We all have things we'd like to change about ourselves -- lose some weight, quit going bald, quit hooking that tee shot into the trees -- but what about our favorite college athletic programs?
Surely there are some things each of us would like to change about how our favorite teams do business -- win more, add a sport, quit cheating (hopefully, SOME of you feel that way).
Unfortunately, we as fans don't have a lot of say in what happens day-to-day in our favorite athletic departments -- unless we all started voting with our feet (but who's going to stop going to fall football games?).
Yet what if you did have the power; what would you change? I posed this question to our fans in this week's College Fan Face-Off, and the answers proved pretty revealing.
Read what they had to say and then have your say. Simply scroll down to the bottom and add a comment to the story, or shoot us an email at: [email protected]. Oh, and thanks for the comments from last week's issue: "Good, Old Fashioned Hate." I've added one of them at the bottom of this week's Face-Off.
Back to this week -- if I had my way, all athletic departments would be allowed to drop collegiate football teams from Title IX recognition, thus making the playing field a lot more level. But that's another topic for another day...
Here's what our fans said they would do to change their college athletic programs:
-- JOHN McGARVEY, 29, Gainesville (Ole Miss): If I could change one thing about the Ole Miss athletic program it would be the negative connotations surrounding race and the history of Ole Miss. Ole Miss and Oxford, like many other schools and towns in the southeast, had its problems with racism. In the early 1960s, when James Meredith was the first black student to integrate the Ole Miss campus, riots erupted, shots were fired and the Army National Guard had to be called in to regain control of both the campus and Oxford. What I want people to know and understand is that Oxford, Miss., is one of the most beautiful places in the world, and while we had our struggles early on, we have made the very necessary changes to correct our image. There are no longer Rebel Flags flying in our stadium, Col. Reb is no longer a fixture on our sidelines and you don't hear "Dixie" nearly as often as you used to. As a fanbase, we have pushed to have all of our facilities upgraded as a compliment to our image upgrade. We recently completed a new state-of-the-art indoor practice facility, and our stadium underwent expansions, resulting in a tremendous upswing in recruiting and the overall performances of our teams. Ole Miss is a program on the rise, but until the sportswriters and media get out of the past, we will continue to fight this uphill battle.
-- DEREK GREENE, 27, Gainesville (University of Florida): As far as football is concerned, I would like to schedule more big-name out-of-conference opponents. (Notice, I used the term "big name" instead of tougher) I would like the opportunity to travel to South Bend, Ind.; Lincoln, Neb.; Morgantown, W.V.; Columbus, Ohio; Austin, Texas; Madison, Wis.; Eugene, Oregon; and definitely Ann Arbor, Mich. I would like this to happen in order to remind them that "Big Boy" football is played below the Mason-Dixon and to console them that hockey season is right around the corner. Good news too, there are no SEC hockey teams, so most of those schools would have a great shot at beating us. As far as the rest of the athletic program, I would like to see more scholarships available in the smaller, less crowd-friendly sports. I think that a lot of the big draw sports could share the wealth with the smaller sports. As a whole, Gator athletics have been pretty successful in the last couple years, so no real complaints.
-- SCOTT BECK, 36, Suwanee (Auburn University): I would like to change the perception that Bobby Lowder is in control of all things Auburn. Auburn people know that he was once very powerful, and his money has been great for the University, but people around the SEC think that he makes all the decisions regarding Auburn University and its athletics. It was proven that Lowder was responsible for "jetgate" (the plot to fire coach Tommy Tuberville), but since then he has very little actual power left. In the wake of the mess "jetgate" created, Ed Richardson was named as Auburn's interim President, replacing William Walker. Walker was always rumored to do exactly what Lowder wanted, and this transition cost Lowder the majority of his power at the university. Richardson was brought in, and he took orders from no one. Richardson even had to put right the situation with the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools attempt to pull our accreditation because it was believed that the Auburn Board of Trustees was micromanaging the school's operations. Richardson needed to prove that he was now in control and Lowder was not. The case in point is Richardson's firing of 14 different administrators and some coaches including Cliff Ellis and Steve Renfroe! Since Richardson took over in 2004, and now with Jay Gouge as President of Auburn, Lowder has simply become a name we put on campus buildings. Sure, everyone still listens to his opinion -- which you would expect because of his donating millions to the University -- but as far as him being in a power position, not any longer.
-- MATT DUBNIK, 27, Gainesville (Georgia Tech): If I could change any one thing about our athletic program, it would be to find a way to get more alumni ACTIVELY involved in supporting the "big three" programs more: baseball, men's basketball, and football -- all the trifecta of college sports in Georgia, all fueled with top-notch players from Georgia and abroad. Georgia Tech faces challenges when trying to fill the stadiums at those three sports, even when their teams are ranked nationally. There has to be a way to motivate people to attend, participate, and become rabid fans. I would simply like to see us change the way we do things to somehow attract the masses, all wearing the WHITE AND GOLD at every chance they get.
-- TREY TOMPKINS, 38, John's Creek (Vanderbilt University): Besides an obvious wish that the Vanderbilt football team would win more, my more proactive wish for the athletic program, the University, and the city of Nashville as a whole would be for them to do more things to actively promote tailgating by Vanderbilt fans before the games. The city seems to go out of its way to discourage tailgating in public areas around campus -- and in most campus settings it's impossible. There is a huge urban city park across the street from Vanderbilt stadium that city police won't let people hang out in before games. There is a perception that the city government is full of University of Tennessee fans, who just like sticking it to those snobs on West End, but I have to believe at least some of the bureaucrats running Nashville could figure out the value it would bring to the city if, over time, thousands of people wanted to spend money in town to party before the games. Vanderbilt has a beautiful academic campus just a five-minute walk from the stadium, but I have never seen a family with a picnic or kids throwing footballs prior to a game. I've never seen a single effort by the University in 20 years to utilize the campus as an asset on game days. I believe the tailgating other southern colleges have mastered lends itself to making lifelong fans, even among people who never attend that school. Given its tiny alumni base, Vanderbilt needs every one of those types of fans that it can get, and nobody at the University seems to be able to figure that out.
-- JOHN LILLY, 38, Gainesville (University of Georgia): The way all the programs are going at this time, it would be hard to make some changes. However, I must agree with my friends Tex -- all you can eat -- Webb and Steve -- Cheese Cake
Thursday
October 24th, 2024
10:23PM
