Such a shame.

Sportsmanship Day in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference was on the same day as the Indiana (Pa.)-Slippery Rock University football game last Saturday at Mihalik-Thompson Stadium.

The teams met at midfield during the coin toss, shook hands and exchanged pleasantries.

They proceeded to combine for 24 penalties for 260 yards, many of those flags being for personal fouls on both sides.

What a joke.

An otherwise tremendous college football atmosphere — great game played in front of a huge crowd — marred by a flood of yellow hankies.

The problem was not the players, though they are partly to blame. College athletes are old enough and hopefully mature enough to be capable of playing a hard-hitting game betrween the whistles without any hitting or running of the mouth after the whistle.

However, this was a battle of unbeaten rivals with first place in the league at stake. Emotions can get the better of players in such a volatile game.

They're only human, after all.

The true blame for the dark side of this game belongs to the officiating crew.

College football has a rule. If a player gets flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct twice in a game, he is ejected from that game.

Even though there were numerous examples of unsportsmanlike conduct on the field on this day, no player was ejected. That's because the players were rarely singled out for the penalty or offsetting personal fouls were called after a play.

Call offsetting fouls for unsportsmanlike conduct without naming names only gives the offending parties the freedom to commit the same foul again, without fear of being tossed out.

Had the officials identified players guilty of unsportsmanlike early in the game, most of those same fouls would not have occurred later in the game.

Part of a football officials' job is to maintain order on the field, recognize the potential for inappropriate behavior and curb that situation early.

It's a part of the job that an officiating crew — especially on this day — should take more seriously.

John Enrietto is sports editor of the Butler Eagle