Overzealous fans create riot trend

Covering sports, you see a lot of good and bad.

Monday night there was plenty of the latter on the Ohio State campus in Columbus, Ohio, after the beloved Buckeyes fell in the national title game for the second straight season.

Distraught Buckeye fans wreaked predictable havoc after their team’s 38-24 loss to Louisiana State in New Orleans. Fifteen people were arrested and at least 10 fires were set according to Associated Press reports.

If nothing else, this demonstrates that there’s not much else to care about in Columbus and that losing two national title games badly to SEC teams is no easy pill for a Big Ten fan to swallow.

And it shows once again that, these days, winning or losing a big football or basketball game is cause for a massive celebration or angry riot, either of which tend to destroy public property.

Local law enforcement in Columbus saw this coming; there was a parking ban on three of the campus’ busiest streets and additional street lighting had recently been installed to better monitor bar patrons.

But sports fans aren’t so easily subdued.

Back in 2002, Maryland students erupted into riots after their basketball team won the national championship. Eighteen people were arrested that night.

Win or lose, some people still tend to lose control. It’s a phenomenon that happens all the time on college campuses and occasionally in big cities.

It’s a type of madness that Westwood has experienced. Remember the aftermath of the USC game last season?

In two years here, I’ve spent a fair share of my nights on or near Landfair. I’ve never seen anything close to the level of craziness I saw after UCLA beat USC.

And that was after a regular season victory. Not a national title matchup.

Part of the equation, it seems, is that nonstudents, who feel little responsibility to the school, flock to the campus anticipating such debauchery. Students, for their own part, are usually willing to partake in the festivities as well.

But there’s also something about sports that just drives people nuts. And the ironic part is that, most of the time, this type of fanaticism is glorified.

Just look at those crazy Ohioans. According to the AP, many municipal meetings were postponed or shortened Monday in a sort of religious observance of the game.

Classes had technically started, but many Ohio State students were spending the first week of the semester in New Orleans, not in a classroom.

That trend exists all over this sports-obsessed nation. For many Americans, football Saturdays or Sundays are unofficial holidays. For college students, the days are defined by a drop-everything-and-tailgate atmosphere.

Placing so much importance on sports in general, and football especially, creates a dangerous environment.

An academic might try to connect the dots, explaining a connection between fans fixated on a violent sport and the sort of fury they experience when something profound happens.

To me, it’s a little simpler.

I see the prevalence of these riots as a reminder of this nation’s sports obsession and a signal of the way fans worship teams: living and dying on wins and losses, and, occasionally, setting things on fire when they just can’t handle it anymore.

E-mail Allen at sallen@media.ucla.edu.

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