I’ve done a bit of a 180 on this issue: Last week, it was my opinion too much grief was being given to the Big 12 and its sportsmanship initiatives. I’ll hold firm to some of my feelings, namely these are issues (never mind how much you or I enjoy and endorse a good court-storming or a salty chant), and safety and sanctity are things that need some attention from time to time. I also believe these ideas wouldn’t be Things if this were a normal year and spring meetings were spent discussing major agenda items, like, say, playing a conference championship game or how to break ties for crowning titlists.

But a day later the Big 12 tried to keep doing a good thing and whiffed as it tried to improve sportsmanship and on-site environments by restricting the use or replays on videoboards. In short, it’s backward thinking. There were quotes and sentences about excessive replays and whipping up hostility, but the whole thing overlooked a major point: Television productions are killing attendance figures. And here comes the Big 12, one league of many that’s acknowledged the thinning figures by going so far as luring people back by ensuring their safety and cleansing certain orations, taking away (the?) one link to the outside world when inside a stadium or arena.

Beyond serving as an affront to the people who pay for tickets by taking their money and then telling them they aren’t civilized enough to observe a replay, absorb the content and humanize the response, it further facilitates the enemy in this battle for eyeballs.

Television is crushing attendance because it has so many cameras and so many replay options. Some stadiums are battling back by enhancing what they can do with their videoboards, be it with highlights from around the nation or replays of just-completed plays. The Big 12 would like to stifle that and some home-site advantages along with it.

“We want to provide high entertainment to our fans, but we don’t want an environment that’s too hostile,” said Baylor athletic director Ian McCaw, who is on the league’s sportsmanship committee.

This is either the right or wrong place to point out one of McCaw’s employees was fined last year when he used Twitter to complain about how many penalties went against Baylor in a loss to WVU. People were more offended by the fine than the tweets because the officiating was just terrible, a conclusion we reached thanks to replays.

It’s also either proper or inappropriate to mention how infrequently administrators sit in the stands among the people they try to protect and how the suites the suits occupy have easy access to televisions and network replays.

Want to see hostility? Try to calm the people who pay handsome sums and want only to get another look at a catch in the corner of the end zone or a jump shot with toes close to the 3-point line and instead have to wait out a delay as they try and fail to send a text to friends watching the replays on ESPN at home.