It’s hard to explain how a mob mentality takes hold, propeling normally civilized people to act like idiots. But that’s exactly what happened Saturday after the NCAA hockey championship game, when fans went wild, overturning cars, smashing windows and starting fires.

That a sporting event can cause this kind of behavior is baffling. Unfortunately, it’s all the more common across the country. In fact, the same thing happened in New Hampshire, the home of the losing hockey team Saturday night. But sports is probably little more than an excuse. The real problem here is not fanaticism over sports, but a culture in which young men feel compelled to destroy things for entertainment. We have a responsibility to teach our young people acceptable ways of handling their aggressive tendencies, but clearly the lesson isn’t getting through to everybody.

It’s a shame that the Gophers’ second straight national title is now overshadowed by the behavior of these fans, many of whom were university students. These people are as good an argument for stricter admissions standards as you’ll ever see.

Tribune editorials represent the opinion of the newspaper’s management and editorial staff.