07:25 AM
11/21/24
11/21/24
April 18, 2010
BYU Rugby Team Will Forfeit Sunday Playoff Game: If Brigham Young's women's club rugby team advances to Sunday's Round of 16 in the playoffs, it will forfeit the game for religions reasons. All 35 team members are practicing Mormons. BYU, a private university owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, does not allow its athletic teams to play on Sundays.
Tough situation, and you'd think they'd find a way to work it out.
The fact that rugby is a club sport and not a school sponsored sport says it all. Club sports always get low priority when it comes to fields and other resources such as administrative help. My son plays on a varsity level club lacrosse team, and they've shown up for games only to find out that an 8th grade soccer team was using the field for a practice. The soccer team was a school team, so they had a higher ranking. Nevermind that the club had paid a deposit, and that the other team drove 30 miles to get there.