10 Reasons Why SHU Doesn't Need a Football Team
10. Establishing a football team at Seton Hill in order to recruit more male students will bring more "jocks" to the campus. I'm not saying that I hate "athletes". There is a strong difference between a jock and an athlete. The Administration needs to understand this, and know that with football as a recruiting tool, you are going to get more jocks.
9. Jocks, if I may dip into stereotyping, will bring more drugs, alcohol, and fights to the campus. Yes, everyone knows that its all here already, but I assure you (having talked to upperclassmen) that it was never as bad as this year. Havey was never destroyed like it was this year by a certain team that likes to hit small white balls with wooden bats. When hearing an orientation speech about why they are offering new sports on campus, they said it was to add a new aspect to student life. It has long been my argument that that aspect was "excessive drinking and destruction thanks to large, strong brutes."
8. The current sports teams are still fresh, and were flooded with players. Both the basketball and baseball teams signed on too many players and in turn wasted dubious amounts of scholarship money for athletes to sit the bench. Now I'm sure both of these teams will be much better next year, and settle into the groove of being University teams, wouldn't it be wise to actually give the athletic program time to iron things out rather than bring in a football team? If SHU insists on adding major sports teams every year, things are going to get extremely messy.
7. It takes a boat-load of money to get a football team off and running. First off, you will have to buy jerseys, and insanely expensive equipment. Helmets, pads, gatorade buckets to dump on the coaches. Not only that, but they will have to spend a good deal of money on this new football coach (which they already have), who is going to try and put together our new rag-tag bunch of jocks.
6. Hey, doesn't having a football team require, oh I don't know, a football FIELD? I have heard that SHU might be taking over Greensburg/Salem's field downtown, which I suppose would suffice. But renovating that will cost a good deal of money, and then SHU will eventually want to have a practice field on campus, which will require more money. What about training facilities? Do you really think that the SHU Football players will be allowed to practice at St. Vincent's like the Steelers? I think not.
5. SHU's goal (as stated in the March 04 issue of the Setonian) is to get 2000 kids on campus. They plan on doing this by using the football team as a major recruiting tool. But there are other, more beneficial ways to get kids on campus. For one, lowering the tuition (which we all know won't happen). There is always offering more majors. SHU is thinking about adding one, maybe two more over the next two years. That's fine and dandy, but if they would add more professors and create some more interesting and in-demand majors, that would bring more folk to this place. Of course, making things like Sullivan and Havey look nicer wouldn't hurt either.
4. Speaking of recruiting more people. If SHU plans on getting upwards of 2000 kids on campus, wouldn't it be wise to use the allotted "sweet football cash" to fix the residence and parking situations. The dorms are already over-crowded and upping the enrollment next year is going to make things worse. Don't think the problem will be rectified by the addition of this new dorm. They will need at least another on top of that, as well as a totally new parking lot. As of right now, I'm under the idea that these things, if they are to ever occur, won't happen for at least two years.
3. SHU claims to have just as many academic plans as they do sports plans. And yet, these plans (as once again stated in the March issue of the Setonian) don't seem to really be taking effect until years from now. And the immediate ones, like the honors program and graduate studies, have no bearing on my whatsoever. Why should I care if they are reconfiguring programs that don't even involve me? Things like better computer labs, nicer dorms, better Sullivan, and hell, even sprinklers in Havey would be certainly welcomed over 40 stinky football players.
2. Seton Hill Football stands no chance of actually being good. Yeah, SHU can throw tons of money at it and hope to be decent. But really, when it comes down to it, what will it matter? They won't be competing in the NCAA, and the NAIA is peanuts. It would take many many years for this team to get off the ground and actually compete with the other teams in the area.
1. The ratio of male athletes to non-athletes will widen to a ridiculous length. As it is right now, there are only a handful of total non-athletes around. Pure liberal arts kids. The rest play a sport. This will be worsened by the football players, which will create a wide gap and alienate kids that just want to play guitar and draw pictures. If you want to totally outlaw the very essence of a liberal arts college, then go right ahead and bring on the jocks.
So those are my reasons, and I plan on sticking to them. I had mixed feelings today when they announced during lunch that there would be a football team next year. At first I was sickened by the thought, and then my heart was warmed by the loud "BOO"s that came from the dining audience. People were booing the idea of another sports team on campus, and I was glad.
I know nothing I say on this simple blog will change the ideas of this administration. But just wait... I can't wait to say "I told you so" when I'm a junior.
Posted by MikeRubino at March 24, 2004 1:33 AM