Football isn’t our only sport, Bronco Nation
Main Feature, Opinion, Opinion Main Feature, Sports Thursday, February 2nd, 2012
Why is the student section empty when there isn't a flash mob? (Cody Finney/ The Arbiter)
Bronco Nation talks the talk when it comes to the best fan base in NCAA Division I sports, but doesn’t walk the walk. And the students are the weakest link.
When members of Bronco Nation mention Boise State, it’s all about football. It’s as if we don’t have basketball, tennis, wrestling, gymnastic or a handful of other teams.
Yes, football is our claim to fame. Simply having the “Smurf Turf” attracts fans and prospective students around the nation. This is great, but there’s more to our athletics than football.
Ten years ago, basketball was the sport to follow at Boise State. Now, people act as if going to a basketball game at Taco Bell Arena is like going to a foreign country. The arena can hold 12,380 people, but on average, Bronco Nation can’t even fill a third of the seats. And the student section, referred to as the Corral, hardly even shows up.
“We play really good teams in a great conference. That alone should get students to show up,” said Corral President Matt Lucich, a senior history major. “Some games we have some of the best (fans) in the country. Other games, it’s 15 of us there.”
Last week’s game was the only game the Corral made an impact on this year when we took on UNLV, but it wasn’t because UNLV was ranked. It was because the Corral administration offered free pizza and soda an hour before the game and orchestrated a flash mob set to happen with approximately eight minutes left of the first half.
“Boise State students have proven two things,” Tyler Pagel, a senior communication major, said. “One being that when they want to, we can have a great home atmosphere to support our basketball team. They also have proven it takes free food and/or a flash mob to get them there.”
The Corral’s flash mob made national publications and everyone had a blast at that game, Pagel and Lucich added.
With that type of coverage and the enthusiasm of the students, surely there would have been a comparable turnout for the home game last Saturday when they played Wyoming, right?
“After Wednesday, us administrators were expecting the excitement to carry over to the Wyoming game (Saturday) and we were very disappointed to see a poor showing by the Corral,” said Corral Treasurer Max Forkner, a junior public relations major. “It kind of makes us look stupid in the nation’s eyes when they make a big deal about how awesome our student section is, and then no one follows up.”
It doesn’t make sense that students don’t attend basketball games, or any sporting event short of football for that matter.
They have everything a college student could ask for from the university when it comes to sports.
A valid student ID gets students free admission to all sporting events. All they have to do is walk up to Taco Bell Arena on game day, show their ID for their ticket, and enter the arena. So, money isn’t an issue.
The 2,300 students who live on campus are within a 10-minute walking distance to all the sporting venues. Approximately 850 of those students could throw a rock and hit the arena from their dorm room. So, location isn’t an issue.
If half of the students living in Taylor, Keiser, Chaffee, Driscoll and Morrison Halls attended every basketball game, there would be a full student section. While supporting our team, they would also be having fun and creating an intimidating atmosphere for the opposing team.
“When we have a larger crowd at games, it makes us play better and harder. We love the support,” said Drew Wiley, a junior English major and basketball player for Boise State. “It gives us that extra belief that we need to win and it makes me feel like I have something and someone to play for.”
Being a fan isn’t about the fan; it’s about lending support to the players and coaches. Those players are peers who need support from their fellow students.
“We just need students to show up willing to have fun and support the team in hopes, once they have an awesome time, they will continue to come back,” Pagel said.
Students tend to use excuses such as having too much homework and early morning classes for not attending games. A basketball game ends at 10:30 p.m. at the latest, which is relatively early for college students.
The students who use homework as an excuse could surrender the intermittent time wasted on Facebook to do something meaningful for others and probably also have fun along the way.
Even though Bronco Nation claims to be some of the best fans around, it fails to accomplish the little things.
Students left football games when it was too cold, when the Broncos were winning by 14 or more or when the starting quarterback was taken out for the rest of the game.
After the heartbreaking loss to TCU in November, students didn’t use all of the 5,000 allotted tickets for the last home game of the football season.
