What are bad fans? Bad fans are Cleveland Browns fans who throw beer bottles at refs. Bad fans are Chicago White Sox fans who attack whoever's on first. Bad fans are West Virginia fans who apparently feel the need to burn furniture and riot after an upset. According to John Wiley, Wisconsin fans are bad, too.
In fact, he thinks that it's time that Wisconsin experiences a \culture change in terms of fan behavior."" Wisconsin fans exhibit the ""antithesis of sportsmanship"" (The Daily Cardinal, 10/28/03). Surely a chancellor with a physics doctorate and countless credentials couldn't be wrong, could he? Sports Illustrated must be inaccurate. Right?
Unfortunately, it appears that John Wiley is spending too much time in his Ivory Tower atop Bascom Hill and not enough time on State Street or at the Rathskeller. Perhaps our chancellor is too busy cajoling alumni for donations in the luxury boxes above Camp Randall than in Section O. It might just be that John Wiley is out of touch with the pulse of Madison. While I respect Chancellor Wiley, it really seems that in his painstaking effort of sifting and winnowing, he's failed to see that there's a gem in the sieve.
There are bad fans out there. They should get ejected, ticketed and probably even arrested. But don't ruin the great thing Wisconsin has got going for it. I'm a former student who remembers the 46-ounce cups of beer, drink specials after Game Day, vulgarity at sporting events and the ""time-honored tradition"" of jumping after the third quarter. Such experiences made Madison unique.
Chancellor Wiley, stop trying to make Wisconsin like every other school. We're different. We're the campus that all other schools aspire to be. We're the No. 2 party school in the country. What upsets us is that we're not number one. We're the number one college sports town in the country. Don't screw it up by admonishing good fans. Some fans are bad, and they need to be dealt with. But Wisconsin fans are among the best in the country. Yeah, we swear and jump and taunt and even cross the line sometimes. But, as I used to tell people, ""If you don't like it, stay home."" Watch the game on TV. Otherwise, spend the extra change to sit outside the student section. Or at the very least, put plasma screens in the luxury boxes, sound-proof the windows and leave us to yell and swear.
