EDITORIAL: Don’t punish coaches for fan’s boorish behavior

Published 12:30 pm Friday, March 24, 2023

The University of Oregon football team’s win over Brigham Young University on Sept. 17, 2022, at Autzen Stadium in Eugene was sullied by a small contingent of fans who yelled a profane, offensive slur targeting the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the religion that many BYU players and fans follow.

The spectacle embarrassed the U of O.

Universities have an obligation to try to identify the guilty parties and ban them from attending future sporting events over which the university has control.

But as obnoxious as such episodes are, they also need to be put in a reasonable perspective, with the culpability limited to those who were actually involved.

There is a risk of overreacting, of diverting some of the blame to people who don’t deserve it.

That’s precisely what could happen if the Oregon Legislature passes House Bill 2472.

Rep. Janelle Bynum, D-Clackamas, sponsored the bill at the request of the Oregon Student Association.

Bynum’s son, Ellis, is a walk-on running back at the U of O.

Parts of the bill are reasonable. It would for instance require public universities in the state to have formal policies regarding spectators who engage in the kind of boorish behavior that marred the Oregon-BYU game last year. Universities would also need to have a process by which people could make complaints about such incidents, and respond to complaints within 48 hours.

But there are significant problems elsewhere in the legislation.

The bill requires that in cases when fans at a sporting event “engage in the use of derogatory or inappropriate names, insults, verbal assaults, profanity or ridicule in violation of equity focused policies,” the host university’s athletic director and head coach of the sport be suspended for at least one week.

Universities that fail to comply “may not receive public moneys in the form of state grants, state scholarship moneys or support from the Oregon State Police.”

The flaws here are obvious.

It is farcical to blame a coach or athletic director for the behavior of a handful of fans at a sporting event (based on videos at the Oregon-BYU game, and accounts from other fans, it appeared that a few dozen people, out of the crowd of 54,463, chanted the slur against Mormons).

More to the point regarding House Bill 2472, there is not a scintilla of evidence that Oregon coach Dan Lanning or athletic director Rob Mullens condoned, much less encouraged, the chants at Autzen Stadium last September. If that were the case, it’s all but certain that neither would still be employed by the U of O. Punishing them for the actions of others would be a misguided and blatantly unfair example of guilt by association.

Proponents might argue that the threat of sanctions against the university, including coaches and the athletic director, could discourage fans from acting like cretins.

That’s not compelling. It’s far more likely that people who would yell bigoted chants would have little concern about the ramifications for a coach and athletic director.

Moreover, the bill could entice people from other universities to use the legislation to get coaches and athletic directors in trouble by intentionally violating the school’s policies.

The bottom line is that public universities don’t need a new state law to help them deal with obnoxious spectators.

At best, House Bill 2472, following the debacle at the Oregon-BYU game, serves as a reminder that university officials need to be diligent in trying to identify and punish people who foul up sporting events.