Study Shows Association Between College Football and Alcohol Related Arrests

The study concludes:

"Though efforts have been made to combat excessive drinking on holidays, more effort is needed to address the significant binge drinking among students and other spectators that is associated with high-profile collegiate sporting events."

Fans drink at college football games but more arrests does not necessarily mean more drinking. At football games, a greater number of police are patrolling a confined space, specifically looking for alcohol-related offenses. Common sense would indicate they would catch more people. If you pass out in a bush on game day you get arrested. If you pass out on your couch on a Saturday, you don’t.

Moreover, the problem with drinking is the effects of it not the act. “Alcohol-related offenses” should be qualified. Having 12 people arrested for driving home drunk on New Year’s Eve is far more troublesome than 70 people stumbling shit-faced around a tailgate.  It’s a small sample size, but, from the friends I know who have had run-ins with the law before football games, it seems you would reduce “alcohol-related offenses” significantly by having more public restrooms available.

This isn’t to say college kids don’t have drinking problems, but they are the only ones targeted for it.  Have you seen old people drink?  Those people are a menace.  They are far less likely to call a cab or use a designated driver.  If you had cops hounding country clubs the way they do college bars, arrests would skyrocket there too.