Student lack of attendance at today's football game

[OZZIE4DUKE]

For those of us at the game, we noticed that there were more DUMB members than general student body members in the student section today. Absolutely pitiful.

I just posted this OY.

Hey Duke Students - you missed one helluva football game today. Where were you? The team noticed you weren't there. What's your excuse? This is what your classmate Brett Huffman had to say about you on Facebook.

Duke's students are the worst fans in Division 1 football... I hate all of you so much... but i do love being a BRO, i do love AMERICA, and i do love WINNING

We Crusties saw you weren't there too. I hope you show up in force next Saturday. Another noon start. Don't get so sh** faced drunk on Friday night that you can't drag your sorry butts out of bed by 11 a.m. and get over to Wallace Wade Stadium.

[Ima Facultiwyfe]

EXACTLY!!!!! I'm so mad I could smoke a pickle!

The outstanding student athletes we have at Duke make us so proud and deserve the support of their fellow students. I doubt that many crazies would even show up in Cameron if they didn't stand a good chance of getting on TV. What a sorry bunch of losers.

It was sooo sad to watch the team give everything they had in the effort to pull out a win while having to listen to the UVA crowd and their fabulous band play loudly and enthusiastically after each and every down in our own stadium. Who is in charge of DUMB anyway? Hasn't anybody told them they are supposed to PLAY those horns and help the fans make some noise? I'd rather they just stay in the dorms and sleep it off like the rest of the students if they're going to be this kind of embarrassment to us all.

They're all just disgusting, bless their hearts.
Love, Ima
PS I guess as mod I'm going to have to get out of my LazyBoy and ban myself. Scratch that. One of you other guys should do just that before I bust a blood vessel.

[CathyCA]

There were more UVA students in the stands than there were Duke students. It was embarrassing.

I am disgusted with the arrogance of the current student body. Do they not want to show up to support a team unless it has won a national championship? The football team played with such heart today. It's a shame that their classmates weren't there to support them.

I did see a few basketball players at the football game. Thank you, gentlemen, for showing more class than the rest of the student body.

[Devil in the Blue Dress]

There were more UVA students in the stands than there were Duke students. It was embarrassing.

I am disgusted with the arrogance of the current student body. Do they not want to show up to support a team unless it has won a national championship? The football team played with such heart today. It's a shame that their classmates weren't there to support them.

I did see a few basketball players at the football game. Thank you, gentlemen, for showing more class than the rest of the student body.

Basketball managers were at the football game, too.

[Devil in the Blue Dress]

EXACTLY!!!!! I'm so mad I could smoke a pickle!

The outstanding student athletes we have at Duke make us so proud and deserve the support of their fellow students. I doubt that many crazies would even show up in Cameron if they didn't stand a good chance of getting on TV. What a sorry bunch of losers.

It was sooo sad to watch the team give everything they had in the effort to pull out a win while having to listen to the UVA crowd and their fabulous band play loudly and enthusiastically after each and every down in our own stadium. Who is in charge of DUMB anyway? Hasn't anybody told them they are supposed to PLAY those horns and help the fans make some noise? I'd rather they just stay in the dorms and sleep it off like the rest of the students if they're going to be this kind of embarrassment to us all.

They're all just disgusting, bless their hearts.
Love, Ima
PS I guess as mod I'm going to have to get out of my LazyBoy and ban myself. Scratch that. One of you other guys should do just that before I bust a blood vessel.

Part of the difficulty in hearing our band is that the guy in charge of the jumbotron pays no attention to when our band is playing. He turns on loud "music" that drowns out the band and sometimes the officials.

The marching band is part of the athletic department where the support is mild to tepid. That's another sermon.....

[Lavabe]

Of course the easy solution to improve attendance would be to remove the Wally Wade track, bring the stands closer to the field, and be sure to recruit a 6'5" quarterback who can bench press better than anyone on the team. ;)

[devildeac]

I don't have a solution but today's student attendance #s were embarrassing/disgusting.

[OZZIE4DUKE]

I don't have a solution but today's student attendance #s were embarrassing/disgusting.

