Losing College Football

As I write this blog post, the football team of my employer and first alma mater, Bowling Green State University, is beginning its Mid-American Conference championship contest against Northern Illinois University.  Meanwhile, tomorrow, the football teams of my other two alma maters – Michigan State University and Arizona State University – will play in the Big Ten and Pac-12 Championship games, respectively.  In previous years – before the 2012 college football season – this would have been a really exciting weekend for me, as I would have been able to see all three of my alma maters – and by virtue of that, the three teams I most rooted for in college football – play for conference championships.  I’m pretty sure that’s never been the case before, and it’s certainly never been the case with them playing at such high levels, particularly Michigan State, which is 11-1 heading into its contest against Ohio State.

Of course, if you’ve read this blog in the past, you know that this isn’t like years before 2012 because in 2012 I gave up college football.  So, I will be watching none of these games, and I will be rooting for none of these teams.  Subconsciously, I can still feel some internal rooting, and I can still feel the urge to watch, which is telling.  It means that I would like to watch these games and root for my teams.  Indeed, that I even know the situations in which these teams find themselves demonstrates that even though I’m not watching college football, I’m still following news of it enough to be aware of what’s generally happening.  And that’s true.  I do occasionally read news about it or look at standings or rankings.  It’s still hard not to watch sometimes.  And that’s unfortunate because I think there can be a place for football at college – though I am leaving aside important questions about the violence of the game in saying that – and if football had what I felt was an appropriate place in the organizational structure, I probably would still watch and pay more attention.  But right now, I can’t, and interestingly enough, a significant juxtaposition today demonstrates exactly why I have and maintain that commitment.

Today, several hours before BGSU’s football game kicked off, the Board of Trustees of the university held one of their regular meetings.  Over 100 faculty members attended the meeting holding signs and silently protesting the cutting of more than 30 faculty (on top of cuts of more than 70 faculty positions last May) on which the university has recently acted, effective this coming May.  More faculty members would have filled the room, but reports indicate that police officers had been stationed at the entrance and denied further admission of peacefully demonstrating faculty to the open-to-the-public meeting.

The juxtaposition here is that, amid budgetary concerns, while the university continues to pour money into a football program that costs university stakeholders money every year, the university’s administration cuts faculty to save money.  While administrators have claimed that this will not affect education at BGSU, I’m not alone in having a very hard time trying to figure out how the loss of more than 100 faculty lines (and even if we accept the university’s counterclaim about the addition of around 36 new tenure-track positions between last year and this year, we’re still at around 70 faculty lines lost) won’t affect education at the university. That just seems mathematically and logistically impossible. 

The university continues to prioritize football over faculty (and the education of the students whom those faculty teach), and that, to me, is not consistent with the mission of an educational institution.  If the situation differed, if football wasn’t outweighing faculty as it is, and if we didn’t have to choose one over the other, I would be much more willing to support the football team like I did before 2012.  But the university is making choices, and they’re putting me and other stakeholders into the position of having to making choices as well.  I’m simply not going to choose football over my colleagues and the education of the students who attend the place that I work and that I went to school.  So, as much as I find myself wanting to watch and follow football again, I can’t.  Whether they win or lose tonight’s football game, BGSU has already lost too much this football season.  And they’re not alone among colleges and universities.