By Kyle Jorrey
Sports Editor
The tradition of Midnight Madness began less than 10 years ago at Pepperdine with Lorenzo Romar, the head coach of the men’s basketball team between 1997 and 1999. Romar brought the collegiate basketball tradition with him from UCLA, which, like so many other universities across the nation, kicked off their basketball seasons with a late-night gala to celebrate the team and gain support for the upcoming year.
Since its beginnings, Pepperdine’s tradition of Midnight Madness has been a huge success with students and the community, attracting more than 2,000 attendees for the one-night event. It has traditionally featured loud music, free food, celebrity appearances and, most important, both the men’s and women’s basketball teams. This year, though, things went differently.
The event, renamed “Madness Reloaded,” was held two weeks before the start of the season, ended at midnight and featured only a select few members of each team. Though the pre-Madness village was vastly improved, the event itself, according to students, fell far short of years past.
In the end, some students were left asking why, and wondering if Midnight Madness as they knew it would return.
According to the three groups that handled the event — SGA, Student Activities, and the Athletic Department — that answer is yes, at least for now.
This year’s unusual circumstances were the result of unlucky scheduling. The traditional night for Midnight Madness, the start of the college basketball season, fell on Oct. 17, which conflicted with Pepperdine’s faculty conference and the student’s only three-day weekend of the semester.
In years past, the event has been scheduled during Parent’s Weekend to boost numbers, but because of the faculty conference, its scheduled date also had to be changed.
One of the first administrators to notice the conflict was Athletic Director Dr. John Watson.
“I immediately wrote to the academic administration and notified them of the conflict, but because of contracts they had with hotels, they said it was unfortunate, but regrettably, we had to move on,” Watson said.
Soon thereafter, a meeting was set up with Watson, SGA President Jason Palmer and members of Student Activities to discuss the issue. While at first it looked like Midnight Madness would be cancelled, a strong push by Palmer help keep the event alive, but only in a different form.
“We thought if we kept it on the 17th, with the three-day weekend and without Parent’s Weekend, then no one would be around to attend,” Palmer said. “An event that usually has 2,000 or 3,000 would have 400. Dr. Watson also said if we had it on the 17th we wouldn’t have the support of athletics. So everyone decided it would be best to jump it up two weekends, have the same amount of people, and hopefully then it would be successful.”
But unfortunately the new date meant no basketball teams. Because of NCAA rules outlawing four or more players to be on the floor at the same time with a coach and a basketball, both teams could not attend in full.
This left junior Programming Board Director Jimmy Hutcheson, who was put in charge of the event a month before when the Special Events chair stepped down, with a difficult task. How do you put together an event meant to highlight the basketball program without the teams? To makes this even harder, athletics, which traditionally books celebrities for the event, came up empty.
“The show did not meet my expectations,” Hutcheson said. “ There was a lack of synergy within SGA. Athletics booked no celebrities this year and didn’t tell us until the week of the show… I did the best I could in the three short days that I had to pull them together. No matter what, students always want bigger celebs. We did the best we could with the resources that we had.”
Watson explained the challenge of getting celebrities to make an “off the cuff,” or free of charge, appearance.
“In years past, we’ve been able to secure the celebrities 48 hours before Midnight Madness, now the spectator expects it,” Watson said. “Those are pretty high expectations given how informal the arrangement is. This year we had some contacts, we just couldn’t get anyone to commit.”
According to Student Activities Coordinator Michael Houston, though the money for the event comes nearly all from the SGA budget, Midnight Madness has always been a collaborative effort between the three offices. But this year, because of the scheduling conflict, athletics could not be a part.
“All of these offices have to come together to make it happen, it is a collaborative effort and each office has a critical role. If any one of these legs are missing, then it just doesn’t work out like it is supposed to.”
Despite student concerns over the future of Midnight Madness, Houston and Watson both assured that there are no plans to do away with the event. But both agreed, some changes might need to be made.
“One of the biggest negatives is the cost,” Houston said. “Two years ago I think the cost was $23,000, this year it was $26,000, and I remember in year’s past it has been over $30,000…. Midnight Madness is cash cow … I think something has to be done to make the cost more reasonable.”
Watson said that though he supports the focus and enthusiasm of Midnight Madness, and said the event is still a great way to highlight student achievement and entertain a crowd, it does little to boost attendance during the first two months of the basketball season.
“If the hype of the event is intended to boost athletic attendance and build school spirit, than that spirit diminishes quickly,” Watson said.
Generally, the athletic director explained, crowds don’t start show up until January, after the Christmas Break.
Watson proposed that the money might be better spent elsewhere.
“If you took that same money you spend for one night of entertainment to entertain students at our televised home basketball games, you’d create a tremendous environment for four or five games,” Watson said. He explained the money could be used for professional half-time shows, product giveaways, a DJ and other things.
Nationally, the trend of Midnight Madness is declining since its height of popularity in the mid-90s. Even UCLA officials don’t schedule the event anymore.
“A lot of people don’t know this, but the Midnight Madness trend is declining,” Houston said. “It reached its height in the mid-90s and now some schools, even bigger programs, are doing away with it because of the high cost to put it on.”
But for now, Midnight Madness is scheduled for its traditional evening in 2004, and won’t be going the way of ex-coach Romar. According to SGA and Student Activities, despite its cons, for now, students want it left right there.
“I have attended in year’s past. I hope the event will continue to be a Pepperdine University tradition in one form or another,” Hutcheson said.
Houston agreed.
“I still think it’s a great community event, probably the biggest community event we have on campus,” Houston said. “And that adds a lot of fuel in favor of keeping it around.”
October 23, 2003