Wayne Viener – Columbia, SC –
Culture in sports – how “we” do things and how “we” compete and what “our” values are.
You can replace the words in quotations with the name of your team or school. The result is the same.
All of that talk is for in the building perspective. It is what the team is telling you.
What about what the community is telling the teams and fans?
At the universities of Georgia, South Carolina, and North Dakota State the message I get from the students, fans, community and so on is – We are behind you.
In touring the campuses, the football team is a big deal. In walking the town, the football team is a big deal. Eating lunch or reading the newspaper, again the football team is a big deal.
For schools that I have visited on game day, Nebraska, Iowa, Penn State – football is a big deal in that society. Events in one’s life are planned around the football schedule.
The city, county, businesses and the state are all in. You need that support to win or winning brought on the support and drives the tradition.
However it happened, football is at the root of experience in these college communities.
This is not the case in College Park. As it has been discussed so many times, there is a lot to do between Baltimore and Washington. You can see that as a challenge, a reason or an excuse for why the Terps don’t pack’em in for football. Or why the same is happening for hoops. In fact, the only program that has real sellout crowds anymore is soccer. How strange is that?
So what does this mean for Maryland? In short, the goal is to be competitive on the field. An 8-4 season is good. Setting the bar to be at least 8-4 or 7-5 every year is the attainable goal. Other universities may have the national championship on their radar. For Maryland, please just get to an even keel. A just above average program will put a good number of fannies in the seats for football. The basketball bar is a little higher. If the current team does not do well, there will be tons of empty seats. Back to football…
It is possible that the Terps land a good coach. He goes 8-4 for a few years and is lauded as a hero.
It is also possible that Maryland football is not a good fit for this conference. I was here for the long dead period between the 1990 WeedEater Bowl and the 2002 Orange Bowl. That was a winter of 2 win seasons. Maybe “Winter is Coming” and it could be a long one.