As I understand it from reading "elsewhere", it's because of the campus culture. Or lack of it.

[devildeac]

I don't have a solution but today's student attendance #s were embarrassing/disgusting.

As I understand it from reading "elsewhere", it's because of the campus culture. Or lack of it.

I'm gonna guess that the University/athletic department should put an end to the Tailgate, which sounds just like it is an event to dress up in a silly ass costume and drink yourself silly and then leave about game time and return to your room.

[CathyCA]

I don't have a solution but today's student attendance #s were embarrassing/disgusting.

As I understand it from reading "elsewhere", it's because of the campus culture. Or lack of it.

I'm gonna guess that the University/athletic department should put an end to the Tailgate, which sounds just like it is an event to dress up in a silly ass costume and drink yourself silly and then leave about game time and return to your room.

There was one kid who was walking around the concourse today wearing a silly ass costume. It was a green leotard thing. And he had stuffed paper where his, um, equipment was in order to make himself appear more endowed. It was. . . silly.

[Lavabe]

Gulp. I'll be the contrarian.

I WAS one of those students who didn't attend when I was an undergrad, because in my first two years my GPA sucked, and I felt that attending such events wouldn't be the wisest move to raise my GPA. And believe it or not, I really didn't want to go on academic probation (and I was close to doing so). After that period, I didn't attend because I was doing research at the Primate Ctr on weekends. I'd hate to think that the athlete was talking about students such as what I was, or about students who do their volunteer work on Saturdays. Or other students who are working to pay for the education, and who may be working on Saturdays. Or taking MCAT/GRE/LSAT classes on Saturday. Or those who have their club activities on Saturdays as well. And yes, I have no doubt that a number of students partied too much the night before.

But when I read this line, the student athlete lost me completely:
"Duke's students are the worst fans in Division 1 football... I hate all of you so much."
There's NO justification for what appeared after the three dots.

Not one iota.

Although I appreciate and agree that more students should be in attendance, I don't think the best strategy is to have a student athlete berate or insult the students. Many have VERY legitimate reasons why they do not attend sports events.

Even in a practical sense, isn't there a better way to get the students to attend than to tell them you hate them?

It's the Coach or the AD who should address the lack of student participation.

[Lavabe]

There was one kid who was walking around the concourse today wearing a silly ass costume. It was a green leotard thing. And he had stuffed paper where his, um, equipment was in order to make himself appear more endowed. It was. . . silly.

Was he also wearing one of those green Duke shirts that were worn for one half of an NC State game in Cameron?

[CathyCA]

Gulp. I'll be the contrarian.

I WAS one of those students who didn't attend when I was an undergrad, because in my first two years my GPA sucked, and I felt that attending such events wouldn't be the wisest move to raise my GPA. And believe it or not, I really didn't want to go on academic probation (and I was close to doing so). After that period, I didn't attend because I was doing research at the Primate Ctr on weekends. I'd hate to think that the athlete was talking about students such as what I was, or about students who do their volunteer work on Saturdays. Or other students who are working to pay for the education, and who may be working on Saturdays. Or taking MCAT/GRE/LSAT classes on Saturday. Or those who have their club activities on Saturdays as well. And yes, I have no doubt that a number of students partied too much the night before.

But when I read this line, the student athlete lost me completely:
"Duke's students are the worst fans in Division 1 football... I hate all of you so much."
There's NO justification for what appeared after the three dots.

Not one iota.

Although I appreciate and agree that more students should be in attendance, I don't think the best strategy is to have a student athlete berate or insult the students. Many have VERY legitimate reasons why they do not attend sports events.

Even in a practical sense, isn't there a better way to get the students to attend than to tell them you hate them?

It's the Coach or the AD who should address the lack of student participation.

Point well taken.

But what about the HUNDREDS of students who dressed up in silly ass costumes to attend the student Tailgate who failed to wander over to Wally Wade? There simply is no excuse.

[CathyCA]

There was one kid who was walking around the concourse today wearing a silly ass costume. It was a green leotard thing. And he had stuffed paper where his, um, equipment was in order to make himself appear more endowed. It was. . . silly.

