Across the country, many LDS BYU football fans faced the same dilemma: Watch as the first Mormon to become the presidential nominee of a major political party made his acceptance speech, or watch the Cougars kick off of their season against a strong opponent, Washington State of the Pac-12.
Josh Ferrin, Deseret News
Brigham Young University's alumni president had a choice to make Thursday night: Watch BYU alum Mitt Romney's speech at the Republican National Convention or watch the nationally televised season opener for BYU football's team.
Michael O'Connor refused to choose. Instead, he saved both for later.
"I couldn't handle either one of them live," said O'Connor, who lives in Riverside, Calif., and like Romney is also a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. "I'm so invested in both of them that I didn't want to go back and forth between the two and be tempted to go back and forth between the two. I wanted to be able to watch them both in a manner in which I could be fully concentrated on one of the other without thinking about the other."
Across the country, many LDS BYU football fans faced the same dilemma: Watch as the first Mormon to become the presidential nominee of a major political party made his acceptance speech, or watch the Cougars kick off their season against a strong opponent, the Washington State Cougars of the Pac-12.
Fans of both Romney and BYU went to Twitter to share their excitement — or defend their choice.
For Jeff Smith, a BYU alumnus in Palo Alto, Calif., the decision was a simple one. He said he watched only the game.
