Should the NCAA Legalize Fighting

In a game between rivals Dartmouth and Cornell, Dartmouth was ready to head home unscathed with a big 6-1 road victory.

That wasn’t the case because as the final seconds ticked down, a scuffle emerged between Cornell’s Micheal Suda and Dartmouth’s Colin Grable and Steven Townley.

Players became unhappy and by the time the final horn sounded, the two sides were in an all out brawl which included not only the players, but the coaches as well.

This and other brawls bring into question, should fighting be allowed in college hockey?

To start off, I don’t believe that college hockey will ever allow fighting, heck, they don’t even allow players to wear visors.

I say give the people what they want and what they want is to see kids throwing absolute bombs at center ice on a Friday night.

I am in full support of the legalization of fighting and here is why.

A lot of games in college hockey seem to get out of hand on the scoreboard towards the end of games.

We see it all the time, guys are going out and taking some jabs at the goalie and there is simply nothing you can do about it because you get suspended if you duke one out.

You have guys that are just out there running around like rats taking cheap shots at other players.

Let's stop trying to babify the game of hockey and let these guys go if they want to.

The current NCAA rules state that the player that starts the fight is immediately ejected from the contest.

That is just complete baloney to me.

Fighting is like a deterrent to a dangerous play and it allows players to police themselves while on the ice.

If a star player on a team gets drilled and it's a dirty hit, you could respond to that hit with a fight which could honestly prevent more injuries.

The game of hockey is obviously fast-paced and highly physical with frequent body checks and battles for pucks along the wall.

The intensity of the game can lead to emotions boiling over and that leads to a fight.

Fighting in college hockey could also make a team come together, kind of like rallying the guys and giving the squad some juice if things aren’t going well.

I think that college hockey is mainly prioritizing players skill development and sportsmanship.

There's nothing wrong with that, but if someone wants to sit here and complain about player safety, simply don’t play the game.

Fighting is a deeply ingrained part of the sport and provides great entertainment for fans.

There are people out there who attend games who know nothing about the sport, but go in hopes of seeing just one fight.

Having players go toe to toe with one another and throwing bombs could easily improve the fan engagement.

There will always be fights that break out during college hockey games once in a while, but until the day it is made legal, only fans can dream.

Austin Moran is a second-year majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, email acm6506@psu.edu.