College football is one of the most highly-anticipated events of the year. Schools across the nation compete for bragging rights, conference titles, and national championships. Girls spend hours planning their outfits before the game, dance to country music at the tailgate, and flirt with boys in the student section between plays. Boys converse over their best friend who is the team’s star QB, take bets on the score, and tailgate in the parking lot. Rivalries drive athletes, students, and fans to support their teams and create an overwhelming sense of community amongst the school. Football positively affects the attitudes, culture, and atmosphere on school campuses.
LMU offers a wide variety of division I sports teams but it does not offer football. Well, it does not offer football anymore. In the early 1970s the Loyola football program was cancelled after the team lead an 8-1 season and finished as national champions. Although the school is now known as Loyola Marymount University and it may be close to 50 years later, one thing remains unchanged: the student body needs football a team because without football, LMU lacks the school spirit of larger universities, exhibits a relatively disconnected community, and deters many high school seniors from even applying to the school.
On campuses such as Notre Dame and USC, you can walk around campus and say “go Irish” or throw up a “fight on” and it’s not weird or sarcastic. Schools that have football do not limit school spirit to the geeks or overly excited; every person contributes to prideful atmosphere. At LMU, students are caught between wearing their school and their team on their chest. With a football team, a student’s school and team are one in the same. It is sad to see students repping other colleges more than their own. Bringing football back to LMU will strengthen student’s pride in their school and stimulate the excitement surrounding all athletic events.
In an area where there are so many different cultures, ideas, and customs, LMU is especially susceptible to a clique-culture. With so many different options for clubs and activities, it is troublesome for freshmen and transfer students to figure out where they belong on campus so soon in their college career. The campus needs a unifying program, like football, to break down these barriers and make it easier for freshmen and transfers to become integrated into student life. Football games encourages all students to come together in the beginning months of the school year and and make friends that will last a lifetime.
Many high schoolers have grown up in football community, some since they were very young. Not having a football team deters many students from applying because they 1) love the atmosphere around a football school and don’t want to leave that in college or 2) are a football player and want to continue their athletic career in college at the varsity level. Adding a football team to this already distinguished university would encourage more students to apply.
LMU offers many different academic, social, spiritual, and athletic options for students, but it lacks a varsity football team. Football ignites a school spirit in students, families, and fans. Game day activities encourage a strong campus community. LMU needs to bring back the football team to promote school pride, further the sense of community, and encourage application of more high school students. Bringing back the football team will create a more connected and welcoming campus environment for the students, faculty and staff, and Westchester community.