18 September 2006

While we're on the topic of pressing issues in higher education, the President of the University of Oklahoma and University of Oregon administrators have engaged in high-minded discussions about the outcome of...a football game.

Oregon beat Oklahoma on Saturday and they were aided, in part, by several controversial calls in the final minutes of regulation. Oklahoma's president acting with considerable speed and dispatch, sent off letters asking for the result to be overturned, arguing that that "[to say the calls] constitut[ed] an outrageous injustice is an understatement."

An outrageous injustice! Indeed. Forget about things like admissions policies that are slanted towards the affluent. This is important stuff. Because who stands to lose from such wanton misconduct? The innocent players: "It is truly sad and deeply disappointing that members of our football team should be deprived of the outcome of the game that they deserved because of an inexcusable breakdown in officiating."

I share the President's concern with injustice and wish him luck overturning the result of the football game, which (for non-sports fans) is essentially never done - not even when the winning team admits that the officials made the wrong call.

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