Last Saturday, I made one of the biggest mistakes during my time here at the University: I left a football game before it was over. Now, this usually is not a big deal. In fact, it is almost an unspoken rule among students that we attend football games more for the social scene rather than the athletics which oftentimes results in a mass exodus of students from Scott Stadium before the final whistles are blown. On Saturday, I did just this, and almost missed one of the greatest upsets in the history of Cavalier football, just because I became uninterested after the team lost its halftime lead. This attitude toward our football team is unwarranted, and in spite of the fact that many students do have other weekend commitments to tend to, we should start to think of attending football games as a privilege. The best way to remedy this attitude is to rethink the student ticketing process altogether.
To be sure, the team has had its fair share of difficulties in the last couple seasons. It has not had enough regular season wins to enter a bowl game since 2011, and has not actually won a bowl game in a decade. It has lost 11 straight games to rival Virginia Tech, with 5 of those games lost by at least 24 points. My first year, the 2013 season, the team managed to win a meager two games out of 12. Wahoo nation has vicariously endured these recent struggles with the football team, and to many students, leaving the event halfway through has merely become a coping mechanism.
Yet, as this past game against Notre Dame has shown, our football team can play competitively even against the top 10 teams in the nation. The Cavaliers were winning at the half against both Notre Dame and William and Mary, both of which were competitive and exciting until the very last minutes of playing time. Still fans felt the need to leave the game early, which is why this has become such a troubling phenomenon, as it is much harder to justify leaving a game early to cope with defeat when the team is not actually losing. This trend is indicative of a larger attitude toward football at the University that extends beyond mere wins and losses. While the game time atmosphere is conducive to an enjoyable experience because it allows students to socialize with friends and family, instituting a new ticketing system would encourage students to become more engaged with the game occurring on the field.
The very fact that students leave games early when defeat seems imminent is in and of itself an unproductive habit. It demonstrates a lack of regard for our football team which, on average, spends over 40 hours preparing for game day each week, sacrificing time in order to represent our school as best they can. I believe this attitude has also been a byproduct of the fact that students are easily able to attend games, as attendance is both free and guaranteed with a valid University ID.
Basketball tickets, for instance, are exponentially more difficult to obtain, and could be a reason that contributes to students being willing to sit through an entire game, even in 28-point blowouts versus teams such as Norfolk State. Likewise, at a top-notch football college like the University of Alabama, one would struggle to find students leaving early for a similar reason. Many of their games, such as last week’s 37-10 beat down, are not competitive from the start. Students nevertheless must pay $10 per game and are only guaranteed entry to half the games. Thus, the costs of leaving the game early are high because being able to go to these games at all is a privilege. While students might rightly have some grievances with having to pay for football games, I do not think it is a revolutionary notion to make ticketing more competitive. It would allow us to to think of our football team in a similar manner as we do basketball, and not take for granted how accessible football games are to us.
There is no doubt University students enjoy going to football games. The issue, however, is that we have developed an attitude toward football here that overlooks the team’s successes and takes for granted our ability to watch them at Scott Stadium. I could have witnessed one of the most exciting games of the season, but instead, I watched from my sofa.
Jesse Berman is a Viewpoint writer.
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