I want to reprise something I first wrote a couple of years ago after some particularly rough weekends in the sportsmanship department:
“Ladies and gentlemen, the NCAA promotes good sportsmanship by student-athletes, coaches and spectators. We request your cooperation by supporting the participants and officials in a positive manner. Profanity, racial, or sexist comments, or other intimidating actions directed at officials, student-athletes, coaches or team representatives will not be tolerated and are grounds for removal from the site of competition. Also, the consumption or possession of alcoholic beverages at the site of competition is prohibited.â€
I’ve heard this so many times in the past decade or so it rolls off the tongue (or fingers) in a flash. But it often seems like there are some fans who need a reminder. This remains on the minds of decision makers as we come to the postseason.
Consider this, fans, especially you students out there. These are big games, no doubt, and it’s great to get excited about them, but these players do not deserve your abuse. A Division III football player gets no special treatment above and beyond what you get. They’re not on scholarship, don’t get special dining halls or treatment in the classroom (in fact, you can count on some professors being harder on football players than on the rest of the class).
I would be in favor of immediately kicking anyone out of the stadium who is in violation of the sportsmanship agreement. So what if you paid $5, $8, whatever to be there? Act like a grownup, since that’s what you allegedly are.
If you need to get all liquored up in order to enjoy a football game, stay home. The football should be reason enough. If you’re of legal age, there’s plenty of time to drink after the game — that’s one of the benefits of a noon kickoff.
On a related note, I was heartened to visit a Middle Atlantic Conference facility for the first time in 2007 and see the conference’s code of conduct posted prominently. Good work, MAC, welcome aboard. Be loud, proud and positive.
Amen.
Something that should be at every statidum and in every program
“If you need to get all liquored up in order to enjoy a football game, stay home. The football should be reason enough.”
Agreed.
Please support your team without vulgarity. It is a family show. This is division 3 football! “It ain’t intramurals!” I had always been embarrassed by our student section “cheers”. I hope they have come to understand that we do not play in Camp Randall. Go Hawks, beat Cap.
This is a no-brainer. Cheer, don’t jeer.
Very well said. On another note about fan behavior, can someone tell me if the no artifical noise maker during games is an NCAA rule. The reason I ask is I am student at UMHB and proud member of the Couch Cru. For those of you who don’t know, we bang on 50-gallon steel barrells with baseball bats to create noise in an attempt to bug the other teams offense. We do this each home game and as many aways games as possible and it seems to have some affect on the opponents. However come playoff time, we are told we can no longer do that. Doesn’t that take away some of the home field advantage that the team earned in the season? And if it wrong during playoff game, why isn’t wrong during the rest of the season?
That is correct, it is an NCAA rule.
The NCAA doesn’t take jurisdiction over regular season games. Those rules are left to the conference. That’s why some leagues restrict the number of players that can travel, or can dress for a game, etc. They may also restrict noisemakers. But once the playoffs start, the games are played under the NCAA’s ground rules, including a neutral public address announcer, restricted sideline access, 52 players on each side dressed, and no artificial noisemakers.
It seems to me, though, that that rule is only enforced if the opposing team says something about it.
For example at Whitewater we have the cannon guy and he was present at every home playoff game for the two years previous to this. That is until last year when Wesley asked for him to not be there (I believe that is what was said) and as it ended up, the NCAA enforced the rule and he could not fire the cannon. That was also the first game that the cops at the gates were stopping artificial noise makers.
But like I said, he was at the previous games and it wasn’t until this game that something was said.
As a disclaimer, I feel I should note that he only fires it off after scores and after a win, so it’s not like he was shooting it off while the other team was trying to run a play.
That’s just out little experience with this rule, but now that you bring it up on here it will be interesting to see if he is allowed to be there on Saturday.
Sometimes schools don’t read the handbook and don’t enforce the rules until they are called on it, yes, that’s true.
Today’s game was also the first time that I had to toss my bottle of water when entering UWW’s Perkins Stadium.
For the record,
I hear it pretty much across the country and can remember it in my playing days 10+ years ago. In my experience, it’s usually limited to a few knucklehead loudmouths, who stand out much more on the visitor’s sideline in a semi-empty D3 stadium or one where you can walk up to the dotted line four yards from the field and insult a player’s Mom. Although there are parents, even Moms, who do the loudmouth thing.
It doesn’t seem to be in epidemic proportions, in my opinion, it’s almost without exception a few people making fools of themselves. The nice, cool, well-behaved at D3 games far outnumber those who cross the line, in my opinion. In some weeks at some places, there are no problems at all.