IT'S JUST A KIDS' GAME. Liberty University's womens' basketball team was excused from the Sweet Sixteen by Louisiana State an hour or so ago, probably to the great relief of Ted at the Women's Hoops Blog.

The players and coaches on Liberty's fine basketball team may find it unfair that they receive criticism rather than support from the women's basketball world. But like all of us, they at some point must stand up and be held accountable for their beliefs. They should all be ashamed of their school's anti-gay policies and homophobic culture. If they disagree with those policies and if they oppose that culture, then they should speak out. Like all of us, they have an obligation to expose and criticize the evil in their midst. They have an obligation to work for change.

If, on the other hand, they support their school's policies and Falwell's politics, then I really have nothing to say to them. They have a right to their beliefs, and I have a right to criticize those beliefs. I will fight their cause in any way I can, and I will cheer against their basketball team.

Give. Me. A. Break. Student-athletes [c.q.] opposing the dominant culture at their school? Why not allow the basketball players the same freedom to be apathetic that other students enjoy, as in an earlier paragraph in the same post.

But (you may say) Colorado's stated commitment to diversity is a sham. It is just another leftist-secular school where conservative and Christian viewpoints are silenced.

I'm not sure that's true. I have several friends who went to Boulder, and they don't appear to have been indoctrinated into leftist radicalism. In fact, they spent most of their time skiing and doing coke; now they're all good Republicans.

In other words, rather than challenge the dominant culture, these alums played their Nash equilibrium strategies in college. Give the players the same freedom. Is it really necessary to introduce academic politics into the women's tournament, for crying out loud, where the stakes are infinitesimally small (you might guess I am not looking forward to iteration n+1 iteration of Tennessee v. Connecticut)?

Hmmm... there's a research project for you: The same three or four teams keep showing up in the later rounds of the tournament, with Connecticut and Tennessee making 12 appearances since 1994, Louisiana Tech 10, and Texas Tech 9. What does that tell you about the elasticity of supply of top-notch players, Title IX or not? (But I digress...)

Consider last year's tournament, in which one of the hyped stories going in involved some seniors at Duke that saw 2004 as their year to win it all, until Minnesota put together a good series of games and earned the right to be excused by Connecticut. (The TV coverage included many clips of the Duke seniors on the verge of tears ... hey, in a field of 64 there will be 63 teams that leave disappointed at some juncture, and yes, that includes Tennessee or Connecticut.)

But shall we chastise any of the Minnesota players for being insufficiently ashamed of their academic culture, where a faculty member notoriously wrote about the recapitulation of the opening movement of Beethoven's Choral Symphony (Op. 125) symbolizing the pent-up anger of a rapist, or any of the Duke players for not speaking out about the now-departed Stanley Fish turning the English Department into Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice? Let the kids play.

And by all means, let the kids have the right kind of support to develop as players. We've had ten years' experience at Northern Illinois with diversity statements getting in the way of the play value, something I expect to see change.