Column by Joy Priest. Email [email protected].

Couch burning is the latest sacrificial rite in Big Blue Nation — the most sports-religious group of fans within the bigger nation.

Yes, couch burning. You know, the riotous act of revelry and celebration typically following an important sports victory. Who knows why an ecstatic fan first decided to set a couch on fire; maybe it was a sacrifice to the entire sports season he or she had spent on it?

But wait. Wasn’t this someone else’s tradition before the UK community’s State Street incident on Friday and subsequent incidents on Sunday (see the March 26 Kernel online post and the infamous YouTube videos)?

After conducting some much-needed research, I found that the couch burning capital of the world is Morgantown, W. Va., home of the West Virginia University Mountaineers.

In the past, the fire officials in Morgantown literally had to issue an order for “the removal of all upholstered furniture, debris and flammable objects from porches in city neighborhoods with high (WVU) student populations,” according to a 2005 USA Today article.

In a more relevant geographical area, Ohio University fans have adopted the couch burning tradition as one of their own. On Friday, the Big Blue cult — or congregation, depending on how you look at it — stole that tradition from OU.

Between 1997 and 2003, according to the USA Today article, Morgantown led the nation with 1,129 intentional street fires.

Kentucky will be leading the Big Blue Nation to the Final Four on Saturday, but hopefully will not lead the rest of nation in couch burning, as we know our overzealous fans are perfectly capable of doing.

Recent basketball wins prompted nights full of Big Blue rituals in the name of victory, but let’s wait and leave our latest rite for a NCAA championship victory … just kidding, UKPD.