Enough about college football already. I’m tired of talking about what the ‘Clones are going to do, (and in turn being proven wrong) so I have chosen another subject.

I have noticed more and more lately just how much we as sports fans are ripped off by those in a position to make a profit out of our obsessions.

Let’s begin with the obvious— boxing. How many times do we have to bear witness to some two minute extravaganza that has cost all television viewers 45 dollars on pay-per-view and hundreds to thousands of dollars to view in person?

The latest so-called fight involving Mike Tyson and Bruce “Just swing, I’ll make it look real” Seldon made my stomach turn.

If you were lucky enough to pay the extremely overpriced cost of pay-per-view, then you were a witness to four rounds of grueling back and forth battling with one boxer being sent to the canvas by a massive right hook.

But enough about the women’s boxing match that was an undercard bout before Tyson’s fight.

My point is any way you slice it, a 109 second title fight is not worth the money it cost to see it, yet the price remains and will most likely rise in the near future.

Something that is even more enraging is the fact that pay-per-view is now showing college football games. I do not understand how this was even allowed to happen. For years, sports fans have tuned in to network television on Saturday to see key college matchups on the gridiron. Now they expect us to pay 45 dollars to see big games that we would normally get to see for free.

This is ridiculous! It won’t be long before the only sports left on regular television are tennis, ice skating, bowling and golf. But not any of the big events. If you want to see Tiger Woods win the masters or Andre Agassi victorious at Wimbledon you will have to fork over the big bucks for pay-per-view.

I can see it now. The championship match at Wimbledon between Agassi and Sampras. Agassi faults on his first serve and sends a wounded duck over the net for his second serve that catches Sampras by surprise and knocks him to the ground face first. Sampras gets up, he’s OK, and awaits the next serve.

Agassi smashes a 120 mph rocket right down the middle. Sampras dives and misses. Agassi’s first ace of the match. Sampras struggles to his feet, he looks fine. After all, it was only the first good serve of the game. Wait. Sampras starts to wobble. His knees are weak. The ball boy sprints to catch him before a certain fall. The chair umpire decides that Sampras can’t go on.

After the game Sampras says he just didn’t know how fast Agassi could serve. “I was shaken. He hurt me,” says Sampras. Agassi promptly gives praise to Allah and, after 15 minutes of tennis, it is over.

While we sit at home 45 dollars poorer as pay-per-view is broadcast on our screen and the chant “fix, fix” is shouted, we when when the next ice skating spectacular will be shown on ABC.

Brandon Belisle is a junior in journalism from Plainfield, Ill.