BYU-I Sports

How Intercollegiate Athletics Can Strengthen BYU–Idaho’s Mission and Build the Kingdom of Christ

When most people think of college athletics, they picture roaring crowds, televised games, and athletes chasing trophies. But for a university like BYU–Idaho (founded, supported, and guided by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) intercollegiate athletics can represent something far greater than competition. Done the right way, it can be a living expression of discipleship, education, community, and consecration. Athletics can powerfully support the university’s mission to “develop disciples of Jesus Christ who are leaders in their homes, the Church, and their communities,” and in so doing, help build the kingdom of Christ.

Athletics as Discipleship in Action

Discipleship is not formed only in classrooms or devotionals; it grows in the moments when character is tested. Such as those moments when an athlete must choose humility over pride, integrity over advantage, faith over fear. Intercollegiate athletics provides these moments daily. Athletes learn to submit their will to the team’s needs, to respond to adversity with grace, and to find strength through prayer and effort. A Christ-centered athletic program can help students internalize the gospel principle that “by small and simple things are great things brought to pass.”

Team prayer, scripture study, and service can reinforce the spiritual dimension of sport. A coach becomes not just a teacher of technique but a mentor in discipleship. When athletes see their talents as stewardship rather than status, sport becomes a sacred means of worship and an opportunity to glorify God through disciplined effort and clean competition.

A Wholesome Academic, Cultural, and Social Environment

Athletics can strengthen the academic and social fabric of the university when grounded in gospel standards. College sports bring students together in positive, uplifting ways that build unity and school identity. They create events where students, faculty, and families can gather in wholesome celebration. In a world where entertainment often drifts toward cynicism and excess, BYU–Idaho can model a better way: competition without contention, celebration without worldliness, enthusiasm without ego.

Moreover, intercollegiate sports can complement the academic mission. Athletic programs require balance, such as time management, discipline, and accountability, all habits that support success in study and future employment. When athletics operates within the same spiritual and moral framework as the classroom, it strengthens the entire educational environment.

Preparing Lifelong Learners and Leaders

Few experiences develop leadership like team sports. Athletes learn to communicate under pressure, to motivate others, and to respond to both success and failure with perspective. They discover that leadership means service and that greatness often comes from lifting others. These are precisely the attributes BYU–Idaho seeks to instill in graduates who will lead in their homes, the Church, and their communities.

The habits forged in athletics translate directly into professional life. Employers value these traits because they signify reliability and initiative. In this way, athletics becomes an applied education in leadership, helping students become the kind of dependable disciples who strengthen families, wards, and workplaces.

Serving as Many Students as Possible

Intercollegiate athletics at BYU–Idaho need not mirror the commercialized model seen at large universities. A carefully designed system, perhaps small in scale but broad in reach, could serve hundreds of student-athletes while enriching campus life for thousands more. Thoughtful resource stewardship could blend intercollegiate, club, and intramural opportunities, allowing students to participate at multiple levels.

Such a model aligns perfectly with the university’s mission to serve “as many students as possible within resource constraints.” When guided by gospel purpose rather than profit, athletics becomes not a burden on the institution but a blessing to it. It provides a structure through which students learn teamwork, service, and humility—skills essential for both spiritual and professional growth.

Building the Kingdom of Christ

Ultimately, intercollegiate athletics at BYU–Idaho would not exist to win championships but to build character and faith. Each practice, each game, each handshake after competition could become an act of ministry. Visiting teams would encounter not just athletes, but ambassadors of Christ; students who compete fiercely but love sincerely.

In a world increasingly divided, a Christ-centered athletic program can bear quiet but powerful witness that discipleship extends to every arena of life. The field, court, or track can become a chapel of effort and gratitude, where young men and women learn to consecrate their gifts to something eternal.

BYU–Idaho was founded to build disciples of Jesus Christ. Athletics, properly framed, is not a distraction from that mission, it is a tool for it. When sport becomes service, and competition becomes consecration, the scoreboard matters far less than the souls shaped along the way. Through intercollegiate athletics, the university could not only strengthen minds and bodies but also raise hearts and testimonies toward heaven. In that sense, every point scored and every lesson learned could become part of building the kingdom of Christ: one game, one teammate, one disciple at a time.