I'm pretty sure that's synchronized swimming, which is an entirely different animal.

But on to the hazing:

The controversy stems from Senior Night activities on Feb. 6, considered a long-standing tradition with the Warrior swim team family. "The underclassmen go about the community, and they throw toilet paper on the trees. They'll hold onto them, put them in their car, drive them to the next location and then let them go." parent Steve Brew said.

"We'll run towards them and be like, 'Ha, got you.' So, it's basically, it's like a game of tag," explained senior swimmer Michael Brew.

More than a dozen seniors were suspended and a meet was canceled over this. What's going on in Illinois? What's described above is not hazing, and that picture is not swimming. And what high school has their swim season in February? I'm really asleep right now and I'm dreaming this, right?

Swimmers Hazed And Confused [MSNBC]

That means the band will not perform at tonight’s Big Ten football game between the 18th-ranked Badgers and the No. 14 Ohio State Buckeyes at Camp Randall Stadium, and it marks the first time the marching band has been suspended from a game show in at least 40 years, band director Mike Leckrone said.

“I thought the only thing I could do to send the message was to suspend,” Leckrone said.

Apparently the band has run into deviance in the past. In 2006, the band was put on probation for "semi-nude dancing, sexualized banter and hazing ". No details are available about this year's incident, but the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has drummed up some of the band past indiscretions:

• A hazing incident in which a female band member was told to suck on a sex toy.
• Female band members being forced to kiss other female band members to gain access to bus bathrooms.
• Younger band members being forced to run errands and refill beer cups for older band members.
• Behavior in 2004 that led a bus driver to pull over and call the police.

Kissing girls and sucking on sex toys? Sounds like a standard Friday night for most co-eds. After the 2006 incidents, Leckrone promised to get a handle on his band and had this to say, ""If it doesn't happen, I don't think I should be the director." Well that just seals his fate, doesn't it?

It's good to see that NFL hazing will never die. At least not until someone tears an ACL or suffocates while taped to a goal post. The Titans held their annual dizzy bat race for the healthy players. But they reserved their true scorn for the players who were too injured to participate in the dizzy bat race. Namely, Lavelle Hawkins and Cary Williams. Protest was futile.

Per the Tennessean:

While Williams and Hawkins were tied to a pole by Bulluck, Albert Haynesworth and Rob Bironas, and soaked with everything from water and flour to mustard and ketchup for more than 10 minutes, the rest of the rookies endured the dizzy bat race.

It got dangerous out there. "At one point during the fiasco, Hawkins said he couldn't breathe. Tackle Jason Murphy, hoping to console the rookie receiver, responded: "Then how are you talking?'"

Ah, football players. Such founts of respiratory knowledge.

Veterans haze Titan rookies [Tennessean]

The alleged assault took place in Las Vegas, New Mexico, at one of those sleepover football camps. I guess what happens in Vegas doesn't really stay in Vegas. Even if you try to jam it up there with a broomstick.

New Mexico State Police are investigating possible criminal wrongdoing, a spokesman said, while the owner of the camp in Gallinas Canyon said investigators visited a couple of the bunkhouses on Friday afternoon where the students stayed.
At least one student alleged that he was pinned to the ground and sodomized with a broomstick — an accusation that district superintendent Rick Romero said appeared to be mostly false, although he said “part” of the allegation could be true.
What did occur is still unclear, Romero said, but it seemed to have involved some form of hazing or initiation in which some students were held down against their will.
“The district is investigating acts of misconduct,” Romero told the Journal. Romero took over as the head of Las Vegas City Schools this summer.

The body count so far: six players, five coaches and one AD suspended. This is what happens when you leave broomsticks in open areas around high schoolers. You didn't think they were going to sweep the place, did you?

H.S. Grid Camp Hazing Alleged [Albuquerque Journal]

At least no one's mom killed anyone this time. Instead the lovely lasses of Morton Ranch High School are being investigated for, among other things, binding new cheerleaders and throwing them into the pool. Take it away anonymous cheer critic, "Once you duct tape someone's hands, blindfold them throw them in a pool, start flicking their body parts, that's way too far," she said. The Department of Justice disagrees. There are more details from ABC-13's investigation.

Including this great paragraph of investigative reporting.

"When a girl (BEEP) in her pants and puts her pants on another girl's head, that's just disgusting," said the sister of a Morton Ranch High School junior varsity cheerleader.

Oh, a girl was (BEEP) in her pants? Well, we can't have that. Clearly. Because I love y'all, here's a link to the Morton Ranch cheer squad's January 2007 performance on youtube.

Did HS cheer squad go too far? [ABC13.com]
HS cheerleaders give crap to JV squad-literally [SportsByBrooks]
Morton Ranch High School Cheer performance [Youtube]

North Central College in Naperville, Illinois, has suspended 17 players and 2 coaches for their roles in some initiation rituals. Freshmen played baseball in their underwear, they drank a lot of alcohol, and they wore women's lingerie. The gentleman pictured above doesn't appear to be that unhappy about his situation, and in fact, it looks as if the soft, silky blue material makes him feel both comfortable and sexy at the same time.

And here's where I get fuzzy on this. The school determined that it was all voluntarily and did not fit under the definition of "hazing," and then put the team on probation and suspended them anyway. For what? Running around looking like women? Eli Manning never gets in trouble for that.

If kids were bullied into it, then fine, suspend the team. But the report here in the Chicago Tribune says that some students opted to either leave the party early, or not drink alcohol. Presumably, there were no consequences for those who left.

Baseball at North Central College Goes South [NCAA Hazing]
Naperville college suspends ball players [Chicago Tribune]

Or, you know, a bunch of college kids drinking?

This photo, along with some others of a shirtless guy dancing around in a cowboy hat, are the reason Manhattan College is cancelling most of its non-conference women's lacrosse games and forcing its players to do community service. We know this is kind of how Bob Reno over at BadJocks makes his living, but in all seriousness: It's probably time for people to chill out on this "hazing" business.

We mean, look at, say, these pictures from SUNY Cortland's lacrosse team, which led to the team receiving an unnamed punishment and having games cancelled. We ask in all seriousness: What the hell is wrong with what they're doing? OK, maybe there's a couple people under the age of 21; the scandal!

We understand that, unchecked, some sports hazing rituals can become degrading or even violent. But come on: We guarantee that every single one of you did things far, far worse than what is seen in these pictures in college; we know we did. If you go searching for incriminating pictures of minor college athletes on Webshots, you're going to find something; they're college students. Some guy types in "initiation" and "lacrosse" into his search engine, and suddenly everybody's names are all over the place, and seasons are ruined.

But, most important: Please, college students of America ... stop putting your drunk pictures on the Internet. We can't emphasize this enough. You're only asking for trouble.

Manhattan College Cancels Season Due To Hazing [NCAA Hazing]
SUNY Cortland Women's Lacrosse [BadJocks]