Ann Althouse is taking flak from her commenters for writing a post about football, even though all she did was point out that her team (the Wisconsin Badgers) beat Michigan's Wolverines - which happens to be "my" team -- 45-24. That game was a major rout - and in a comment I thanked her for not gloating, which it was certainly her right to do.

I've never been a football fan, but I now live in a major football zone (so close to Michigan Stadium that I could make hundreds of dollars selling parking in my yard), and I have enjoyed going to some of the games. In a most uncharacteristic post, I discussed the Wolverines' narrow defeat of the Badgers in an exciting upset game I attended last year.

No such luck this year. The once-legendary Wolverines are routinely being described as "mediocre," or worse yet, as a team that loses to mediocre teams.

The Detroit Free Press said that they "can't imagine a lower bottom, but each week brings unimaginable pain."

There have been innumerable calls for the head of coach Rich Rodriguez, and there's a web site dedicated to getting him fired.

And you don't have to follow football -- or the Rich Rodriguez quagmire -- to get a kick out of the following video -- although I have to say that I never thought I'd live to see Hitler going ballistic over my town's football team.

The Hitler video touches on the general theme reflected in a comment that "Flexo" left to Ann Althouse's post:

As a long time Michigan fan --

GOOD!

They need to get their asses whupped each and every week that they play a real college team. Rich Rod is the biggest bum to have ever coached in the entire Big Ten. He is totally lacking in class or honor. Until he slinks away, Michigan needs to get pounded in the dust.

Sheesh.

No wonder the Fuhrer was upset. Considering the totality of the circumstances, Ann Althouse showed remarkable restraint.

Besides, this is all supposed to be fun and games, right? Pure entertainment. It's not as if we were discussing politics. College athletics provides young people with wholesome lessons in life.

A perfect example would be Michigan's former linebacker, the gargantuan Justin Boren. Not long after Rodriguez took over, he was so upset that he quit the team, and transferred to its arch-rival, Ohio State. This has caused him to be regarded as a traitor -- as "college football's Benedict Arnold." Strong words, but this week is being called "Boren week" because he's coming back to Ann Arbor with The Enemy.

I can't help being fascinated with the treason phenomenon, and I'm glad the Boren "treason" has nothing to do with politics. As I'm emotionally detached about football, it provides an almost laboratory setting in which to examine the whole concept of treason.

When the alleged "traitor" Boren quit, here's what he said:

"I regret leaving behind my friends and teammates, but I need to stand up for what I know is right," Boren said in a statement released Wednesday afternoon. "I wore the winged helmet with pride, whether we won or lost, whether things were going well or times were tough.

"Michigan football was a family, built on mutual respect and support for each other from (former) Coach (Lloyd) Carr on down. We knew it took the entire family, a team effort, and we all worked together. I have great trouble accepting that those family values have eroded in just a few months. That same helmet, that I was raised on and proudly claimed for the last two years, now brings a completely different emotion to me, one that interferes with practicing and playing my best and mentally preparing for what is required."

The lesson, of course is that Rodriguez is the new commander. The head honcho. He gets to redefine everything, scrap Michigan's vaunted old traditions that made the team a consistent winner, and flush the past by virtue of his power to push the reset button. Those who are disloyal to him and switch sides are the traitors, and no matter how loyal they might think they are to the "real" Michigan, that "reality" is now in the reactionary past.

Bear in mind that a primary reason for bringing Rodriguez in was that the old system had been criticized as being stodgy and set in its "country club" ways. Rodriguez was "trying to change a culture that had grown stale and predictable" and "shook up the country club atmosphere at U-M."

So, what won out was change for the sake of change, only it isn't working.

As I say, I'm glad this has nothing to do with politics. But just before the election last year, a Michigan student argued against change for change's sake using Rodriguez to illustrate what I think is an astute political analogy:

Since my world is dominated by politics and sports, I can't help but draw a comparison: Carr's tenure reminds me in a lot of ways of the current Bush administration. Of course, the parallels between politics and sports are tenuous at best.

But hear me out. When I think of the Bush administration, a few words come to mind: unsatisfying, frustrating, disappointing. Those were the same words I used to describe Carr's years. In a way, I've been down this road before. I have plenty of issues with the Bush administration: its fondness for budget deficits, its failure to use overwhelming force in the first year of the war in Iraq, its unnecessary, massive bailout of banks.

Contrary to the alarmists, though, we aren't in a depression. We haven't been attacked by terrorists in seven years. And we certainly are still the most powerful nation in the world, both economically and militarily. In short, just as was true with Carr's Wolverines, it could be worse.

In both situations an inspirational leader stepped in, promising sweeping change. For Michigan football it was Rich Rodriguez, who claimed the only way to continue the tradition of winning was to ditch the preceding system. Three yards and a cloud of dust was yesterday's paradigm, and, therefore, it can't work today. Sweeping and fundamental change is necessary to move Michigan from four to zero losses a year, Rodriguez said. Though the jury is still out on Rodriguez's tenure, it doesn't look like fundamental and sweeping change was prudent.

BTW, author Alex Prasad concluded by hoping the country wouldn't repeat Michigan's mistake:

Perhaps radical change is necessary, but that is rarely the case. If the current mindset is producing a consistently winning (if admittedly underachieving) program, why re-invent the wheel? Tweak it. Four years from now, we will have a similar vantage point on the next presidency as we currently have on the Rodriguez tenure. I just hope we don't end up in the same boat twice.

No wonder people prefer sports to politics.