I come from a state that loves its football. No, not Texas - though I do love America. In the western suburbs of Chicago, football is everything. Basketball is mainly relegated to the city, and when I was in high school, I always looked forward to those Fridays to watch my buddies pummel people for no reason.
On a side note, Jake Christensen knocked our team out of the playoffs when I was a sophomore, so what do you have to say about that Jake? Looks like IU got the best of you huh? Ok, glad I got that out. By the way, here's a good clip of the Iowa/IU game that I'm sure you'll love.
Now let me get back to what I was saying before I went off on a tangent. Fact of the matter is I love football. I love going to the games. I love the speed, the spectacular, and the wild (as seen with Kellen Lewis' somersault).
My point is this. Apparently that sentiment is not shared with the majority of students at IU. Unfortunately, I can't call people out in the actual paper because that's not my job. This is my voice of reason - the blog; the place where I can say things that are of opinion but won't get me fired. And believe me, I have a good vantage point of looking at how many people attend our games from the press box.
I know IU is a basketball school, and I know that view of sports is deposited in every student at IU. But you know what I don't understand? I don't understand when people can't recognize a good thing when they see it. This team has started 4-1. They only need two more games to get to their first bowl game in 14 years. That's a long time. To put that in perspective: I was six, the Red Sox had Roger Clemens, and I watched Power Rangers on TV (speaking of which, here's a good clip).
Until about a week ago, I never realized how few fans attend the game. Obviously I see the empty seats, but you sort of expect it. I didn't realize what that actually meant. IU is arguably one of the only Big Ten teams that consistently fails to fill its stands. I got a call from a disappointed fan a few days ago who shared this opinion. He raised some very good points about the lack of a fan base, and even suggested the Athletics Department take away basketball tickets because we don't want to support the football team. I think that may be a little overboard. But essentially, the guy is right. Fans don't attend the games and IU loses.
Is there a correlation between the two? I don't know. I don't have attendance numbers going years back when IU was actually successful. What I do know is that a lot of fans would rather tailgate and drink beer instead of cheering for Kellen Lewis to connect with James Hardy downfield. Is there something wrong with that? I don't know. I thought the point of college was to embrace sports and get involved with them. It's that simple, really. And that's why in high school I went to every game, and that's why I've gone to every home game at IU since I've been here.
One last thing, here' s a little bit of reminiscing.
