Provo • When Tanner Wall grew up in the suburbs of Washington, D.C., his weekends fell into a familiar rhythm.

He would play his games on Friday, watch BYU on Saturday and pile into the church pews on Sunday. His uncle, J.R. Thulin, played offensive line for the Cougars’ football team and his aunt, Brooke Thulin, was a midfielder on the soccer team. Wall dreamed of following in their footsteps one day, mixing faith and athletics at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ flagship school.

Meanwhile, he watched his favorite team punch above its weight class every weekend. It was part of the charm of BYU fandom — rooting for the plucky school that could spring an upset, flash on the national scene, but never really blossom into a behemoth. Fans understood: Faith came first in Provo, and BYU would never spend like Alabama or Texas.

Wall took pride in it, vowing one day to join BYU’s fight. But that fight looks different these days.

“I can remember some of the one-off times. Like Jimmer [Fredette] and [four-star quarterback] Jake Heaps coming to BYU. But national success was never consistent,” said Wall, now a captain on BYU’s defense. “Now it has grown so much. And I think the more success that we have, the more attention it brings to the school and the church. It’s great.”

Not everyone in Provo feels that way, though.

Seemingly overnight, the perception of BYU athletics has changed. Since joining the Big 12, the Cougars have signed head football coach Kalani Sitake to a lucrative extension and put together enough money to reel in a potential NBA head coach, Kevin Young, to lead the hoops program. BYU’s total athletics budget has more than doubled since 2020.

In the past year alone, the donor base has pooled millions to sign some of the best recruits in the country. Potential top NBA draft pick AJ Dybantsa picked BYU over Kansas, North Carolina and Alabama for a reported sum of $4.5 million. That was followed by five-star quarterback Ryder Lyons choosing the Cougars over powerhouses USC and Oregon. The teenager, who is about to serve a one-year mission for his church, will reportedly make $3 million before ever playing a snap.

BYU made its name as a scrappy underdog playing for a higher power and adhering to different standards. Now it’s a program expected to make runs to the Final Four and College Football Playoff.

It has led some to ask the uncomfortable question: Is this modern version of Cougar athletics at odds with BYU’s mission?

“There’re two seemingly incongruous principles at play here,” said Matt Harris, a history professor and a leading Latter-day Saint expert at Colorado State University Pueblo. “One is they have this spiritual and religious mission they want to uphold. On the other hand, they want to compete in the Big 12. I do not see those as congruent.”

Standing for something more

The church’s commissioner of education Clark Gilbert, who, as a general authority Seventy, is one of the highest-ranking Latter-day Saints, had a similar upbringing to Wall in at least one way: He grew up rooting for his faith’s school every Saturday.

“Somehow on the weekends when BYU was winning all those games, it said to me that I’m part of something special. My faith isn’t something so strange and so weird that we can’t perform,” Gilbert said last October on the “Y’s Guys” podcast. “They stand for something more.”

But after BYU jumped out to a 7-0 start in football last season, the general authority drew a clear line in the sand for BYU athletics. While he was happy the school was winning, he said, the church would never allow athletic success to distract from BYU’s true mission. That’s “helping people find Jesus Christ and his gospel,” BYU’s athletics department said.

“Winning expands the platform,” Gilbert acknowledged. “But here is the tension. The temptation is, if winning will do this, then we need to win at all costs. And that is what we have to preserve against. We want them to succeed, but there are a lot of pressures put on college athletics today. And it can be very tempting to become just like another college team and think the ends justify the means. BYU has to stand alone, and if we don’t, people will say ‘BYU who?’”

So he laid out boundaries to keep the university from “drifting away” from its bedrock principles. BYU would never pay coaches at the highest level or be the highest bidder on a player, he said. Athletes at BYU would always reflect the values of the church, whether that meant speaking at fireside chats or serving on mission trips.

More than anything, he said, the church would never let BYU be known as a “pay for play” school. Otherwise, Gilbert said, “this investment is hard to justify.”

“I hear people say, ‘We have to be like Texas and Alabama, more money, more facilities, higher payment. We have to catch up.’ And that is wrong,” Gilbert said. “We can never become a ‘pay for play’ culture. We would undermine everything at BYU if that comes out. It is tempting to buy one player at a time. If they don’t fit the mission, it would unravel everything.”

But the perception hasn’t always matched that ideal.

