I know he kicked over a beehive in Kosland when he disclaimed the duty to report facts rather than be evenhanded as between liars and those who practice argumentation within fact-based reality. I share that outrage.
However, Chuck Todd floated a good idea on MSNBC this morning.
Would it kill the NCAA, he asked, to put up the money for the service academies to maintain their schedules while the government is shut down, given the sums of money they take in on college football?
This week, Air Force is supposed to play Navy at Annapolis and Army is supposed to play at Boston College, a homecoming game for the latter.
Why not let them play, NCAA?
As Todd said, would it kill you to cover the expenses?
Well, the reason to not encourage this is what Marxist-Leninists would call "sharpening the contradictions." Politically speaking, more pain from the shutdown is good, and there is a whole lot more pain being inflicted than college athletes losing part of their memories and Boston College not having a homecoming game.
Stipulated.
But it's the very triviality of the ball games that argues to let them play if somebody will cough up the dough, and the NCAA is a likely suspect to cough up the dough. The fate of the nation does not turn on the Air Force-Navy game, and I doubt seriously that whether the game is played is a factor in enticing the Tea Party to join the nation in fact-based reality.
If I thought missing football would reel in the crazies, I would abolish the game entirely, but that's not really on the table.
So, along with Chuck Todd, I have to ask if it would kill the NCAA to cover the expenses for the service academies to play their schedules? What's the harm? That people will expect this every time the government shuts down?
NOTE: In light of the comments this suggestion has drawn, I decided it was prudent to go back and add a question mark to the title of this diary.