College football and religious wars

Baylor beat Texas this past weekend. At Texas. Maybe you noticed. Maybe you thought, "That's unusual." Or "I guess Baylor is having a good year and Texas a bad one." Maybe you even thought, "Good for Baylor." But I'll bet you didn’t think, "It's a sign of the apocalypse."

Yet that seems to be what people think this year whenever Boise wins (or TCU) or there's talk of Utah playing for a national championship. Why can't they just say, "Wow. Sounds like Boise/TCU/Utah is having a championship year." It doesn't have to be "My God can beat up yours."

Change is unsettling. Yet life is change.

We forget that Florida State and Miami were once football backwaters before Bobby Bowden and Jimmy Johnson (respectively) showed up to change that. I was alive then, and I don’t remember anyone complaining when those programs started to win. Surprise, sure. But it didn’t pose a threat.

It's a different culture now. As the recent elections show, we are now a country obsessed with making and keeping as much money as we can, damn the consequences to those around us. That is what is at the source of the sturm and drang over what would happen if Boise were allowed to play for a national championship or if a playoff system were put into place: money, manna from heaven. People are afraid that their God can't really beat up someone else's.

Bad examples

Michigan State football player Chris L. Rucker was arrested for drunken driving. The problem was (get this) it violated his parole from an assault charge.

Now the Coach, Mark Dantonio, says, it is Rucker's decision whether he travels with the team this week. Uh, no; it's yours. That's what being the coach is.

I am reminded of author Flannery O'Connor talking about why children in schools should have to read banned books. When one parent argued that her child didn't want to read them, Flannery replied, "[His] taste should not be consulted; it is being formed."

Dantonio: be the parent ... be the man .. be A man ...