My Oregon Ducks problem

I wish I could cheer for the Oregon football team with more enthusiasm. After all, it's my alma mater (MFA). I like Eugene better than I like Portland. I have only fond memories of my years in grad school there, as dramatized in my short film Deconstructing Sally. So what's the problem?

I have two. I don't like the choke hold that Nike has on the sports programs, making a university a de facto subsidiary of one of the more corrupt corporations in the land. And I don't like the way the football coaches refuse to give meaningful discipline to jocks who screw up time and time again. I think the Univ of Oregon football team is an embarrassment, in fact, especially when you compare the program to a university with class like Stanford. So it's hard to root for them, as much as I want to and feel I should.

Thus I find myself hoping a big underdog like Washington State beats them. Won't happen. But there you have it, my Oregon Ducks problem.

With UCLA, my undergrad alma mater, it's a different situation. Their football program is so bad, so inept, you just want to fire everybody and start over.

I don't have much enthusiasm for "my teams" this year.