If Purdue falls but no one's there to see it...

Saturday’s Old Oaken Bucket game went swimmingly for Hoosier fans.

The rival teams faced off on our home field, the weather was ideal, IU played well and the Bucket was returned to its rightful place in Bloomington.

Yes, the day was a total success and arguably couldn’t have gone better, with the exception of a couple thousand passionate students noticeably missing from the crowd.

In the most recent Bucket Games of the past, both in West Lafayette and in Bloomington, the majority of students have been unable to attend because of poor scheduling that coincides with Thanksgiving Break.

It’s becoming an annual factor of the game — huge rivalry, extremely competitive and important match-up and no student section.

This is totally unacceptable for every administrative party involved. It doesn’t make sense to schedule our most important rivalry game when most students can’t attend.

At the beginning of each school year, people pay hundreds of dollars to purchase tickets for football and basketball games, with the assumption that the only reason a student wouldn’t be able to attend would be conflicts drawn from personal schedules, not poor game scheduling.

It isn’t fair to pay for a ticket, whatever price it may be, when a game is scheduled at an arguably impossible time to attend.

Most of all, it isn’t fair to the team.

The argument is that the biggest game should be saved for last and feature special senior acknowledgements and recognitions.

I understand that to a point.

However, I have a hard time believing they wouldn’t like to see some fellow Hoosier students in the stands as opposed to just empty seats.

This game was also the only ticket provided in the package purchased at the beginning of the year that gave students the opportunity to see the Boilermakers compete against the Hoosiers at home since Purdue won’t be playing against the men’s basketball team here this year.

Therefore, if you were unable to attend Sunday for obvious holiday travel reasons, you just missed the only chance included in the ticket package to see the Hoosiers beat
Purdue in Bloomington.

Though it’s fun to watch IU beat Purdue in any setting, there need to be better scheduling decisions to ensure students can see it first-hand.

It just isn’t as fulfilling to see the Boilers fail on television like it is in person, and every single IU student should always have total access to that opportunity.

­— cnmcelwa@indiana.edu
Follow columnist Claire McElwain on Twitter @clairemc_IDS.