You're right, Larry. Bench-clearing brawls aren't typically portrayed in a positive light. I think it's the liberal media's fault.
More than one person has called for the two teams to forfeit their seasons, a punishment I was in favor of until I realized it was impossible. Why? The BCS.
Any punishment sufficient enough to prevent this sort of debacle from happenning again would unfairly punish a host of other teams nowhere near Miami last Saturday. The NCAA has allowed a system where any meaningless game can change the nature of the Top 5 - can you imagine what would happen if Miami suddenly forfeited a season? The immediate effect would be the cratering of Louisville's strength of schedule, not to mention what would happen to whichever ACC team crawled it's way out the mediocrity muck to take the conference title. There would be a host of nearest-neighbor and next nearest-neighbor effects to worry about. The NCAA is constrained in the penalties it can administer by its own business model.
Of course, if there was a simple, eight-team conference-champion playoff, all of this could be avoided. Just something to keep in mind.