2008 Woodie Awards
NCAA Football should be more than just a question; it is an answer
STAFF EDITORIAL
Issue date: 9/24/07 Section: Opinion
- Page 1 of 1
THE STUDENT BODY of the University of South Alabama may know as early as this week whether the question of NCAA Football at our university will be officially reopened. As of this moment, the administration is exploring the question of reopening the question, but things are expected to move fast, if some important details can be worked out in the coming days.
Hopefully, the administration was not merely bluffing this week in attempt to quiet a leaked plan at a student protest. Hopefully, the administration is serious this time.
We have heard the excuses time and time again. They range from Mobile will not support a team to the fact that any team in southern Alabama will be constantly overshadowed by Alabama and Auburn, from cost to logistics and everything in between.
Sure, Mobile has a history of not supporting much of any kind of large-scale sport or entertainment endeavor, but this is college football. People in southern Alabama live, breathe and die by the sport. College football has become a sort of quasi-religion in our great state.
Of course, the big college football names in our state are and will probably remain Alabama and Auburn, but ask the other 10 football programs in the state if that has stopped them from enjoying football on their campus.
Of course there are the money and logistics issues. We don't have a stadium, and football costs a lot of money.
Well, Mobile does have a stadium, and Ladd Peebles Stadium should work just fine, and considering that Mayor Sam Jones is coming fresh off a victory of grabbing a significant tax base in West Mobile, he should have no problems offering the University incentives, including the use of Ladd Stadium, for our football program. The upshot for the city is such a program can bring pride to the city, and regular college football games at Ladd Stadium will help interject life into the neighborhoods surrounding Ladd.
The upshots for the University are too many to name.
Remember, in the coming weeks, when the University asks the student body to put their money where their mouths are, the students and alumni are going to be expected to put up or shut up.
Hopefully, the administration was not merely bluffing this week in attempt to quiet a leaked plan at a student protest. Hopefully, the administration is serious this time.
We have heard the excuses time and time again. They range from Mobile will not support a team to the fact that any team in southern Alabama will be constantly overshadowed by Alabama and Auburn, from cost to logistics and everything in between.
Sure, Mobile has a history of not supporting much of any kind of large-scale sport or entertainment endeavor, but this is college football. People in southern Alabama live, breathe and die by the sport. College football has become a sort of quasi-religion in our great state.
Of course, the big college football names in our state are and will probably remain Alabama and Auburn, but ask the other 10 football programs in the state if that has stopped them from enjoying football on their campus.
Of course there are the money and logistics issues. We don't have a stadium, and football costs a lot of money.
Well, Mobile does have a stadium, and Ladd Peebles Stadium should work just fine, and considering that Mayor Sam Jones is coming fresh off a victory of grabbing a significant tax base in West Mobile, he should have no problems offering the University incentives, including the use of Ladd Stadium, for our football program. The upshot for the city is such a program can bring pride to the city, and regular college football games at Ladd Stadium will help interject life into the neighborhoods surrounding Ladd.
The upshots for the University are too many to name.
Remember, in the coming weeks, when the University asks the student body to put their money where their mouths are, the students and alumni are going to be expected to put up or shut up.
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