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On college ills, vote with remote

December 04, 2008|By DAVID STEELE , david.steele@baltsun.com

* Out-of-control fans. Not just blitzed students anymore, as the couple in heat in the bathroom stall at a recent Big Ten game proved. Then there are the fans who hack player Facebook profiles, bombard cell-phone voice mails, slap every rumor imaginable onto Web sites and endlessly invent new ways to harass and invade privacy.

* Coach hiring. Aryan prison gangs are more welcoming to people of color than are the major-college coaching ranks. (We pause here for the obligatory and condescending "I don't care if the coach is purple, as long as he can win" replies.)

Not that college football is that much worse than other big-time sports - well, actually, yeah, it is. It gets away with at least as much as the NFL, which gets away with virtually everything. And the NFL isn't centered on the world of higher learning.

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Yet we let ourselves get caught up in the pageantry and emotion, as well as the simple enjoyment of the competition, and swallow what we're fed, even if we dislike the aftertaste, even when we complain.

But now, post-election, the theme of change is in the air. Do your part - change the channel.

Listen to David Steele on Fridays at 9 a.m. on WNST (1570 AM).

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