Sportsmanship is a problem this year, as every year, in the realm of college football. Mix 1 part student, with another part pride, and two parts alcohol, and BAM! you get a nice hefty batch of unsporting behavior. While attending the Michigan State game in East Lansing this past weekend, I experienced these acts first hand. This is proof you dont need a winning record to be a jerk. I went with a large group of about 50, and on our way to the stadium, we encountered the standard heckling that you would expect at an away game. No sweat. Entering the stadium, we saw the Spartan Student section's attempt at a 'White Out.' An amazing thing when done correctly, (See: Penn State) but you can understand that not a lot of students are worrying about the game at this point in thier season. T minus 10 minutes or so to kickoff, the students start some chanting. A little 'Go Green, Go White' action, not to shabby. Pretty good respect for the student section (at least those who showed up) to give their team at least a sense of a home field advantage as half the stadium was blood red by this point. But alas, the respect did not last long as the student section started into a wonderful chant, the "F- Ohio" cheer. Mind you, this is all before kickoff. So the student section I was in were perfectly content with our almost assured win, so we sat back and said 'You stay classy, East Lansing.'
The game was played, a blowout was recorded, and by the 4th quarter the Spartan student section had all but disappeared. I was glad to see this, as i'd have liked to see as little incidents on our way back to the bus as possible. Confrontation seemed unavoidable though. While we did our post game tradition (singing the Alma Mater with the team) a lone stater was coming down the stairs through the sea of scarlet screaming 'F- you all!' 'This is our house, you can't f-in' do that here!' and the like. Some Ohio Staters chose to retaliate by giving him a wonderful salute,(Hope you catch my drift here) while the majority simply sang louder and basked in the victory.
While admitedly it was mostly a pleasant experience in East Lansing, the bad ones seem to stick out to anyone who is put in such a situation. Why is it that a majority of good fans can't stand up to the almost always minority, and put a stop to this foolish behavior? Its it the fan's responsibility to hush a drunk person from cursing the opposing team? When should the university step in?
I for one am a fan of the new 'Best Fans in the Land' campaign started by The Ohio State University (which I must admit myself was overdue). It doesn't simply write off and crack down on out of control fans, nor does it leave all the watchdogging to the other fans. The University has taken a step to work WITH the fans in order to make Columbus a more hospitable place for opposing fans. The cheesy service announcements at the games are a nice touch, along with emails from staff of the University. Maybe if all schools take a more proactive step in controlling we will see more top tens on forums such as these that rate simply the BEST places to go watch a game. And hey, as my favorite PSA says, "Be nice to the opposing fans during their stay, They're already having a bad day!"
yeah i only read the first paragraph but i agree. sportsmanship has been bad this year. along with player suspensions and all that hollywood drama crap.
Great job. A bunch of sour losers up there huh? When Ohio State played Texas there wasent any disrepecting going on.....I guess MSU fans were just mad they got owned.
MSU fans are among the worst in the Big 10 if not the country from everything i've seen. Most of the ones I know personally are only "real" fans during basketball season or when the football team is have some success, ie: before they play Michigan and Ohio State every year. After that they seem to disappear only to surface occasionally when your team is having a little run of bad luck, no matter how small it is.
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