The street brawl between the Xavier and Cincinnati men's basketball teams Sunday brings to light what big-time intercollegiate sports has become ("Ohio prosecutor will consider criminal charges after Cincinnati-Xavier basketball brawl," Dec. 12).

You have thugs and hoodlums with a gangster mentally being recruited to play basketball and football. After listening to the rambling harangue by one of the Xavier players post-game, all I could think was, "do these goofballs actually attend and pass college courses?"

I guess the Wildcats' motto should be: "If we can't beat you on the court, we'll just beat the stuff out of you after the game."

Such displays on national TV today are a disgrace. Let's see if the NCAA does anything at all to put these two programs on notice. While they're at it, they might cover up all the tattoos as well.

Brian Spector