- October 25th, 2013, 5:25 pm
#440343
Question #2: Do we have the fan support for an FBS team?
I attended the Coastal Carolina game and, as disappointed as I was with the outcome, I noted that 1) despite calls going out to the LU community to come out and help break the attendance record, we fell well short of the mark, and 2) thousands of students were gone before regulation play ended, and those that remained were pretty flat, an observation my son, also a student and a player in high school, noted. Chris Lang, who writes for the News and Advance, made the same observation:
“The great fan support at Liberty games is largely a myth, it seems. Sure, students show up for the social event at the beginning of the game. But when the stands on that side were half empty when the third quarter started, it just pounded home the point that some students are there to be seen, and they don’t give a lick about whether or not the football team succeeds. There are plenty of die-hard students, and they are to be commended. But when the team needed the crowd support the most at the end of the game, the stadium was pretty quiet. That’s the sort of culture the athletic department is fighting against. Student attendance is down across college football. It’s not just a problem at Liberty. I’m not a player, but if I saw the stands full and buzzing at the beginning of the game and came out after halftime to see half the stadium had bounced, I’d be a little deflated.”
It might be a chicken and egg conundrum – is the fan support lacking because the team isn’t doing as well as they’d like, or is the team floundering because the fans aren’t there to exhort them? If we can’t break an attendance record against our arch-rivals who come in undefeated and ranked higher nationally than any team in Big South history, and where a win would practically put us in the driver’s seat for sole possession of the Big South title and an automatic playoff bid – oh, and it’s Homecoming – what does that say about us?
- By Dalegarz1
- By cruzan_flame13