page_title: Brigham Young University
section_title: Athletics
hierarchical_section_title: Brigham Young University / Athletics
caption_attribution_description: English: [First Brigham Young Academy football team, 1896] One of the innovations President Cluff brought back from his studies at Michigan University was athletic competition, which included both interclass and interschool games, complete with yells and cheers unheard of up to that time in Provo (and which shocked many Church leaders). The first BYA football team in 1896 played the University of Utah (BYA-12, U of U-0), the Elks, the Crescents, the YMCA of Salt Lake City, the Wheel Club of Denver, and Westminster College. BYA won the championship. The team included, back row, left to right: Eugene McArthur, president of the Athletic Association; Heber Larsen, A. D. Miller, Dave Hyde, Alma Carbine, Walter Hasler, manager; middle row: Nephi Otteson, Jesse LeFevre, Orville Larsen, Hans Poulsen, John Peterson, Andrew Peterson; front row: Albert Fillerup, Sam Hinckley, Ben C. Call, and Frank Cox.
context_page_description: Brigham Young University is a private research university owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and located in Provo, Utah. The university is run under the auspices of the church's parent organization, the Church Educational System, and is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High Research Activity" with "more selective, lower transfer-in" admissions. The university's primary emphasis is on undergraduate education in 179 majors, but it also has 62 master's and 26 doctoral degree programs. The university also administers two satellite campuses, one in Jerusalem and one in Salt Lake City.
  Students attending BYU agree to follow an honor code that mandates behavior in line with LDS teachings, such as academic honesty, adherence to dress and grooming standards, abstinence from extramarital sex and homosexual behavior, and no consumption of illegal drugs, coffee, tea, alcohol, or tobacco. Approximately 99 percent of the students are members of the LDS Church.
context_section_description: BYU has 21 NCAA varsity teams. Nineteen of these teams played mainly in the Mountain West Conference from its inception in 1999 until the school left that conference in 2011. Prior to that time BYU teams competed in the Western Athletic Conference. All teams are named the "Cougars", and Cosmo the Cougar has been the school's mascot since 1953. The school's fight song is the Cougar Fight Song. Because many of its players serve on full-time missions for two years (men when they're 18, women when 19), BYU athletes are often older on average than other schools' players. The NCAA allows students to serve missions for two years without subtracting that time from their eligibility period. This has caused minor controversy, but is largely recognized as not lending the school any significant advantage, since players receive no athletic and little physical training during their missions. BYU has also received attention from sports networks for refusal to play games on Sunday, as well as expelling players due to honor code violations.  Beginning in the 2011 season, BYU football competes in college football as an independent. In addition, most other sports now compete in the West Coast Conference. Teams in swimming and diving and indoor track and field for both men and women joined the men's volleyball program in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation. For outdoor track and field, the Cougars became an Independent. Softball returned to the Western Athletic Conference, but spent only one season in the WAC; the team moved to the Pacific Coast Softball Conference after the 2012 season. The softball program joined the bulk of BYU's sports in the WCC after the July 2013 return of Pacific to the WCC allowed that conference to add softball as an official sport. BYU is regularly rated highly for its achievements in college athletics, including finishing #45 in the 2018 NACDA Directors' Cup.
  BYU football has had seven inductees into the college football hall of fame, one Heisman winner, and was awarded the National Championship in 1984.  BYU has had several standout basketball players including Jimmer Fredette, who in 2011 was named the NCAA basketball player of the year, and Danny Ainge who won the John R. Wooden Award in 1981. Krešimir Ćosić and Stan Watts were both inducted into then the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
  More recently, Tyler Haws, as part of the 2014–15 season, was a finalist for the Jerry West Award and scored the most points in the nation; and Kyle Collinsworth, set the NCAA single-season record for triple-doubles with six (in both the 2014–15 and 2015–16 seasons) and holds the NCAA men's career triple-double record of 12.
  BYU sponsors extramural competition in six sports under Student Life. These sports are racquetball, men's lacrosse, women's lacrosse, men's rugby, women's rugby, and men's soccer. Men's hockey is not an "extramural sport" but is given "recognized sport" status.
caption: The school's first football team, which won the regional championship in 1896
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