Take the Rams, the Ponies, a couple of Rebs and a couple of Dawgs

Will the Blue Devils be playing at UC Davis Health Stadium on the first Saturday of December?

For reasons that are hard to understand, students at the University of Cincinnati, who were attending a home football game against Brigham Young last Saturday, decided to push the First Amendment to the extreme by participating in a chant disparaging the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Yes, indeed, they included the F-word in their ugly chant.

Basically the same thing happened when BYU played at Colorado earlier this season.

Last week’s incident took place despite the fact the local Mormon Church had just donated 27,000 pounds of food to the University of Cincinnati Campus Pantry that provides food to needy students.

I’ve attended a number of college football games over the years, and while I have never directly heard such a chant, I have noticed that crowds are much more hostile to the visiting team than they used to be.

Yes, fans always root passionately for the home team, but now, when the opposition runs onto the field for the first time, the stadium is filled with loud and sustained booing. And the game hasn’t even started.

You certainly can’t ban such displays, but it’s discouraging to witness.

I hope those University of Cincinnati students enjoy the free food the church brought to their campus.

This week’s picks are as follows:

BRIGHAM YOUNG over CENTRAL FLORIDA ... This one’s in Provo, so no worries.

NOTRE DAME over STANFORD ... It’s Andrew Luck against the Luck of the Irish. I think the Irish win that battle.

SOUTHERN METHODIST over CAL ... Hard to win a football game without a head coach.