On Dec. 3, there were 34,000-plus people in attendance for football, but only 5,342 of those fans came to the arena afterward for their free admission to the basketball game against Indiana State.
And the largest turnout for men’s basketball this year wasn’t even when Boise State played UNLV, arguably the best team on our schedule. Instead, it was against Air Force the Saturday before spring classes began.
Football isn’t the only sport at Boise State, even though the majority of sports fans act that way. The fan season shouldn’t end when the last football is snapped. It should continue to cheer on the spring sports.
There is still plenty of time to turn this around with four men’s basketball games left, three women’s basketball games, 12 men’s tennis matches and other spring sports to look forward to. Students need to stop being fair-weather fans and realize there is more than just football to support. A student should be the fan who’s there from kick-off or tip-off until the game clock hits 0:00, regardless of score, record or opponent.
We, the students, need to do a better job supporting all of the athletes who represent Boise State and we can start by being at Taco Bell Arena on Saturday at 2 p.m. to cheer on men’s basketball as they take on New Mexico.
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Posted by tonymadonna on Feb 2 2012. Filed under Main Feature, Opinion, Opinion Main Feature, Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
This article is terrible… Is the basketball team a charity or a source of entertainment? I've been to games this year against NIU, Drake, Fresno State, Indiana State, Idaho, Airforce, Wyoming but I go to not only support the team but because I love the sport. Most of Bronco Nation doesn't really care much for basketball (NBA or NCAA). You ever been to a Stampede game in Century Link Arena? Boise is not a basketball town. Instead of trying to make this team a charity and guilt people I think you need to get used to it or show Boise what it's missing. Guilt trips aren't going to work and I think they'll actually hurt.
Despite how Bronco Nation is being portrayed by the local media, I think residents of the City of Boise genuinely want to be a basketball town. A large part of the problem is that the MBB team hasn't really given us much to get excited about. Can you really blame people for having trouble dragging themselves to watch a game where their team has a losing record and is ranked 8th in the MWC. Things have improved over the last few years, but Boise needs something that the fans can get excited over. All it would take is one big national win (SDSU or UNLV would have been good enough) and then a short winning streak before and after those games. If that happened, you would probably begin to see a large increase in attendance. They've probably lost their shot at getting anything serious going this year, but if they can start strong next year and win a big game or two, Bronco Nation will fill TBA.
If winning was all they needed where were they last year? 21-12 hosting a post season tournament game and not even 2700 people show up! Really? gtfoy. The point he is trying to make is students, at least, should be going just because. It's not like there is anything else going on. All they are doing is sitting on facebook. You know, I know it, and they know it. Oh, some might be at the rec. They should just be there supporting them. There have been plenty of average at best seasons in the past where attendance was well above where it it now.
Go bang on every door in the dorms an hour before gameday, hooting and hollaring. Get everyone to join in. In otherwords, do something about it! Stop whining about attendance. And it's true, guilting students to go to athletic events does not work… It's not just about winning, if it was then wrestling would have had monster crowds over the past several years. It's about entertainment value. Make it fun for the students or they're not going to show. Plain and simple
it IS fun when people go! it's less fun when there are 20ppl there. The more students the more fun it is. Ask anyone that went to the UNLV game. Even though we lost it was a blast. Why? because the student section was full! It really shouldn't be that difficult. I don't think anyone is whining about it. We're simply stating that overall BSU fans suck. At least, that's my position. Like the article says. they talk the talk but fail to walk the walk.
Are you saying BSU fans claim to be the best basketball fans? I don't think I've EVER heard that. Football is a different story, we are amazing fans.
no. no one said that at all. and Boise has a long way to go when it comes to football too. But, I wouldn't expect you to understand that concept either.
Here's a novel idea, sports and entertainment at colleges should stop complaining and start realizing that colleges are EDUCATIONAL institutions. Try focusing on learning instead of whining because people don't give you or your sport enough attention. Call mommy, maybe she'll Facebook message you a hug, and tell you how special you are.