  We suggest that the transition that occurs at large $N_c$ in the eigenvalue
distribution of a Wilson loop may have a turbulent origin. We arrived at this
conclusion by studying the complex-valued inviscid Burgers-Hopf equation that
corresponds to the Makeenko-Migdal loop equation, and we demonstrate the
appearance of a shock in the spectral flow of the Wilson loop eigenvalues. This
picture supplements that of the Durhuus-Olesen transition with a particular
realization of disorder. The critical behavior at the formation of the shock
allows us to infer exponents that have been measured recently in lattice
simulations by Narayanan and Neuberger in $d=2$ and $d=3$. Our analysis leads
us to speculate that the universal behavior observed in these lattice
simulations might be a generic feature of confinement, also in $d=4$ Yang-Mills
theory.
