among these institutions.

3) Sunday scheduling of sporting events.  This one is fairly straight-forward.  Secular schools do not prevent events from being scheduled on a Sunday, while BYU has a strict rule about not scheduling events on a Sunday. 

Logistically, this means considerable challenges and requires that all conference members would have to work to appease this requirement, or demand that BYU change their position.

Given the above conflicts, it is not reasonable to believe that a complete consensus from existing Pac-10 members can be found to invite BYU into their conference. 

This is not discrimination as conference membership is NOT a constitutional right for any university.  Just as BYU has the right to deny employment to a professor that does not agree to their religious mission, so too does the Pac-10 have a right to deny an invitation to a school that does not meet with their standards.

Athletically, the Cougars and Irish have more than proven that they belong in the top tier of athletic programs in the country.  However, there is much more to conference membership than just the field of play and everyone needs to understand that.

It is perfectly acceptable for BYU to have strict control over their academic mission, just as it is for Notre Dame to have freedom to use their football team's independence as a vehicle to promote the school as a "national" university.

So, how can all of these public vs. private religious conflicts be resolved?

How does Notre Dame position itself to maintain an economic edge as a football independent in an era when large conferences are now providing much greater benefit to their member schools?

How can BYU affiliate itself with prominent athletic and academic institutions without creating a compromise to their values or to an already established conference's values?

How can private religious universities continue to compete with large public universities in the "arms race" that has become college sports?

How successful can Syracuse be in football when every year their attendance and prestige slips another notch despite playing in the "easiest" of BCS conferences?

Vanderbilt has continued to battle the "front-line" in the arms race of college sports as a founding member of the highly-competitive Southeastern Conference.  While the Commodores have proven to field an occasionally competitive team in football they have lacked any serious measure of success in football.  They have even bucked the trend of the mega-athletic department by abolishing the athletic department as a separate entity and the position of athletic director.

While that is a novel (and to some refreshing) position to take, it also furthers the divide in a competitive sense from their SEC brethren.  Fortunately for Vandy, the conference they belong to shares a very lucrative television rights package among its members that enables the school to fund their athletic programs.

How can these private schools maintain their student-athlete profile without being at a competitive disadvantage among their conference foes?

Why not form their own national conference?

The answer: an elite Division I all-sports conference (FBS in football) with the following universities that have religious origins and are private institutions:

• Notre Dame Fighting Irish - South Bend, IN (Catholic)
• BYU Cougars - Provo, UT (LDS/Mormon)
• Duke Blue Devils - Durham, NC (Methodist/Quaker)
• Vanderbilt Commodores - Nashville, TN (Methodist Episcopal)
• Wake Forest Demon Deacons - Winston-Salem, NC (Baptist)
• Boston College Eagles - Boston, MA (Jesuit)
• Syracuse Orange - Syracuse, NY (Methodist Episcopal)
• SMU Mustangs - Dallas, TX (Southern Methodist)
• Texas Christian (TCU) Horned Frogs - Fort Worth, TX (Disciples of Christ)
• Baylor Bears - Waco, TX (Baptist)
• Tulsa Golden Hurricane - Tulsa, OK (Presbyterian)
• Villanova Wildcats - Philadelphia, PA (Roman Catholic)

Eastern Division : Notre Dame, Boston College, Syracuse, Villanova, Duke, and Wake Forest

Western Division : BYU, Vanderbilt, SMU, TCU, Baylor, Tulsa

The Holy XII. The Sacred Twelve. The Glory 12. The Liberty Conference. The Divine Dozen.

Call it whatever you want, but it spells opportunity.  Opportunity for these great universities to compete on the gridiron with a realistic chance of success.  Opportunity for these special universities to spend Saturdays slogging it out for supremacy while saving Sundays for service.

Setting aside the need to compromise academic research or debate theology these schools could strictly limit the conference to an athletic association, abiding by a mutual respect to allow each other the freedom to pursue their own academic mission.  No sports on Sunday in this conference would be revered not ridiculed.

The rivalry and intrigue from events between Mormons and Catholics, Baptists and Methodists, (heck even between Methodists and Methodists) would be unparalleled!

All schools would maintain their national recruiting appeal.

Scheduling would be simple in football.  Each school plays all five of their divisional opponents (yay for Notre Dame with inter-divisional games with BC and Syracuse already!). 

Then they get one cross-divisional rival of their choice that would be a permanent home-and-home schedule.  Each school would then have six out-of-conference games to schedule as they please.

Each divisional winner would then meet in a conference championship game to be held in a neutral centralized location. St. Louis, with the Edward Jones Dome would be a great location!

This conference would be a "BCS worthy" conference in football with Notre Dame, Boston College, BYU, and TCU being strong contenders at the beginning. 

On the basketball court Duke, Syracuse, Villanova, Wake Forest, and BYU all have above-average to great programs.  In non-revenue sports these schools would have many strong teams as well.

From a TV standpoint, the market demographics of Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, Dallas/Ft. Worth, Nashville, Raleigh, Syracuse, and Salt Lake would be a strong foundation.

However, the religious demographic for many of these schools, especially Notre Dame and BYU would create market penetration in many large urban markets.

Another way to leverage a broader media market would be to play some of the major teams in neutral cites such as Notre Dame-Villanova at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, or BYU-TCU at Cowboys Stadium in Dallas.

While of course this proposal has 0 percent chance of ever being realized, and many of these schools might not have motivation to join, the thought of aligning these schools academic and religious priorities with a better athletic marriage could be a boon to their success.

At the very least, it would include all of these great institutions in the "haves" category of current collegiate sports and the mega-millions, while still protecting both sides of their First Amendment rights.