Michael Hiestand
http://www.usatoday.com
Most student-athletes who play college sports, as NCAA ads reminded viewers relentlessly on CBS during the men’s basketball tournament, don’t go on to play pro sports.
Instead, they perhaps compete for the camaraderie. Or, maybe, to carry on the ancient Greek ideal of the healthy body and healthy mind. Or they’re preparing themselves for greater tests: The battle of Waterloo, in a saying attributed to the Duke of Wellington, “was won on the playing fields of Eton.”
So it makes sense that, finally, there will be a made-for-TV collegiate eating championship. It will be staged Saturday in San Diego as part of the CBS-owned Collegiate Nationals, which also includes surfing in machine-made waves.