Sports are the great equalizer. Riots have broken out and cities nearly crumbled after European soccer matches. Wars have been put on hold for the pursuit of athletic greatness.

Sports are something everyone, on some level, can understand and relate too- the heat of competition, the elation of victory. Whatever level of experience you have with sports you can relate at some level to wanting to win and the drive to outperform in whatever facet you choose.

This feeling could not be more relevant to current events shaping our nation today.

Allow me to portray a sports scenario and we will evaluate whether it violates the true meaning of sports. The U.S. government is doing the very same thing right now.

Many of you know the NCAA college playoff tournament has been taking place. “March Madness” has swept the nation.

The rules are simple. The best teams get the highest seeds on down to those just good enough to make the tournament. The bracket is played out and the best teams beat out all the others until a champion is crowned. A team with the most drive, determination, heart and skill is crowned the best team in the nation.

Imagine a scenario where this wasn’t the case. Imagine a powerhouse basketball school whose name was common amongst college basketball conversations, a mainstay of the tournament. Now imagine this team starting to fall from greatness, not the shining beacon of basketball skill of past, but rather sinking to the realm of mediocre.

We will call this basketball giant, the University of Awesomeness. Now as Awesome U starts to tumble, the governing body of college basketball, the NCAA, begins to take notice. Awesome U sees no problem with their methods as it has been the traditional power, everyone knows them and that will never change.

Awesome U changes nothing, stuck in their old ways, they plummet from the ranks of the elite and no longer qualify for the NCAA tournament. This is bad news for the NCAA because everyone wants to watch Awesome U in the tournament, ratings are important.

So the NCAA decides to “prop up” the beleaguered giant to help them get into the tournament and keep “March Madness” strong and important. To do this the NCAA spots Awesome U 10 points a game to help them beat their opponents. This doesn’t seem fair to the other teams that have worked hard to be so good, but the NCAA deems this necessary to keep the tournament relevant and exciting.

Awesome U continues to deteriorate and now the 10 points is not even sufficient to help them win games so the NCAA has to step in again and give them 20 extra points a game. The idea is that if they can get through the tournament and win, they will get the good recruits and return to prominence.

The problems is that other teams worked hard and really play the game well and efficiently, and should be the winners, yet the NCAA gives Awesome U an artificial victory, just to keep fans happy.

This goes against everything sports were built on, the same with capitalism.

Right now the U.S. government is propping up “Awesome U” or General Motors. The outdated business practice ran GM into the ground and, according to the rules, should be out of the “tournament”.

The government even went as far as ousting GM “coach” or CEO Rick Wagoner on Monday. He was essentially fired by the President.

The idea of capitalism is that the strong companies thrive and prosper and the weaker companies are swept out of the way. The U.S. government isn’t playing the game by the rules and ruining the sport for everyone.

A cry to the Obama administration: For the love of God let them play the game. Stick to enforcing the rules and not running the game. You are violating everything sports, capitalism, and the “Great American Way” stand for.

John Coleman

Associate News Editor