Division 1 Sports and Your College Experience

In another thread I criticized Bama fans for crowding the streets after their win and stated that I went to a rather large university (over 20,000 on campus) but no D1 sports.

Did D1 sports really enhance your college experience and make you even fonder of your alma mater? Is it worth it?

I mean without that, I loved my college years, met great people, was academically challenged, got to study a huge breadth of subjects (engineering, economics, children's lit, Asian American studies, textiles and clothing, French and Mandarin.), enjoyed dancing and parties, met great people and made friends from different backgrounds.

Your thoughts?

 

Yes, and I went to a mid major. Saturday's together at football game, sneaking booze in. Listen to the band and going uptown. Hockey games that often got raucous, basketball games with the occasional national upset. And plus I cut my teeth covering those sports. So yes 100% enhanced my college life.

 

I thought it added to the experience, especially as someone writing for my college newspaper and doing some freelancing work. It was interesting to go back and forth between being the only media presence at some events to being part of a very large crowd that included national broadcasters for others.

 

Hell, yeah. Went to USC for 2-1/2 years. Beat UCLA 3 times, beat Notre Dame 2 of 3 (both wins were epic), won 2 of 3 Rose Bowls. Won 2 national championships. Game day at the Coliseum was amazing. Basketball good, not great. Baseball won national championships every year. Writing for the school paper provided chances to get to know future pro stars and cover big games.
Had some interesting classes, especially photography.
I wish I had gone there for 4 years, but junior college was automatic since it was walking distance from home.

 

Hell yes, it did. It's really my only connection left to Virginia Tech other than talking to fellow alums who worked for the student paper. Shit, we stormed the court for winning on a buzzer beater in the NIT. (Apologies if I nearly kicked Moddy in the head on the way down.) My engagement has dwindled over the years, especially with football, because I no longer really care to attend the games -- which is an all-day commitment from where I live. Also, covering my alma mater for a newspaper in 2012-13 really knocked my fandom down a notch. Just wasn't the same after that.

 

The Fifth Down was part of my college experience. And that Colorado fucker STILL isn't in the end zone.

 

Heck yes! In fact, if you ask my parents, they'll say I picked my alma mater based on the football team rather than it being the best school for me. Granted, the team was coming off its most successful season in ions. Other universities had J-schools, but I still made the most of it. My alma mater's school paper was strong — and I got to learn on the fly. My only regret is I didn't take some business/marketing classes. It would've helped me in my post-journalism career more. Sadly, my alma mater's football team didn't really capitalize on that one season. My freshman year they had a losing season haha.

 

It depends, I guess.

Fresno State's broadcast school didn't even have a working radio station in 1976. You could "practice" in a studio and take a tape recorder to sports events, but there was no feedback. That didn't stop several people I know from making a career in the Valley, but that was sort of the idea: You'd land in Modesto, Merced, Visalia, Bakersfield and perhaps even move up to Fresno at some point. That wasn't my dream, so the school wasn't that great a fit for me.

With football and basketball now on campus, and the school quite a bit larger than 40 years ago, I'm guessing the facilities and faculty is also improved. But it's still ... Fresno.

On the other hand, Florida in 1976 had an on-campus AM Top 40 station (which was also the flagship of the football/basketball network), a 50,000-watt FM and a PBS TV station with weekday evening news, all positions paid and subject to interviews and management reviews. It was as close to "taking a test drive" in the industry as you could get.

But there were definite drawbacks to being at a huge state university. For example, the football and basketball radio gigs were staffed by professional full-timers, so in order to get realistic air checks, I had to do high school football PBP at a country AM station in Starke. And for baseball, we had six announcers on a rotation, with each of us getting one weekend road trip each.

Some of the people I worked with at UF went on to do well. Larry Vettel worked for Sunshine Network. Chuck Cooperstein has been with the Mavs for a long time. David Johnson has been evening anchor in Pittsburgh for three decades. Others went into station management (F---IN' SUITS!). David Lowe IV, who started a 10-watt radio station in his dorm room, went to law school and now sells luxury yachts as a hobby.

UF is even better now, in that it offers an actual sports broadcasting major. Maybe the classes hopefully teach you how to sell your own ads to make money!

The Gators were 0-10-1 in football and 3-24 in basketball during my senior year. It didn't make the experience any less valuable. It just prepared me for the Lions and the 2003 Tigers.

 

I went to one of those super-fringe but technically Division I schools. There were some token attempts to get a real student section going because that's what a Real School would do, but it didn't draw much attention. We were too busy with the newspaper 95% of the time, but a couple of times my circle of friends managed to put together a road trip for an important game for our I-AA football team.

I think, in general, we are the wrong people to be decrying people's irrational attachment to sports teams that do not directly impact their lives. Without that emotional weirdness, sports journalism would not exist.

 

Going to games with friends in college, and having that continue to be a thread in a relationship that continues today is probably the main thing. Its harder to keep track of how the history department is doing - sure they'll send out a newsletter asking for donations and tell you how fabulous they are, but they won't tell you that their rankings have fallen in the toilet in the last couple of years.

 

I mean, Duke/Carolina basketball...

 

I think San Jose State football has been more fun now that I am out of school. I think it's part school pride and part just being hipster in a market with the Niners, Stanford and Cal. When I went, they couldn't give tickets away. Do have a funny story of a buddy getting kicked out of a game, but I'll save that for another time.

In some places, without a real pro team to follow, football is everything. Was talking to a guy from Arkansas one night and one of his first questions was which college football team I follow. You don't ask that question in California. It's just different.