AJ Dybantsa was only five when his father settled on a new training plan for the family’s three children: 100 push ups in the morning, 100 push ups in the evening. Every day and everyone – even AJ’s younger sister, Jasmyn. She was three.
‘It’s all about discipline,’ says Dybantsa Sr, who was born in the Congo and raised in Paris before serving as a cop in Boston. There, he worked the ‘graveyard’ shift – from 11:30pm to 7:30am – and would pick up regular overtime, too.
Most days, Ace survived on just two or three hours sleep. And around a month into the family fitness regime, he grew suspicious. ‘I knew they weren’t doing it,’ the 58-year-old tells the Daily Mail.
So he set up a hidden camera and soon his kids were dead to rights. Their punishment? 200 push ups every day and night. ‘This is not the military!’ Ace’s wife would shout.
‘(But) I’m about tough love. I’m about accountability,’ he says. And those lessons should come in handy next season. Because AJ Dybantsa is now 18 and the No 1 basketball prospect in the country. He is predicted by many to be taken first overall in the 2026 NBA draft.
But late last year, Dybantsa sent shockwaves around America when he snubbed college basketball’s blue-blood programs to join Brigham Young University. ‘Who would have thought that?’ his dad says.
AJ Dybantsa, the No 1 basketball prospect of 2025, shocked America when he signed for BYU
The 6-foot 9-inch superstar from near Boston snubbed basketball’s blue-blood schools
AJ’s father, Ace Dybantsa, spoke to the Daily Mail about his son’s choice to join the Cougars
It is a curious detour. Dybantsa is a 6-foot, 9-inch black kid who has risen from the outskirts of Boston to the brink of superstardom. He had offers from Alabama, North Carolina and Kansas.
Instead, Dybantsa chose a private, Mormon, predominantly-white college in the mountains of Provo. A basketball program that has never won a national basketball championship. And a school that demands students adhere to a strict Honor Code.
No sex outside of marriage. No alcohol. No smoking. No vaping. No coffee. No tea. No exceptions. Just ask Jake Retzlaff. He was BYU’s first ever Jewish quarterback until earlier this year, when he was accused of rape.
Retzlaff denied the allegations but admitted having sex. That confession was enough to put him in line for a hefty suspension. So he transferred out of Utah.
‘You can’t compare it to any other school,’ NFL legend Jim McMahon tells the Daily Mail. ‘I saw and heard of all the fun a lot of other people had in at college – and it definitely was not that.’
McMahon passed through Provo en route to the NFL. So did fellow quarterback Steve Young and Chiefs coach, Andy Reid.
Between them, they have won eight Super Bowls. BYU basketball star Egor Demin, meanwhile, was recently the No 8 pick in the NBA draft.
But Dybantsa’s arrival symbolizes a new era at BYU. The 18-year-old is the highest-rated recruit in Cougars history.
He is also the most glaring example of this school’s ambition to become a sporting powerhouse. As ex-BYU and NBA star Travis Hansen put it: ‘Everything is changing’
In 2027, Dybantsa will be joined by four-star football recruit Ryder Lyons. He represents BYU’s highest-ranked quarterback pledge in two decades. Lyons will play for the Cougars after heading out on Mormon mission.
BYU is a private, Mormon, predominantly-white college in the mountains of Provo, Utah
Ex-Cougars quarterback Jim McMahon (L) insists ‘you can’t compare it to any other school’
The plates beneath college sports have been shifting in recent years, particularly since the introduction of NIL deals that allow student-athletes to profit from their ‘Name, Image and Likeness’ via endorsements and sponsorship deals.
Dybantsa’s NIL package at BYU is widely believed to be worth around $5million. Other reports have put that figure as high as $8.5m.
Now, after a bombshell revenue-sharing ruling, schools can pay players directly, too. They can using funds from ticket sales, media rights and sponsorships and the annual cap is $20.5m. BYU – whose athletics budget has doubled in less than a decade – plans to use almost all of that. ‘It really feels like we can rise to the top doing it the right way,’ athletic director Brian Santiago said recently.
Modesty is a core principal of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. But after the tech boom of two decades ago, the Cougars can lean on a core of wealthy, local, loyal backers from an area now known as the ‘Silicon Slopes’.
‘There’s been a lot of money under the table for decades and decades. Now… it’s going to be different,’ a school official told Sportico earlier this year. A ‘perfect storm,’ one BYU booster called it.
