Hazing Incident Cans Cornell Lacrosse

Cornell University announced last Monday that it would cancel the remainder of the men’s lacrosse team's season due to hazing.

An internal investigation revealed that some of the freshman players were made to chug beer, which resulted in them puking their guts out like good, obedient lacrosse players.

Oh, the outrage over college students pounding beer!

What’s next, college professors letting assistants take exams for football players?

While the loss of an entire season seems dramatic, it comes at a time when college players across all sports are out of control. Marijuana arrests, fights, robberies, signing autographs for dealers, and trading jerseys for tattoos is the norm around campus or off campus in some cases. So, to cancel a season because freshmen were participating in the rites of passage, even if it is alcohol abuse, is a knee-jerk overreaction to the fear of NCAA sanctions.

The Ivy League isn’t known as a party Mecca, but this incident may spur an increase in attendance as students look for social aspects of college life. No doubt Cornell has the academics down pat, and now it has the work-life balance so many strive for.  Ithaca, New York may make Playboy's list of top college party schools next year. Stay tuned.

It was reported that students were made to stand in a circle and pound beer. Chances are they weren’t fully clothed, either.  Let’s hope spilled beer and vomit were the only fluids on the floor!

In another event called a keg race, students were made to drink “large quantities of beer” in a competition against other teammates. We played a game like this in college, but we called it 'anchor man' and tried to land each person’s quarter in a cup or lemonade pitcher full of beer at my school. Then, the losing team would take turns drinking out of the pitcher and all four team members had to finish it. The last person to drink had to finish whatever was left in the pitcher so hopefully he had guys that could put it down like Ogre in Revenge of the Nerds!

Another factor in the cancellation of the season surely stemmed from the Duke men’s lacrosse team incident in which players supposedly raped a woman. A serious charge, no doubt, but the woman later recanted, resulting in a lawsuit where the lead prosecutor was disbarred. How’s that for restitution? He went so far as to classify it as a hate crime because the woman was black.

I guess nobody took into an account that the woman worked as a stripper and an escort, so this probably wasn’t her first rodeo.

Seriously, though, college kids could afford a couple of strippers? Did the NCAA look into whether they were getting paid or not? Ah, yes, but it was Duke. Who would need to take under-the-table payments there?

All three Duke lacrosse players were exonerated and are working to change prosecution laws by filing a lawsuit against the city of Durham. If these were Duke basketball players, I seriously doubt the season would’ve been cancelled.

Here’s hoping the Cornell Big Red Bear gets to enjoy some form of lacrosse, as it's a core sport in the Ivy League and is growing in popularity around the country. Let’s also hope that College Athletes Gone Wild isn't the next popular home movie series you can buy off the TV!