I wish I was writing a post that said "Great work, Cougars!" or even "Good try, maybe next time!"

Unfortunately, the news of the game isn't UH's triple-overtime 54-48 loss but instead the ensuing riot that occured on the field afterwards. It's put me in a rather bad mood.

For those of you out of the loop, a fight broke out after Hawaii managed to stop the Cougars from scoring and won the game. No indication as to how it got started but it spread like an Oregon wildfire until the police (among others) broke it up. The notable clip (that will be shown over and over and over again) will be Houston's Damien West charging into a group of Warriors armed with a helmet.

This is the first altercation that the Cougars have had in my recollection. We've also had no embarassments such as players arrested for breaking and entering or assault. Ordinarily this type of thing wouldn't be a problem, but for us it could be.

Unlike the University of Hawaii and TCU, we don't have a hometown bowl (the Houston Bowl has no affiliations with the C*USA) that will always take us in. We also have attendance problems and don't travel well. It comes with being the non-traditional institution that UH (wonderfully) is.

This game was going to be our coming out party where we show off our outstanding high-powered offense and mesmirizing gameplay.

I'm happy to have attended the University of Houston and believe it to be a great school. But it has an image problem and a number of setbacks that keep us from being recognized as the major institution that it is. From an athletics standpoint, we have an non-traditional student body that keeps our attendance and school spirit low.

Instead we're going to be remembered for West and the helmet he was carrying.

Unlike Houston, this is not Hawaii's first altercation. In fact, there was a remarkably similar one with the University of Cincinnati , headless helmet and all.

Did I mention that the helmet West was holding appears to be a Hawaii one? I suspect he was ungraciously returning a helmet that was rather ungraciously given to him.

But Houston is the team that lost (as was Cincinnati) and by default people are going to assume that Houston started it.

For my part, I really don't know. Hawaii's reaction to winning was, in the words of an otherwise staid ESPN recap, "hysterical." On the other hand, it seems unlikely that a Hawaiian player thought to himself "now that we beat them on the field let's tarnish our victory by getting into a fight!"

Then again, there were a number of scuffles during the game. Even before the altercation, I was surprised that few or no flags were thrown on this score. But that wasn't much of a surprise because I was less than impressed with the officiating overall (as were the announcers). Anyhow, scuffles during a game have been known to be settled after a game (in fact, a Hawaii player said that he wanted a rematch against a player he fought in the Cincy brawl).

In all honesty the coverage seems to be pretty even-handed. The announcers said "Hawaii can't seem to be good winners and Houston can't seem to be good losers" which is pretty fair for a couple of announcers that have been covering Hawaii a lot more than Houston. That might change (either way) once the tapes are reviewed more closely, but I'm happy that no one outside the fan forums are rushing to judgment (particularly since the rush would be unfavorable to us).

Houston coach Art Briles appears to be sticking by his team (Cincinnati's coach did not) but says that disciplinary action may be taken. I figure Hawaii's Jones will stick by his as well. It's really a shame because Hawaii has a lot of Houston ties (Jones used to coach with the Oilers and Gamblers and a lot of Warriors are Houstonians) and Jones and Briles were very complimentary to one another all week long.

No matter how you cut it, though, this was a bad affair for both programs. Houston is going to have to work that much harder to be invited to bowl games in the future and Hawaii has another mark against their already lackluster disciplinary record.

At the same time, I can't help but wonder about the shock and dismay at a bunch of people that hit each other for four straight hours hitting each other after the game. Not to say that this sort of thing is okay or should be tolerated, but the more I think about it the more I can't believe it doesn't happen a heck of a lot more often.

[Image stolen from Greg Wythe]