Scott Van Pelt Slams Terps Students For Not Showing Up to Football Games
On his radio show yesterday, Scott Van Pelt slammed the Maryland students for not showing up to games. And rightfully so.
Saturday, I wanted to puke. As the Terps were fighting desperately to hang on to beat Virignia, a rival they were playing for the last time, the Cavaliers were driving into the teeth of the student section that was, I don’t know, three-quarters empty, maybe half-empty. Whatever it was, empty seats outnumbered students. First game against Florida International, the student section was packed, but it was a blowout, and it was hot, so in the second half, it was crickets. This Saturday, it was raining for a little while. Heavens, no! Raining! I don’t know why they left, but by the end of the game, the student section is mostly empty. I don’t get it. You get four years to be young. Now some of us took a little longer to get done, but we’re talking about six Saturdays a year. It’s a three-hour investment of your time to cheer for your team. It’s not a burden. You shouldn’t have to be bribed with hot dogs to stay in the second half. There are two halves of a freakin’ game. Like, if you went to a movie, would you leave halfway through? Like, hey, was it a good movie? Yeah, it was really good, and then I left. Why?
I’m a Terp, but I was guilty of the same thing. While I was at UMD, there was never the big college football atmosphere that you get at nearby schools like Penn State, VTech, Clemson, or any SEC school. I don’t think it’s because the students don’t care, most love the Terps. But there seems to be something about Maryland where the students are ok with passively supporting the teams. Many only show up for the big games. It happens in basketball as well. For early season out of conference games, the student section is never filled. And this is a school with one of the best basketball home court advantages in college basketball.
SVP continued,
They’re 5-1. Students can help create a home-field advantage. Instead, it’s like home-field indifference at the end of a home game that the team won by a point. You have the rest of your life to be in a big, fat hurry, to be jaded about stuff, but you’re young. Just slow down, enjoy it. And don’t hit me with the studying part, because even back in the day, we used to have tests and stuff, too, and we figured out a way. Tests aren’t new. We just found room six Saturdays a year to go to Byrd Stadium.
This is where I think the University of Maryland has to do something to get the students interested in the games. And that thing is win. Consistently. They haven’t been competitive in years, so it’s much easier for students to brush off attending the game in favor of watching elsewhere while getting drunk. Because when it comes down to it, there hasn’t been much of an allure to attend a Maryland vs UVA football team in recent years, and students have gotten into the habit of simply not going. So yes, there is a sense of jadedness in College Park. The only way to get rid of it is to prove to the students the football team will be competitive year in and year out. Maybe not losing 500-0 the week before to FSU would help as well. Fancy uniforms did the trick for a little bit, but winning trumps all. If the football team can win in the much more competitive Big 10 next year, they should have no trouble filling the seats. Until then, watching at Bently’s is the preferred option for most.