NIL rules first opened the door for schools to break the stranglehold of sports’ traditional powerhouses. History and reputation and legacy are no longer the only cards to play at the recruitment table. And not many universities have deeper pockets or bigger plans than BYU. As Paul Liljenquist – one prominent booster – told ESPN earlier this year: ‘You’re not going to outbid us’
Now it’s up to Dybantsa to repay that faith. ‘This year is going to be big,’ his father says. ‘If he does well, it’s only going to open the door for everybody else… can you imagine if we win?’
The 18-year-old’s plan is spend one season in Utah before joining the NBA. Simple… provided he can avoid the potholes of that honor code.
BYU quarterback Jake Retzlaff left after admitting he broke the school’s ban on premarital sex
BYU’s honor code also demands students don’t smoke or vape or drink alcohol or coffee
‘Had I not been in Utah my last years of high school, I probably wouldn’t have been able to last five years,’ McMahon admits. Thankfully Dybantsa’s only hobbies are playing basketball and watching basketball.
‘I’ve been making my kids accountable since they were babies,’ Dybantsa Sr. says. ‘He knows the consequences if he does what he’s not supposed to.’
At school and at home. ‘AJ is 18 years old. If he messes up today, guess what? He knows Daddy is gonna take his phone.’
It happened last year and when a teacher suggested the teen could probably afford a replacement, Dybantsa Sr told them: ‘Let him try. But don’t be surprised if he’s missing some teeth when he comes back to school.’
BYU does not hide its desire to profit from NIL – there is a dedicated page on the Cougars’ website that outlines how the school ‘has moved quickly and strategically in the new era.’
Nor will they apologize for having a donor base that’s ready to bankroll big plans. It’s ‘something BYU recognizes with gratitude.’ But the Cougars do want to ‘cut through the noise.’
They insist that the mission of BYU Athletics remains ‘about Jesus Christ and striving to inspire others by living the values He taught.’ And the school wants to make a few other things clear, too: That fortunes aren’t thrown at every potential recruit. And that no church funds have ever been spent on sports.
BYU basketball coach Kevin Young joined the Cougars after many years working in the NBA
BYU receives religious sponsorship and subsidies – for tuition, for instance – but NIL donations and deals are filtered through ‘The Royal Blue’, a collective whose vision is to ‘make BYU a consistent national leader in collegiate athletic performance.’
Team Dybantsa is adamant, too, that money was not the driving factor behind this move. ‘We requested – I call it – our minimum wage,’ AJ’s dad says.
Three schools matched the figure, one went even further. ‘We chose to go with BYU, even though there was more money from the other school.’
For a while, Dybantsa Sr handled negotiations and AJ was kept in the dark about his NIL value. ‘We didn’t want money to affect his decision,’ Ace says.
Instead, the deal-breaker was Kevin Young, BYU’s ex-NBA coach who has worked with stars including Joel Embiid and Dybantsa’s hero, Kevin Durant.
After signing a seven-year, $30m contract, Young reportedly gave a presentation to BYU’s richest donors. According to ESPN, the net worth inside the room was north of $10billion. And the coach’s message was simple: back me and I can transform Cougars basketball.
Over the last 16 months, BYU has morphed into a professional program on a Mormon campus. ‘They have an NBA staff, all the way down to the dietician, strength coach, analytics guy,’ Dybantsa said last year.
‘My ultimate goal is to go to the NBA. Why not surround myself a year early?’
Dybantsa, who has deals with Nike, Red Bull and Fanatics, throws the first pitch at the Red Sox
The 6-foot, 9-inch superstar is predicted by many to be the No 1 pick in the 2026 NBA draft
That investment – in coaches and support staff – all funnels into the same pool with the same aim: to lure top talent and turn BYU into a powerhouse.
Dybantsa has already been in the mountains for a year, having played his senior year of high school at Utah Prep in Hurricane. ‘It was in the middle of nowhere,’ his dad says. ‘People barely knew he was there.’
The teen has NIL deals with Nike and Red Bull and now Fanatics. The latter, announced last month, is reportedly worth eight figures. And yet, until recently, Dybantsa’s dad dropped him off at school. ‘He thinks I’m his Uber,’ Ace jokes.
Three hours north of Hurricane, the winds of change are swirling. And at BYU, there will be nowhere for Dybantsa to hide. Not after all they have spent. Not when they have such big plans.