In high school, we learn to have good sportsmanship when attending athletic events. We don’t chant swear words at the other team. When we take off to college, the whole idea of sportsmanship goes out the window. Rivalries in college have gone to a whole new level, even in our own state between Iowa and Iowa State with the battle for the Cy-Hawk trophy. However, there is a point where a college rivalry crosses the line.

We students are most familiar with the rivalries that are close to home. The rivalry between Iowa and Iowa State is one with which Iowans from all over the state are familiar. T-shirts all over the state will say things like “Beat Iowa” or “*uck State.” Although we ISU fans may think there is nobody in the world that is worse than an Iowa fan, rivalries from around the country have gotten to be much worse.

A perfect example of a college showing lack of sportsmanship toward its rival is Rutgers University in New Jersey. Rutgers wore shirts to Sept. 13’s game against Penn State that read “Ped State.” The shirts said this to aim the attention at the Sandusky scandal with the sexual abuse of children that happened at Penn State University. Although the two teams are rivals, personal attacks on a hardship that the school faced is more than friendly banter.

Another example of fans crossing the line for their favorite team is one of the most well-known rivalries, Alabama and Auburn. Harvey Updyke, a 62-year-old Alabama fan, poisoned Auburn Universities historic trees located on Toomer’s Corner, a place where Auburn fans go to celebrate their wins. After the Tigers won a national championship, they gathered in Toomer’s Corner to celebrate their victory, but instead found the 130-year-old trees had herbicides in the surrounding soil and were most likely going to die. 

A rivalry should not include destruction of property or hurting anyone else. It seems that more and more university-level rivalries are pushing the envelope when it comes to what is a friendly “no harm, no foul” rivalry, and what it means to put someone or something in danger. 

Every school should evaluate their sportsmanship and begin to reconsider their actions before directly targeting someone or ruining property of another school. Rivalries are important, but they are mostly for fun. There is no reason for college students to act out in these passive-aggressive manner toward each other. We should all resort back to sportsmanship and work to get college sport rivalries back to a fun and friendly environment.