BYU honor code continues to draw interest

The story was three weeks old, but the guy kept asking. A reporter from a TV network spent a good share of Monday’s BYU media session asking about Brandon Davies.

He asked about things that were answered way back when the Mountain West was still playing regular season games: How the team is adjusting to the loss of Davies, what it meant to have him on the bench, etc.

For those of us who were here when Davies was dismissed from the team, it was old news. For the TV networks, not so much.

They just got here.

All of which indicates BYU did the right thing with Davies. In this Twitter era, his honor code violation probably wouldn’t have remained a secret for long. Meanwhile, he might have been on the podium at the Sweet 16 this week, explaining the honor code, when the story broke.

That might sound unlikely, but the honor code has always been a subject of interest, even when players weren’t suspended or expelled. When the BYU team was on the podium the last time the Cougars made the Sweet 16, three decades ago, there were numerous questions about the LDS faith and BYU. Reporters asked about African-Americans and the Priesthood. They asked about the honor code. Then-coach Frank Arnold spent a considerable share of his time talking about LDS beliefs.

That hasn’t changed all that much in the ensuing years. While the word on BYU has been out for a long time, there are still a lot of questions unrelated to basketball. So in that sense, it was inevitable that someone would ask about the honor code this week. For BYU, it was good the Davies issue happened beforehand, rather than while the NCAA Tournament was going on.