JUST LET THE KIDS PLAY.

It's been the practice of the Louisiana State women's basketball team to go back to the locker room to rehydrate and brush up on the game plan during the pregame formalities, returning for player introductions.

Now that's not sitting well with Louisiana's governor, who, in the way of politicians everywhere, thinks There Oughta Be A Law.  "Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry threatens scholarships after LSU players miss national anthem before Iowa loss."  Never mind that nobody had made an issue of the practice until the populists started following the game for reasons unrelated to the quality of play.

Teams not being on a court or field during the national anthem is actually not rare across college athletics, including in the days before Colin Kaepernick started his protests against racial injustice after consulting with a former Green Beret about how to respectfully protest during the anthem.

The governor's request was met with overall befuddlement from LSU and its administrators. Jimmy Clarke, the University of Louisiana System Board of Supervisors chair, told the Louisiana Illuminator, “I see some difficulties in trying to enforce something like that,” while the state's commissioner of higher education, Kim Hunter Reed, noted that the board of regents plays no role in decisions about scholarships.

Meanwhile, an LSU spokesperson pointed out in a statement that both the men's and women's basketball teams have stayed in the locker room during the national anthem for a long time, preparing for the game instead

It's not that the presence of the National Anthem before sporting events hasn't been politicized for a long time, perhaps going back to the introduction of the practice during the War; and during the Consciousness Revolution baseball's Jim Bouton brought it up in Ball Four, and insurgent college football players at Syracuse and Texas also mentioned it.  Sorry, I'm unable to recall the authors and titles of those works, although I recall one of them including something about how orderly the Bud Grant Vikings lined up for the Anthem.  They also lost four Super Bowls in those times and since then only came within a Brett Favre interception of a fifth trip there.

As far as the Anthem, don't These United States offer a value proposition for people to buy into that doesn't involve compelled rejoicing?  That's for Stalinists and for Student Affairs types with their endless celebrations of diversity.

Let the governor's stance, though, be your regular reminder that the use of public money to support universities is censorship per se.