In the last 12 months, one of the most hotly contested debates presented by Intelligence Squared U.S. on FORA.tv was whether or not college football should be banned. The blogosphere lit up like Times Square on New Year’s Eve. Some were outraged that the idea should even be debated; others were sick and tired of college football and the damaging culture it creates in higher learning.
Over at ESPN’s Grantland, contributing editor Chuck Klosterman nicely gets at the polarizing nature of the debate.
“Imagine two vertical, parallel lines accelerating skyward — that’s what football is like now,” he writes. “On the one hand, there is no way that a cognizant world can continue adoring a game where the end result is dementia and death; on the other hand, there is no way you can feasibly eliminate a sport that generates so much revenue (for so many people) and is so deeply beloved by everyday citizens who will never have to absorb the punishment.”
In case you missed it, here’s the entire debate on whether or not college football should be banned.
