College Football: Saturday Night's Allright for Fighting?

I know I may sound like one of the two old guys from the balcony on the old Muppet Show, but what I say is both accurate and comes with an admission that we’ve been here before in my era.

This Thanksgiving weekend saw some wild upsets and some great games. College football is a game that has so much; speed, power, grace and violent collisions in a chess match where moves and countermoves decide games. It is a 4-act opera, with soaring arias, brilliant collaborations of cast and orchestra amid choreography requiring execution under great pressure.

It is a game of intensity and emotional rivalries. This weekend the high stakes of conference championship and playoff contention added fuel to the burning fires of those intense rivalries. But this weekend was marked not just by what happened during the game inside the field boundaries. Post-game brawls and in-game fights were widespread.

Michigan tried to plant their flag on the Ohio State logo and a long melee ensued, one that eventually required pepper spray by police officers to disperse. They weren’t alone. Florida planted a flag at Florida State, Arizona State planted the devil fork at Arizona, UNC and NC State got into a brawl.

There was a fight in the Auburn-Alabama game, Nebraska’s captains refused to shake hands with Iowa at the coin toss, a Notre Dame player threw a punch at a USC player which the officials missed. After the Penn State-Maryland game (hardly a heated rivalry between the teams) the two coaches got into a less than friendly exchange.

All year we’ve seen players (and sometimes coaches) from victorious road teams waving and jawing at opposing fans as the clock winds down. Why even acknowledge opposing fans?

Taunting and talking between every play, guys signaling and celebrating –does anyone hand the ball to the official anymore? Does anybody help the other guy up anymore? Does anybody realize that they’re just playing a game?

Georgia and Georgia Tech ended an emotional 8-OT game, and the teams shook hands, the coaches hugged and spoke after the game. The two teams walked off the field and the glory of a game well fought was the lead story. Most of the weekend’s games ended without incident.

It takes you back to a time when a coach like Joe Paterno walked over to the Minnesota locker room after the Gophers lost a close game and told them they’d played a great game, an effort that was worthy of winning the game. Other coaches have done the same thing. Miami’s Jimmy Johnson made a point to seek out Penn State players after losing the National Title game and tell them how much he admired their effort and to congratulate them.

But that seems a long way from here….

All of these displays of poor sportsmanship give the sport a black eye, at a time when the game is on the precipice of becoming completely professionalized. All of these things represent a lack of class. Texas coach Steve Sarkisian saw the Michigan/OSU fight and told his team there would be no logo-stomping or flag planting. He expressed hope that if a future game went the other way that they'd be given the same respect.

That's how it should be, and it is unfortunate that it has to be explained rather than simply being the norm. The transient nature of college football adds to this.

Because of the transfer portal, NIL and social media, the game is now being coached and played by people who are essentially independent contractors who are “building their own brand” and can jump from school to school.

All these things reflect society.

This is not a new phenomenon. College football became so violent and such a black mark on academic institutions that President Teddy Roosevelt even got involved. We went through a spell in the 1980s and 1990s when there were fights at Notre Dame stadium between the Irish and Miami the Irish and USC, sparked by the team’s proximity coming in and out of the single tunnel. We saw that recently at Michigan Stadium’s tunnel.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s there were some massive fights. Penn State and Pitt had bench clearers in 1986 and 1989 (I was on the team for both). Florida State and LSU had a big fight in 1990, and Miami and Colorado had huge in-game fight in 1993. Hell, in that era we even had people fighting each other in stores to get the last of the cabbage patch dolls off the shelves.

As fights became increasingly common, the NCAA beefed up enforcement and penalties. Most importantly, coaches instilled discipline to avoid penalties that could cost their team a game.

But it is hard to remember a weekend where we saw so many things as we did this past weekend. There are more sparks that trigger fights. On-field celebrations were once penalized Now, officials are letting more and more go. Teams are even getting into NFL-style choreographed group celebrations after scores and turnovers. Those were never part of the game.

I know, I know I’m and old man shouting from the balcony. But it is also true that these celebrations breed quiet resentment and stir anger. They show up prideful players who don’t want to be taunted, or disrespected.

And there are other factors that add fuel to the fire.

Official team accounts on social media are trolling one another. It’s one thing to celebrate your team’s win, it’s another thing to take shots at an opponent and rub their noses in it.

Isn’t it enough to simply relish the competition, appreciate the best in your foe, and give credit to a game well fought?

Not anymore, there is a whole wave of people who think they’ve accomplished something through trolling. Most of them have neither battled to a victory, nor felt the bitter sting of defeat despite a valiant effort. That’s why it’s so easy to act like a punk when they troll other teams and players.

One thing these players and coaches have at this level is intense pride in what they do, and a competitive spirit that drives them. Putting up with childish trolling from some pissant social media intern at another school, or from fans can often drive anger. Once the game starts, verbal taunting that can rise to the level of what we saw after several games this weekend.

Schools are also not doing enough to teach players and coaches how to ignore an increase in trolling and criticism that has come with the new professionalized model of college sports.

No one looks at these players as eighteen- or nineteen-year-old students playing football for “dear Old state” or “State U” or “Tech”. Fair or unfair, true or not, they’re now seen as quasi professionals making tons of money to play a game. Coaches make more in a year than some may ever make in a lifetime. For both coaches and players, they’d better win so a fan's ego won’t take a beating from trolling from my school’s rival fans on social media.

And in recent years it has become increasingly evident that no one is currently in charge of college football. It’s time for the NCAA or the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) to step up for the good of the game.

The game suffers when players who refuse to stop fighting and disperse are getting pepper-sprayed by police officers. The game suffers when players in a tunnel fight are charged with assault. Schools, coaches and players should be able to behave within certain parameters without needing the judicial system and law enforcement to be involved.

These actions take away from a game whose dramatic contests and efforts should be remembered for the best of what these young men can be. The glory should go to those who put it all on the line during the game.

Hopefully, we’ll get back to that as we head to the conference championship games and the playoffs.

A wise old coach used to advise “Don’t get into a pissing contest with a skunk.” College football has its share of skunks, and they popped up all over the place this weekend leaving a smell tainting an otherwise incredible few days of football.

Yes, I may be the old Muppet on the balcony. But college football is meant to be more than a game, it is meant to be something more noble. It would be great to get back to that being the focus of each weekend.