There’s been a lot of strong reaction to the UofMN rape story, as well there should be. A Day In The Life put together this poster (I had to post it, really), Big Ten Round Up dissects Domenic Jones’s Facebook page (you’ll be floored), and MNSpeak commentors of course joked about rape and made the usual racist and sexist blather.

I’ve got two reactions. First, the U football program should be shut down. While it’s unfair to penalize an entire program for the wrong doing of one or a few individuals, it’s become clear that there’s no oversight of athletes in the major sports programs like men’s football and men’s basketball. The U has had a major cheating scandal and numerous reports of disciplinary and criminal problems, while being at least partially funded by taxpayers. It’s not only hurtful to the victims of the program, it’s embarrassing to the state and offensive to anyone trying to combat a society where sexual assault regularly takes place.

For those reasons, second, and more realistically, the state legislature should step in and examine funding for the athletics budget and see that new and functioning oversight mechanisms are put into place at these programs, such as counseling and actual supervision and academic accountability. The football team isn’t going anywhere, but with mandated changes to the program, fiascos like football players raping an unconscious girl while filming with their phones are less likely to happen.