Having no real rooting interest in most of today’s rivalry games, I wasn’t especially broken up to miss the majority of the Michigan-Ohio State game or hijinks. Heading into the game I was rooting for a Michigan upset (repeat). Buckeye fans might not be as smug as Wolverines, but they are pretty annoying.

I did catch a few minutes of a postgame confab or maybe it was a pregame crew discussing the previous games of the day. I didn’t recognize any of the talking heads so the context doesn’t matter. However, they were discussing the “brawl” and the likely hypocrisy that will follow when some folks complain about “sportsmanship” and the place of fighting in sports. If you’ve never played in slightly competitive sports where the participants are effectively battling for an hour, you don’t understand how it’s possible that the players may want to harm the opponents.

It’s not barbaric. It’s human nature and it’s also what happens occasionally in sports. None of this is to excuse bad behavior or poor sportsmanship. I don’t know what led to the fights. I’m also the old guy that says don’t celebrate every sack, third down reception (8 yds short of a first down) etc.

I think if you don’t care for either team in a rivalry, you might still expect a good game because of the presumed level of intensity-even if it means nothing to you or me. There were only five or six games today where I didn’t like either team, but had I been sitting in a sports bar, I probably would have enjoyed seeing competitive games.

With college sports fans seem to be more passionate about the teams because they might have a stronger tie than with the laundry of a pro team. Yet, fans of professional teams somehow expect the players to care as much about a particular rivalry. At least in Chicago, some fans worry about how much The Packers game or STL game matters to the players.

For the love of Bob Montgomery, please tell me why I should care about Syracuse or Miami.