MWC Championship Disappointment

So for those of you who are out of the loop, like me. Jon brought this to my attention Sunday, before dinner. I was outraged, saddened, disgusted. Let me share the article that was in the Daily Universe by Andrew Tashjian

The scene at the Thomas & Mack Center after Saturday’s championship basketball game resembled the aftermath of war rather than intercollegiate sports.

All around the area bordering the BYU and UNLV fan sections were collapsed red chairs strewn about the bleachers amid crushed beer cups, crushed foam fingers, crushed hopes . . . and blood.

With tears streaming down her face, a young pregnant woman stood hunched over and shaking as she desperately clutched the bulge in her stomach. A few feet away, her young boy in a BYU T-shirt sat traumatized at the sight of his own father beat down to the floor and bleeding from the eye as a cruel testament to the violence which had ensued.

Across the aisle, fans clad in red only laughed at the bedlam.

There was no compassion shown, no sorrow expressed and there wasn’t a helping hand to be found. Only cheers, jeers and an "I didn’t do it so it ain’t my problem" attitude radiated from the intoxicated segment of the Rebel fan base.

Indeed, it was a sad day for college athletics.

After UNLV managed to pull out a close victory in the Mountain West Conference championship basketball game at their home court in Las Vegas, tensions ran high, mob mentality set in and chaos reigned as brawls broke out between Rebel fans and their significantly outnumbered Cougar counterparts.

“It was crazy out there,” said Ricardo Escobedo, a BYU senior from Minnesota who was an eyewitness to the horrific events. “Rebel fans had been rudely taunting our Cougar cheering section with obscenities the whole game, but everything escalated when they came into our section splashing us with beer and religious slurs.”

As Rebel fans carelessly stormed their way through the BYU fans to gain access to the court, skirmishes, first verbal and then physical, sprang up like wildfire. BYU’s band was doused with beer, Cougarettes were trampled, players’ wives were taunted, cheerleaders were belittled, the LDS religion was mocked and worst of all, women and children were caught in the middle of it all.

Surely, frustrated Cougar fans were not completely innocent in the turmoil, yet their actions to protect their own from the mayhem, while not justified, were certainly understandable.

“At first I was mad to see such terrible things happening right in front of me, but then when I realized there were no police officers or other security personnel around to stop the drunk and riotous Rebel fans, I became really scared,” said Eliese Van Wagenen, a junior sociology major from Arizona who, along with her family, was caught up in the commotion. “There were so many more UNLV fans than BYU fans; we felt completely powerless.”

The Thomas & Mack Center management should have pulled some big-bodied bouncers from the strip to replace the over-aged, under-qualified UNLV ushers who did very little to stop the endless stream of profanity and physical assaults that assailed the small minority of BYU fans.

Maybe they felt underpaid, maybe they felt undermanned, maybe they adhered to personal biases, or perhaps, even, the redcoated ushers simply didn’t care.

The dislike for the skilled Cougar basketball team was felt even by the cheer squad, which was the only dance team of the tournament to get booed so loudly that the cheerleaders could hardly even hear their own music during their performance.

“I was really disappointed in the way we were treated,” BYU cheerleader Jessica Bingham said. “We were taunted the whole time and it really put a damper on what should have been a wonderful basketball tournament.”

For UNLV fans it should have been a time of celebration. For BYU fans it should have been a time of reflection and reassessment. But what happened at the Thomas & Mack Center after Saturday’s championship game was neither.

Instead, it was a time of intoxicated hatred and ignorant group-think, completely void of feeling, void of class and full of favoritism.

It wasn’t a friendly competitive clash; it was assault and battery.

It wasn’t basketball; it was bigotry.

What happened in Vegas should never again happen in Vegas.

I really like what he his very last line, what happened there should never happen there again. I agree lets boycott any playoff in Vegas. I don't care if it is the MWC Redneck Water skiing competition, It should not be held in Vegas. WE were treated really poorly and the fact that the ushers did nothing to stop it doesn't say much for them. Who cares if the can sell out every game. In my opinion UNLV has lost all privileges for having any playoff in Vegas!

I don't know, am I wrong? I want to hear you opinion. I will moderate comments, so that I will only publish the comments that agree with my opinion. Just kidding all view points will be accepted and long as they are appropriate.