Lew, unfortunately it is not ridiculous for a neocon to stick his nose into the game. Proto-neocon Teddy Roosevelt was probably the first American politician to take an official interest in this sport, pressuring (though perhaps not forcing through law) top universities to reform the rules that are still part of college football today.

A rule of thumb seems to be if the craziest and most interventionist aspiration of today's statists on the left and right wasn't foreshadowed by the horrible Teddy Roosevelt's presidency, it is only because he hadn't thought of it at the time. While he might have stopped short of using presidential power to compel, through threats of legal repercussions, what he thought was best for college football, there is little reason to think he would have not gone that far if he felt it was the only option.