Earlier this month, Minnesota announced that may ban alcohol at all college sporting events. I can just guess how well that went over for students, but how do you guys feel about it?

Image: sxc.hu

Some thoughts I have:

• Having alcohol at the games at Penn State isn’t dangerous, so I can’t see how it would be at Minnesota. The people who get so drunk they can’t see are typically students who walk home, and the drivers are responsible most of the time. There will always be incidents, but not enough to ban alcohol.
• The possible ban stems from state alcohol disputes with the school. The liquor licensing control board says that they have to offer alcohol to everyone at the stadium or to no one at all. So instead of making beer available to people in the stands, they’re going to take it away from people in club areas. Yes, that makes tons of sense.
• All this is going to do is make people hide their alcohol or binge drink before getting to the game. Those things are a lot more dangerous.

All in all, its a bad decision to ban alcohol at any college sporting event. Control, yes…but ban? No.

Your thoughts? Leave a comment!

Penn State’s Joe Paterno is never short on opinions, and recently there’s been a lot of buzz about his wants to have 12 teams in the Big Ten. Currently, the Big Ten is finished playing well before most other conferences, with a six-week hiatus between their season and the bowls. Paterno thinks that hurts the conference as a whole and keeps the Big Ten from being viable to produce a national champion.

Joe Paterno, Image: Newscom

Unfortunately, he also thinks that some people are laughing at him.

“You know, it’s a conference that’s dominated by a couple of people. If I start talking, they’re polite, but they snicker. They don’t know I know they’re snickering, but they’re polite. …I wish I were younger and going to be around [another] 20 years.”

JoePa is the winningest coach among major college football teams, so maybe they should listen to him. He’s right about one thing a Big Ten playoff or Big Ten championship game would bring more exposure to the conference. Of course, with recent talks about changing the BCS system having made it to congress, expanding the Big Ten for more exposure and a conference championship may be a moot point.

All three of the Iowa Hawkeyes arrested early Monday morning for public intoxication are going to have hell to pay from their head coach, but perhaps none more so than James Ferentz. Why?

Because his father is Kirk Ferentz, the Hawkeyes head coach.

Kirk Ferentz, Image: Newscom

Lil Ferentz is a center for the team and was arrested along with fullback Tyler Christensen and tight end Zach Derby. Christensen reportedly pleaded guilty to fifth-degree criminal mischief and public intoxication. He’ll pay fines of nearly $500. Both Ferentz and Derby have pleaded not guilty.

University public safety officers say that Derby and Christensen attempted to pick a fight with an off-duty officer around 2 am on Monday. He called for backup, and they say that while the responding officers were talking to the two, Ferentz came over from a nearby parking lot “yelling and screaming.” He reportedly blow a BAC of .160.

Kirk Ferentz has said in a statement that his son and the other two boys are suspended for the remainder of spring practice and further team participation is pending. We’re betting that he’s also grounded and not allowed to have desserts for a month.

This James Ferentz’s second strike - he was cited for underage alcohol possession in October. Following that charge, he was ordered to go to counseling sessions and participate in community service.