People around the college landscape view the Cougars as major spenders; BYU made a CBS list of the top three deepest-pocketed basketball programs right after national powerhouse Kansas and ahead of Kentucky.

The night Young was hired, he told The Salt Lake Tribune, “This place wants to win, and it has the [financial] backing to do it.”

He’s been right so far.

In basketball, BYU put together its best recruiting class in program history, thanks to a roster that costs more than $15 million. The prized recruit, Dybantsa, is set to make more than $4.5 million, CBS reported. BYU’s financial offer was enough to make even Kansas blush.

“Traditional powerhouses like the Kansas Jayhawks, which initially pursued Dybantsa, appear to be opting out of this bidding war,” Sports Illustrated reported.

It wasn’t just Dybantsa. The Cougars poached Baylor guard Rob Wright III for a large name, image and likeness (NIL) payday, frustrating his old coach. Returning star Richie Saunders commanded a big paycheck, enough to delay his pursuit of playing in the NBA.

It led one BYU donor to boast to ESPN last February that “you’re not going to outbid us.”

School officials have since tried to walk that back, saying the booster spoke out of line.

“We will never lead out with money, and we won’t bring in recruits who are just searching for the highest bid. But we will be competitive in NIL and revenue share, to help bring in recruits who fit here and value the unique culture here,” BYU athletics said in a statement.

But the financial commitment is undoubtedly there.

The Athletic reported the average Big 12 basketball roster is worth $12.8 million. BYU’s men’s basketball payroll is widely expected to be above that.

On the football side, Sitake has also put together an unprecedented recruiting run. Lyons was the highest-rated recruit to commit to BYU in a decade. BYU also nabbed four four-star recruits and currently has a recruiting class ranked higher than Ole Miss, Texas Tech and other heavy spenders.

While BYU officials declined to be interviewed for this story, Cougars athletic director Brian Santiago has spoken proudly about the school’s new era.

“We’re going to be excellent. We’re going to be passionate about being nationally relevant,” he said. “In this world of college athletics, it’s imperative that we chase greatness. So, we’re not shying away from it.”

To some, that clearly fits with the school’s mission.

“I really do feel that BYU athletics, after probably our missionary program, is one of the biggest assets for the church, as far as exposure to the gospel of Jesus Christ,” said Wall, the BYU football captain who served a two-year mission in Brazil for the church before enrolling in Provo. “The more success we have, and the more we are in the spotlight, the athletes do a great job deflecting that back to BYU and back to Jesus Christ.”

Wall also believes BYU paying high-profile, non-Latter-day Saints is a positive. Former BYU quarterback Jake Retzlaff, a Jewish athlete, and former basketball player Egor Demin, a Russian point guard now in the NBA, help to normalize the church to various audiences, Wall said, even if the backbone of the program is still return missionaries like himself. (BYU says 56 players on this year’s roster have served church missions.)

“It brings people’s guard down a little bit,” he said. “There’s a lot of tension about the church. So when they see normal, everyday people, or even people they might look up to as athletes, go to BYU, it’s like, ‘Oh, OK. These are great people who believe in God, believe in Jesus Christ.’”

In a statement, the BYU athletics department said its spiritual mission is “greatly enhanced when our influence is expanded” through winning teams and high-profile players. It added it needs “to be competitive” in NIL to do that.

“BYU is not a faith-based institution in name only. Our student-athletes are asked to do some different things here. The honor code asks a lot,” BYU athletics said. “All of our student-athletes are required to take religion classes as part of our curriculum. The impact of missionary service cannot be overstated. Service projects, devotionals, firesides and coaching staffs who are asked to live their religion earnestly and faithfully are all examples of ways that make BYU athletics a distinctive experience.”

Others remain skeptical.

Feeling a disconnect

Marc Buchanan, a lifelong BYU fan, is among those looking at BYU’s ascent with a side eye.

“I want to be competitive. I want to have a team to cheer for. But I also love what was special and unique about BYU. They were different, right?” he said. “If we hold ourselves up as being different, then we need to back that up and not play into becoming a football and basketball factory. There’s teams [that do that] if I want to cheer for Alabama. That’s out there for me.”

And that is the disconnect, according to scholars like Harris. The main goal of Alabama’s teams, after all, is to win. BYU’s athletic teams, at least on paper, largely exist to promote the faith, he said. As Gilbert said last year, “If it ever came down to the only way we stay [competitive] is to walk away from our values, that would be the end of BYU athletics.”

