insight

Football should accompany autumn at Metro

Sean G. Donovan
sdonova3@mscd.edu

I'm sitting here getting ready to watch some college football. The weather outside may be warm and sunny, but the call of college football and the game on TV tells me fall is here with a vengeance.

Where I come from, college football is the only sure-fire cure for the back-to-school blues. I've got a fever that can only be broken by watching nickel packages blitz through the offensive line after a quarterback, who is worried about last Thursday's calculus test.

I'm watching the Demon Deacons of Wake Forest take on my Nebraska Cornhuskers. The energy in the stadium is electric, as is the energy in my living room. I have been waiting patiently since last January to get my football fix. Sure, the NFL began its season this past weekend, but there's a fundamental difference between the whiny, over-paid crybabies of the pros and the hard-headed, book-hitting student athletes.

Unlike pro football, which draws its fan base from regional populations, college football fans can be found like a patchwork mosaic all over this country. When someone graduates from a college or moves from a state where college football is king, their team allegiance goes on. For alumni, the loyalty runs a bit deeper since so many people identify with the team as an extension of the institution itself.

As for Metro, the community support of each and every team is unprecedented. From basketball to soccer to baseball, the fans come out in droves and support the home team at every event. The fans scream and yell and cheer as if every play and every motion is the one that will win the championship. The teams don't disappoint, either; they bring home winning seasons to add to the esteem of this urban institution.

But there's no football.

It's odd for a person like me to find a college that has a substantial population without a football team. Football, in my lifetime, has become the national collegiate sport that almost everyone can agree on. When it comes to bragging rights for the Spring semester over another school, it's mostly based on a football game. Football has become the lifeblood for many college athletic programs, as well as general fund accounts in terms of money from television rights, merchandising, and so-on. So what is a person like me to do?

I adapt. I've been a Nebraska fan since I was a little kid. Many of you reading this can identify with me in some way; you grew up watching CU or CSU games with sweaty, bellowing relatives and friends on Saturday afternoons. Now, as Metro students, we still have our allegiance. We walk on campus with our caps from institutions all over the country. It does not mean we do not love our Roadrunners, who give us a reason at every turn to cheer. But some of us need something more. Some of us need to cheer for the one constant in college life: football. So, if you don't have a team to cheer for, find one. You can always hang out with me and cheer for the Big Red each Saturday.