Ten weeks ago I posed a thought to the Pepperdine community about the embarrassingly low attendance at athletic events. The last paragraph of the column went something like this: “This could be the year that we stop hiding behind a facade of fake school spirit fueled by the free T-shirts and Chipotle burrito card handouts at home games. Whether we want to admit it or not our school spirit is lacking. And since I don’t see a football team anywhere in our near future it’s up to Pepperdine students to change that. The lack of a football team may not be all bad because even though we don’t have a football team unlike USC we can at least say we have our pride. Go Waves!”
Now that we have come to the end of our fall semester of Pepperdine sporting events I think this would be a good time to take a look at the continued lack of school spirit and the reasons for the insurmountable apathy from the student body regarding Pepperdine Athletics.
It would be easy to blame the mediocre success rate of the majority of our teams— but that would be too easy. When it comes down to it who isn’t to say the lack of fan support is partially responsible for dismal match outcomes? Anyone who has been an athlete knows the importance of fan support and it’s safe to say our athletes don’t have that.
Some might blame it on the fact that Pepperdine doesn’t have a football team. Everyone knows that most nationally recognized teams usually have a high-caliber football program. But I don’t think that’s the case either. Gonzaga and Portland for example are two schools within the WCC that like Pepperdine do not have a football team. They are also similar to Pepperdine in regard to their religious affiliations and the approximate size of their student body. These schools however have recognized athletic programs and invest significant resources into the marketing of their programs. I’m just guessing but that probably has something to do with the fan turnout at their games.
But rather than playing a pointless guessing game I’ll get straight to the point.
With all due respect to Pepperdine administration I will argue that they have failed to put a significant emphasis on the athletics program or even school spirit for that matter. At best students receive an occasional e-mail notifying them of an upcoming sporting event— and the biggest text on the page is usually something about a free giveaway whether it be food clothing or some other trivial item that may not even attract students in the first place. (Let’s be honest how many free T-shirts and Chipotle burritos can you receive before that stops being a motivating factor for attendance?)
So it all boils down to one simple question: If they don’t care why should we?
I find it hard to believe (or maybe I just don’t want to believe) that students at Pepperdine don’t care about sports— most people have participated in some sort of athletic event at some point during their lives and therefore I would argue most people would have a least an ounce of hidden enthusiasm for some sport or another. In fact intramural and club athletics are thriving on campus. Why don’t we care about our teams that are competing on a national scale?
But I’ll admit it. It’s hard to find the passion for sports if those running it don’t have it either. Look at it this way: If Obama only gave the illusion of interest in the United States how much do you think the rest of the population would really care? Chances are they wouldn’t even pretend to care. Of course I am not directly comparing Pepperdine Athletics to the White House but the idea remains the same— those involved with an organization (in this case the student body) are always a reflection of their leader.
So what was the point of this rant? There are multiple. In a perfect world this column would inspire action among those in charge. But since this isn’t a perfect world I guess all this column is doing is making a plea to Pepperdine students for more school spirit and less athletic apathy. I remain skeptical of whether or not it will work. After all that’s how the Athletic Department does it right?