Harris said he is still struggling to understand how faith meshes with the money being spent on sports.

“They’re paying millions of dollars, and that changes the equation,” he said. “It’s just the perception. This is such a spiritual university, its mission. And all of a sudden now we’ve turned into a program that’s paying these kids, making these kids millionaires, right? How is this maintaining the spiritual mission of the university?”

Gilbert has heard these questions in his own dealings. “I have others who say, ‘We are the church of Jesus Christ on earth. We care about repentance and the gospel. We are helping poor people around the world. How can we be spending this much money on a game?” the education commissioner said.

Harris isn’t satisfied with BYU’s answers so far.

“They haven’t been able to articulate, in my opinion, a coherent vision of how all of this relates to their religious and spiritual mission,” he said. “One of the contradictions was, we’re competitive. We’re in this to win. Then in the next breath, they are saying‚ ‘We’re not spending nearly as much as other people.’ I’m just like, ‘Guys, you’re already in the water, own it.’”

Added Buchanan, the BYU fan: “Maybe we’re not number one for the bidder. But it’s millions of dollars, and it feels like a disconnect to me.”

Gilbert alluded to his disconnect last year, saying he would rather see BYU field average teams that hold true to the school’s mission rather than excellent teams “if the team doesn’t reflect the values of the church.”

Harris was thinking about how much the landscape has changed in recent years. When BYU got into the Big 12 conference, there was no NIL money or revenue sharing.

In his mind, BYU went into the Big 12 thinking it could operate the same way it always did and adhere to its traditional approach.

“Then the rug got ripped out from under BYU. They’re now in one of the world’s most competitive conferences, and they have to pony up all this money to compete. That something they were not expecting,” Harris said. “Now they’re scrambling to figure out how all of this money going out is compatible with the school’s mission.”

Sometimes he wonders, “Would they have bolted for the Big 12 after NIL was announced? Because they know if they’re going to be in this conference, they’ve got to pay the money out.”

Buchanan had similar thoughts.

“To me being a fan of BYU was always, ‘We’re going to be competitive, probably not going to win a national title.’ And now it seems like that’s shifted, where a lot of our chips are in on being competitive,” he said. “And is that really going to fill the mission? I don’t think so, personally.”

Buchanan joked that when he was a freshman at BYU, he would have answered differently. But now he has a daughter going to the school, and that mission is important to him.

He knows, along with many, that BYU isn’t likely to slow down on its path to athletic success anytime soon.

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GAINESVILLE, Fla. – After watching his guys Euro-step through dummies and toss in a flurry of floaters, Taurean Green called for an extended 3-point shooting drill. For the next 25 minutes, sophomore Boogie Fland and freshman CJ Ingram launched long balls, with Fland, the combo guard, dropping 14 of 15 in one late stretch before Green wrapped the session.
 
“Feeling good,” Fland nodded as he left the floor Friday. “Oh yeah.” 
 
Green, the Florida assistant coach and director of player development, flashed a smile.  
 
“He’s getting there,” Green grinned. 
 
There means healthy. For now, that’s the goal. Period. The basketball package is in place. No one will doubt that. But for Fland, the 6-foot-2, 184-pound combo guard and projected heir to first-team All American, Final Four Most Outstanding Player and NCAA champion Walter Clayton Jr. as the Gators’ PG1, the 2025-26 season is about feeling whole for the first time in his brief collegiate career. 
 
Fland, who just turned 19 last month, came to UF through the transfer portal and via Southeastern Conference rival Arkansas, where a year ago he was a heralded freshman and – out of New York City – one of the top play-making prospects in the country. The only point guards ranked ahead of Fland in his recruiting class were Dylan Harper (Rutgers) and Egor Demin (Brigham Young), both of whom had outstanding statistical freshman seasons and were selected second and eighth, respectively, in the 2025 NBA Draft. 
 
A similar one-and-done trajectory was Fland’s plan, but he arrived at Arkansas last summer with a tender hernia that he eventually (with input from team doctors) chose to play through. That was quite the task for a guy who thrived on explosiveness and elite speed, but Fland made due. Then came a thumb injury early in SEC play, half a season on the sidelines, a return to action in the NCAA Tournament and, eventually, a change of scenery. 
 
