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EDITORIAL: A championship culture?

By Editorial Board on February 10, 2012 8:00 am in Editorial / 5 comments

 

What has happened to the championship culture of Central Michigan University athletics?

Without a winning team on the field or a tailgate to enjoy beforehand, students have had little incentive to attend home football games. With this week’s news that fans will no longer be allowed to re-enter games after leaving, one thing is becoming quite clear: the athletics department doesn’t care enough about the students who fund it.

Athletics Director Dave Heeke said attendees next year will have to scan their ID cards or tickets to get into games and will not be permitted to re-enter if they need to exit the area. While the new policy allows CMU to more accurately count students in the attendance figure, a number the department inflated last season, are we expected to believe there is no scanning program that can recognize a person entered twice and count them once?

This policy seems more like another control mechanism being put in place, passed through under the farcical pretense that it is protecting students. This move is another indication that our administration no longer views students as responsible, independent adults.

Taken together with the strict tailgating policy and revision to the overnight guest policy in residence halls, the re-entry ban reveals a slight, gradual regression toward administrative parenting absent from campus for decades.

“We try to be careful with students going in and out because normally when they do that they come back in a condition we don’t want them in,” Heeke said in a previous article.

Those do not sound like the words of someone who values student participation in athletics. A few jerks getting drunk and making fools of themselves at sporting events does not justify seriously eroding the privileges of all students. Alumni and visiting fans are also known to imbibe, usually responsibly — where is the evidence suggesting students are the worst offenders?

While it’s likely Kelly/Shorts Stadium will be full of fans next season, with Michigan State, Navy and Western Michigan all on the home schedule, this sends an awful message to current and future students. It will likely hurt already dwindling attendance when there are not big-name programs in town.

It’s safe to say students foot a stiff bill each year for athletics, with its current account composing $23.1 million of CMU’s budget. If constant restrictions and changes are going to be made within the system, student participation should be considered.

Whether the football team is winning or losing, what matters most is a body of students supporting and cheering behind them. It doesn’t matter if our athletes have a championship mentality if there are no students to revel in their victories.

Between the state of tailgate and elimination of re-entry, the Chippewas will soon find themselves playing in an empty stadium.

 

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About the author

The editorial board at Central Michigan Life consists of five members.

 
  • Florenceschneider

    The errosion of CMU Football’s “Championship Culture” began with the irresponsible hiring of Dan Enos who has displayed disdain and disrepect for everything our program accomplished between 2004 and 2009. 
     
    Comments that he is “rebuilding the foundation” of Chippewa football are ignorant. 
     
    Here are the facts:
     
    Enos inherited a young team in 2010.  The 2009 team, which finished 12-2 and ranked #22 nationally,had only 13 seniors .
     
    9 players from Enos 2010 team are either playing, or had opportunities to play, professional football.   However, that talented 2010 team finished 3-9.
     
    CMU’s recruiting classes from 2008 and 2009 were ranked tops in the MAC according to VanDelay Sports, which is a highly regarded authority on Mid-American Conference athletics
     
    Enos irresponsibly decided to abandon the highly successful “spread-option” offensive system when he arrived at CMU, despite having players who were recruited for it and trained under it. 
     
    Dan Enos has no respect for Central Michigan University, or the great achievments of its football program between 2004 and 2009.  CMU students, fans, and alumni should have no respect for him.  The players certainly don’t.
     
     

  • Vince88

    “While it’s likely Kelly/Shorts Stadium will be full of fans next season, with Michigan State, Navy and Western Michigan all on the home schedule”

    Doubtful they’ll be even close to being sold out except maybe the MSU game – but with their fans.

    An easy prediction to make is the Chips will be clobbered on the field by these teams. Our only win will be the home opener against the bunny team. Unless our Chips don’t rally around their coach (like Rich Rod) and blow it to a 1AA team ala Michigan vs. App. State.

    I still say Fire Up Chips.

  • Jordan, 09

    I suppose the biggest question that no body is asking is why should we care about the football team? I grew up playing football, and I enjoy watching football tremendously. Like most CMU alumnus’s, I grew up cheering for a school that was not Central Michigan. Even though I went to Central, I really didn’t feel the need to automatically switch my allegiance to maroon and gold. Its not that I dislike CMU or CMU athletics, but if I have the choice between watching a Big Ten football game that could possibly feature two of the top teams in the country battling for a BCS bowl berth or watching two MAC schools duke it out for the number three spot in a division of the league that won’t be significant enough to even be mentioned on sportscenter, I will always choose the former. So really, why, as consumers, should we care about the football team? Where is the incentive? 

  • Irving Plodmore

    Times sure have changed since I attended CMU.

    We attended every football game (sober) to support our team (fellow classmates) and exuded pride in the marvelous university that gave us this portion of what I consider a phenominal college experience. Win or lose we supported “our guys” and our school.

    What I see in the edtorial and many posts is “me-me-me!” “Mommy-mommy the mean university doesn’t want me to get drunk at the games!”

    THE COLLEGE EXPERIENCE is one of the greatest things you will experience in your lifetime , but you have to recognize it to take full advantage.

    Your fellow students who play football devote a tremendous amount of time and effort for the benefit of their fellow students , CMU , and because they love to play. This editorial spits in the face of these young men—”Without a winning team on the field or a tailgate to enjoy beforehand,students have had little incentive to attend home football games.”

    Don’t you appreciate the hard work the Cheerleaders put in to cheer on their fellow students, adding greatly to the COLLEGE EXPERIENCE!  They also do a great deal of work in the community.

    Do you even know the longstanding TRADITION of one the all time great college Marching Bands?  I challenge you to follow the Marching Band from the music building to the game , watch the halftime show provided for their fellow students , watch the postgate show then follow them as they march back to the music building . When I was there the used to circle the tree outside the building , but I understand this part of the trdition had to be modified. This experience is is outstanding.

    Enjoy and take full advantage of the College Experience! It only comes around once. 

  • Disgruntled CMU Football fan

    The answer is to stop hiring coaches who get hired because they have a CMU connection but yet have a resume of success. Like Brian Kelly did. Bring in up in coming coaches not guys who continue to bring down the program and not continue and winning tradition. Give cmu students and fans a reason to stay at the games instead of leaving for a better game on TV.