Homecoming Weekend on high school and college campuses is time designated for students, faculty and alumni to show pride in their respective institutions. Though at times it shares the stage with other events, the Homecoming football game is generally one of the centerpieces of the festivities, where school spirit can be portrayed through a show of support for an athletic team.
This past Saturday and Sunday served as Northeastern’s Homecoming weekend. It was also parents’ weekend, when administration invites student’s guardians to visit campus and get a first-hand look at what life at Northeastern is like. So, with some families around campus clamoring for an affordable way to get the “Northeastern experience,” one would think that Parsons Field would have been packed to its 7,000 seat capacity for Saturday’s Homecoming game against Maine. Yet, the official attendance for Northeastern’s 20-14 loss was 4,340, leaving about 38 percent of the seats empty.
The article, “A team’s fate in question,” by Matt Foster and Ricky Thompson, was printed in the Oct. 22 edition of The News. For those of you who did not get to read the article, I’ll offer a synopsis here: by-and-large, Northeastern’s athletic program has never garnered the university much attention, nationally or even regionally. However, our new Athletics Director, Peter Roby, has expressed a desire to take the program from mediocrity to excellence, a sentiment initially expressed by President Joseph Aoun regarding the university as a whole. Since increasing the athletic department’s budget is impossible, the only means of providing more money for the various programs is to cut an existing one. Though no programs have been singled out, the football team seems like one of the frontrunners, given its large budget and recent lack of success.
In the article, Student Government Association President Joey Fiore argues against the removal of the football team, saying that he has heard rumors like this for years and that he is ready to fight them again, and that there could be hundreds or thousands of students who would support his cause. However, if these rumors have been persisting for years now, and if these students are so steadfast in their belief that a football team is an integral part of the Northeastern experience, then why were there 2,660 empty seats at our Homecoming game?
As a football fan and Northeastern student, I would thoroughly enjoy seeing our football program find success both on the field and in gaining community support. But those things have yet to happen, and many of our other teams, especially the higher-profile men’s hockey and basketball teams, continue to wallow in obscurity. Therefore, it is with reticence that I write these words: If the guillotine blade truly is hanging over our football program, I believe that it is time for us to cut the cord and let it fall.
– Jared Sugerman is a sophomore journalism major.