Now, it’s about a new season, new challenge and new team – at 100 percent. Hernia surgery was seven weeks ago. Fland has been on the floor for workouts for two weeks. He’s been a regular in the weight room in an effort to put on more muscle (13 pounds, so far). He’s on schedule to be cleared for the start preseason drills, which start Thursday, the first day of UF fall semester classes. 

“I’ve always kind of played through stuff. You want to be tough,” said Fland, who in May pulled out of the NBA evaluation process to become a last-minute – and highly coveted – addition to the transfer portal. “So, I just feel like, this year, if I can start healthy and stay healthy and do everything to prevent those injuries – from being in the training room, investing in my body and believing in everything we’re doing here – that it will make a big difference. And I believe I am invested in everything we’re trying to do here.”
 
The feeling is mutual. 
 
“He’s definitely a great NBA prospect, and a guy that I anticipate not being on this campus for a long time,” UF coach Todd Golden said of a player whose game scouts have likened to NBA stars Darius Garland and Tyrese Maxey. “If he has a good year next [season], I would anticipate him moving on, which is awesome, and my hope is that we can help him get to that goal.”
 
The Gators, in looking to fill the voids left by Clayton and his remarkable perimeter mates, Alijah Martin and Will Richard, got a good one out of the portal early in Princeton’s Xaivian Lee, a first-team All-Ivy League selection. With a plan in place to move forward Thomas Haugh out to Richard’s wing spot, the roster appeared set, but then senior guard Denzel Aberdeen, set to take over at the point, surprised the UF coaches and bolted for Kentucky, thus leaving a huge hole on the ball. 
 
On that front, the addition of Fland was an orange and blue windfall. He’s the first former McDonald’s All American to join the program since Scottie Lewis and Tre Mann in 2019. He is one of only consensus two top-20 prep prospects (along with Lewis) to come to Florida since Billy Donovan bolted to coach in the NBA. 
 
“I thought he was a bucket when I first saw him in high school. A guy who was shooting a ton of 3s and attacking the basket,” said Florida associate head coach Korey McCray, who tutors the backcourt players. “But he’s become such a complete guard; score, shoot, pass, facilitate, smart and one of the best assist-to-turnover guys in the SEC last year. He’s just very talented … and really, really fast.” 
 
Johnuel Fland loved to dance as a toddler. So much that his mother nicknamed him “Boogie.” It stuck. So did his moves, the shaking and baking of which translated to the courts in the Bronx, New York, where Fland led Archbishop Stepinac to consecutive Catholic High School Association titles as a junior and senior and was named Most Valuable Player of the finals in both years. As a senior, he averaged 19.2 points, 6.5 rebounds, 3.6 assists and 2.4 steals per game. Fland originally signed early with Kentucky, but backed out when John Calipari made the stunning jump to Arkansas after the ’23-24 season. Fland was one of five current or incoming Wildcats who followed “Coach Cal” to Fayetteville.

Despite dealing with some discomfort from the hernia, Fland was averaging 15.5 points, 5.9 assists and 3.6 rebounds when he injured his thumb Jan. 11 in a 71-63 home loss to the Gators. He had 15 points, four assists and played through the pain that game, as well as two games after that, before undergoing surgery 10 days later. He missed 15 games before returning for the NCAA Tournament, starting with an upset of 7-seed Kansas, but a rusty Fland managed just 12 points on 4-for-18 shooting over his three tournament games, including an overtime loss to Texas Tech in the Sweet 16. 
 
“It was a season filled with ups and downs. I loved my teammates, but trust, I think, was something we kind of lacked, but we pushed through,” Fland said. “When I got back [from the injury], everybody was playing their best, so I wasn’t looking to fill a greater role. I just wanted to fit in the best I could. It ended up being a rewarding season and I feel like everybody took something from it, as far as life’s lessons. For me, I did a lot of self-evaluation.”
 
The mirror-gazing lasted through his flirtation with the NBA — feedback was luke warm — and into his time in the portal. The Razorbacks wanted their point guard back, but Golden and his coaches hit a home run in their meeting with Fland and laid out their vision for his role on the defending national champions. He committed on his official visit.

In landing both Fland and Lee, the Gators plan on rolling out a starting backcourt of two highly skilled and talented scorers, both known for their unselfishness. Over the last seven seasons, only one UF player (Andrew Nembhard in 2019-20) has averaged at least five assists. Both Fland and Lee averaged five-plus assists in ’24-25. Lee ranked 19^th nationally in assist rate (36.8 percent), while Fland was 59^th (30.6 percent), with an assist-to-turnover ratio of 3.7 that was 14^th nationally and second in the SEC. 
 