Was he also wearing one of those green Duke shirts that were worn for one half of an NC State game in Cameron?

No. He was wearing an all-over leotard. A green unitard. Like what a dancer would wear. Like this:

[Lavabe]

The costume thing is a failure. Flat out. I completely agree with CathyCA on that.

But the student's comments have ramifications when you consider that they can be used against Duke in recruiting. They can also be used against Cut when it comes time to evaluate him.

Horrible.

[Lavabe]

There was one kid who was walking around the concourse today wearing a silly ass costume. It was a green leotard thing. And he had stuffed paper where his, um, equipment was in order to make himself appear more endowed. It was. . . silly.

Was he also wearing one of those green Duke shirts that were worn for one half of an NC State game in Cameron?

No. He was wearing an all-over leotard. A green unitard. Like what a dancer would wear.

It didn't even have DUKE on it, huh?

[Lavabe]

There was one kid who was walking around the concourse today wearing a silly ass costume. It was a green leotard thing. And he had stuffed paper where his, um, equipment was in order to make himself appear more endowed. It was. . . silly.

Was he also wearing one of those green Duke shirts that were worn for one half of an NC State game in Cameron?

No. He was wearing an all-over leotard. A green unitard. Like what a dancer would wear.

Surely nothing like this would have happened under an Ozzie-led Athletic Directorship. ;)

[devildeac]

Gulp. I'll be the contrarian.

I WAS one of those students who didn't attend when I was an undergrad, because in my first two years my GPA sucked, and I felt that attending such events wouldn't be the wisest move to raise my GPA. And believe it or not, I really didn't want to go on academic probation (and I was close to doing so). After that period, I didn't attend because I was doing research at the Primate Ctr on weekends. I'd hate to think that the athlete was talking about students such as what I was, or about students who do their volunteer work on Saturdays. Or other students who are working to pay for the education, and who may be working on Saturdays. Or taking MCAT/GRE/LSAT classes on Saturday. Or those who have their club activities on Saturdays as well. And yes, I have no doubt that a number of students partied too much the night before.

But when I read this line, the student athlete lost me completely:
"Duke's students are the worst fans in Division 1 football... I hate all of you so much."
There's NO justification for what appeared after the three dots.

Not one iota.

Although I appreciate and agree that more students should be in attendance, I don't think the best strategy is to have a student athlete berate or insult the students. Many have VERY legitimate reasons why they do not attend sports events.

Even in a practical sense, isn't there a better way to get the students to attend than to tell them you hate them?

It's the Coach or the AD who should address the lack of student participation.

Point well taken.

But what about the HUNDREDS of students who dressed up in silly ass costumes to attend the student Tailgate who failed to wander over to Wally Wade? There simply is no excuse.

I think this is the major point of many of the folks who are appalled about student attendance at the FB games. They have the time to dress up like some total dipshit, spend a couple hours getting hammered across the street from WW and then head to the bushes or bathrooms, toss their cookies, head back to the dorm, sleep it off and then go to study. Hundreds of them. Hell, if 1000 students showed up out of the ~12K undergrad/grad students, that would be a helluva crowd and I think they would be highly appreciated. I'd guess there were 50 students there today. And I might be over-estimating that. 50. That is beyond pathetic. For a game in which we were a 1 point favorite. On our home field. Against a foe we had beaten for the last 2 years. A winnable game. Inexcusable.

[lawgrad91]

My seats are right next to the student section, and there were no students in their section, except for the band and a few random kids.

It seems like 2 years ago the Athletic Department gave out stuff to the students every game, and then gave prizes to the dorm or frat house (etc.) that had the most students in attendance. Anyone know why that was stopped? It seemed like there were tons of students in attendance then.

Having been a poor college student at Duke, I would think the student would do a lot for the possibility of free food, a Wii for their dorm (that is the gift I particularly remember), etc.

[Lavabe]

I believe we have a student member of CTN whose perspective might provide some insight, whether or not he attended.