I am an unabashed and lifelong fan of BYU sports. As an alumnus of the university, I’ve had season football tickets to Cougar football for several decades. I love the atmosphere, the excitement, the ups and downs, and the pure adrenaline that the sport brings. College sports used to be played for the love of the game and the amateur nature of collegiate athletes. Today, collegiate sports are in trouble.

Why, you ask? Teams used to show camaraderie, school pride together with respect for themselves and the other team. Now we see a darker side. Instead of seeking an upper-level education, we have universities flipping athletes from other schools with huge NIL (Name, Image and Likeness) cash offers. Schools with large budgets and deep pocketed school donors essentially are buying the best players. While not the NFL and its highly paid players, a college player not only may earn a scholarship, but can receive thousands if not millions of dollars to play and then opt to not play in bowl games at the expense of their teammates and fans so as to protect their potential NFL possibilities. It’s now not enough to play for the love of the game and to earn an education. Players are now commodities to buy and trade. Team unity and identity is being demolished from year to year due to the portal. Education has now been demoted to a lower priority.

NCAA sportsmanship rules have also been degraded over the years or not enforced. Every school, conference and the NCAA has adopted specific sportsmanship codes of conduct, but it is not effectively being translated to the field.

Case in point was last weekend in college football. Several games ended in team brawls due to the unsportsmanlike action of planting the winner’s flag in the center of their opponent’s playing field. Naturally, the offended loser of the game fought to protect their own field. The most notable was the Ohio State loss to Michigan. Sure it is a longstanding rival game with Ohio State having more to lose than a struggling Wolverine team. The melee included police having to mace offending players and crowd members. Even the sideline TV reporter was hit in the eyes. The next day the Big 10 conference issued both teams $100,000 fines which is miniscule compared to the revenues both teams earned for playing the game.

Furthermore, the antics in college football games have risen to unacceptable levels that defy any level of sportsmanship. In the old days, spiking the ball or bringing excessive attention to yourself was deemed a penalty after a great play or scoring a touchdown. Today it is perfectly fine to dance as a team in the end zone and play to the TV cameras or act out pre-planned short vignettes in the face of your opponent. Now I am not saying that celebrating a great play should not be allowed, but it has been elevated to orchestrated

exhibitions worthy of an Oscar. Professional football is on a whole different level of exhibitionism.

As a member of several Big12 and college football sports Facebook pages, I often post typically positive posts and opinions. When asking the question about what appropriate sportsmanship is referring to the Buckeyes vs. Wolverines debacle witnessed last Saturday, many sad paraphrased responses said if you don’t want it to happen, then win on your home field. Really? In other words, just win or it is perfectly fine for an opponent to demean and disrespect you on your home field.

Two weeks ago my Cougars travelled to Tempe to play Arizona State University in a very important game that would shape the conference championship. It was a spirited game that saw an ASU win, the game was overshadowed by fans storming the field and collapsing the goalposts before the game was over causing a 15-20 minute delay. I’m not blaming the fans since the clock did show zero time left, but it was very hard to play for the last possible chance for a Cougar win that fell 3 yards short. The Big12 conference did levy a fine, but it was the behavior of the ASU head coach throughout the game and especially during the fan storming the field. TV showed the coach’s embarrassing tirades, and some media outlets were able to hear his language. The players may love him, but it brought disrespect to the university. Payers and especially coaches must be held to higher standards.

Finally, the new College Football Playoff (CFP) system was supposed to remove the subjectivity of who should play for a national championship or at least remove the expectation of only a few teams or conferences selected to play. It has completely backfired. The Big12 and the ACC are calling out the CFP as biased and unrealistic in the way they prefer SEC and Big10 teams over other teams. The audacity to include a 3 loss Alabama team not even playing in their conference championship game as a lock for the playoffs is mind boggling. The Tide selection over a number of deserving 10-2 P4 teams with better wins and better losses. And while I like Boise State and wish them to win except when playing my Cougars, should they really be ranked that high based on their strength of schedule and the easier Mountain West G-5 conference? Now there is clamoring for up to a 24 team playoff, but where will it end if there continues to be the perceived conference bias in the CFP committee? Their subjective reasonings can be boiled down to unsportsmanlike.

Until the true ideals of sportsmanship and respect are reinstalled as bedrock principles in collegiate and professional sports, we will continue to see bad behavior that we should not accept or condone. We can and must do better.