Though a gifted scorer, Fland loves distributing the ball. Especially in transition. 
 
“I want everybody around me to smile. I thrive off that,” Fland said. “If everybody is having fun that means I’m doing my job.”
 
Figuring out how two high-usage combo guards can play together and off one another – while playing with the best and most experienced returning front court in the country, by the way – will be a challenging (and fascinating) task for the coaching staff in the run-up to the season. 
 
The ’24-25 Gators, remember, finished No. 2 in the nation in offensive efficiency on the way to averaging 84.8 points per game. The UF offense will not deviate far from its principles of playing through two bigs (and ball-screening defenders to death), but things are going to look different with Haugh at the “3” and crashing the glass. 

Golden, ever the believer, is confident the new pieces will fall into place.

“I see it working really, really well. I’m excited about it,” Golden said. “When you have two point guards that are out there making plays, I think it makes your offense really dynamic. So, we’re excited. I think you can have both those guys start the offense. They’re both going to have the ball in their hands a ton, being able to play out of the ball screen, being able to push in transition. They’re weapons that teams are going to have to account for.”

First things first: Fland needs to feel great; the best he has since leaving the Bronx.

He’s getting there.
 
And just in time to step into a situation of sky-high expectations, both for the program (as defending champion, there’s only one way to go) and for Fland (who was pegged to be in the NBA by now).
 
“I feel like that’s all stuff that comes with it. I feel like everybody knows the deal, especially coming to a place where the standard is high,” Fland said. “The goal has to be to go higher. That’s what we have to do and what I’m ready to do. You want those expectations. You want that pressure. That’s why you play the game of basketball, that’s why you love the game and everything that comes with it. You have to go out and perform.”
 
Email senior writer Chris Harry at chrish@gators.ufl.edu

Brian Stuard competes in the 2022 PGA Rocket Mortgage Classic at Detroit Golf Club.  JTV Sports file photo.

(August 18, 2025 10:34 AM ET) Brian Stuard, just the fourth Jackson golfer to reach and succeed at the game’s highest competitive level, is this year’s inductee into the Jackson Golf Hall of Fame.

Stuard will become the 73rd member of the hall when he is inducted in ceremonies at 1:30 p.m. Sept. 21 at Sharp Park Golf Course. The public is invited to the induction ceremony at no charge.

“Brian Stuard is an example of what can be achieved with hard work and dedication,” Hall of Fame committee chair Elaine Crosby said. “His success on the PGA Tour was an inspiration to golfers in Jackson, who certainly enjoyed following Brian’s career. There is no question he belongs in the Jackson Golf Hall of Fame as one of the greatest to ever play the game here.”

A native of Jackson who graduated from Napoleon High School in 2001, Stuard played 12 years on the PGA Tour, winning one tournament and amassing more than $12.5 million in earnings.

He qualified for the PGA Tour in 2010, joining former tour golfers Dave and Mike Hill and former LPGA Tour player Crosby as Jackson natives who have made it to the big leagues in golf. In just his fourth tournament, Stuard finished second in the Mayakoba Classic. He lost his tour card for the following two seasons but returned in 2013 and played the tour full- time for the next 11 years.

In seven of those years, he finished among the top 100 in money winnings with at least $1 million, with a career-best 51st-place finish on $1.8 million in 2014. The highlight came in 2016, when he won a three-man playoff to capture the Zurich Classic of New Orleans.

Stuard totaled 13 top-five finishes and 24 top-10s on the PGA Tour.

His best finish in a major came in his only appearance in the Masters, when he tied for 36th in 2017. Stuard played in the U.S. Open seven times and the PGA Championship three times.

After winning the Division 3 individual state title as a senior at Napoleon, Stuard broke almost every school record at Oakland University, where he won the Summit League individual title and was named the league’s golfer of the year before graduating in 2005 and launching his professional career. When Stuard was inducted into Oakland’s Hall of Honor in 2016, he was recognized as the greatest golfer in program history and the most successful professional athlete the school has produced.

Francisco Lindor, Mark Vientos, and Clay Holmes on Mets winning series after rough stretchFrancisco Lindor, Mark Vientos, and Clay Holmes react to the Mets taking two of three games from the Mariners, their experience during the Little League Classic, and Vientos’ big home run.