13
years without football at LBSU is long
enough
By
Moria Khou
Online Forty-Niner
Staff Writer
The
fall is just another sad reminder that
Long Beach State University has no football
team.
So
I ponder, what is a university without
football?
Southern
California is a hotbed for college athletics;
therefore, it's just not acceptable that
we have no team. Students at LBSU talk
football all the time, the only exception
is that it is not 49ers' football.
We
debate the No.1 status of the USC Trojans
and its high-powered offense led by quarterback,
Matt Leinart. We pity the fall off from
prestige at UCLA. For goodness sake, even
San Diego State has a football team. If
an Aztec can play on the gridiron, so
should a 49er, and I am not talking about
the team in San Francisco.
LBSU
has not played in the trenches since 1991,
and it is about time the program return
to prominence. We compete with San Diego
State in all aspects, volleyball, baseball,
water polo and professional alums.
Marshall
Faulk of the St. Louis Rams is a former
Aztec, but LBSU had Terrell Davis, Super
Bowl Most Valuable Player and former Denver
Bronco. Davis played for a short stint
at The Beach. However, he abruptly shifted
his college course to the University of
Georgia because of the curtailing of the
football program.
The
rise in cost to participate in Division
I football, and to remain competitive
was too much to overcome for LBSU. Other
reasons range from, lack of interest,
not enough booster support, no budget
and no facility.
There
is no animosity or pun intended towards
women's volleyball, arguably the university's
main attraction. But, all the combined
coverage of volleyball in a year wouldn't
compare to a Saturday's worth of nationwide
telecast on the turf.
Want
more proof as to why we need football?
The
highest rated programs year in and year
out are football games. The National Football
League charges $2.3 million for advertisement
per 30-second slot during the Super Bowl.
Certainly, LBSU can get a piece of the
college stake.
Long
Beach and the Los Angeles region has already
suffered from the loss of Raider football
– let us suffer no more.
Getting
players to compete should be no problem
because so many great athletes come out
of Southern California each year. Take
Long Beach Poly High School alone, over
50 current and former NFL players came
from the Jackrabbit program, the most
ever.
We
should at the very least be able to obtain
a few of those players, if not for anything
else, just the proximity. Student athletes
want to play in front of friends and family,
so let's give them a reason to stay local.
Here
is a few other proposals to help improve
LBSU's current status. We should barrage
faculty and sports administrators with
letters and email demanding football.
Now as a fan, there has to be a mutual
commitment that you will pay to see that
team play. The University of Wisconsin,
Michigan and LSU all have stadiums that
entertains 70,000 plus. There is a Los
Angeles Coliseum that I believe could
do the same for the 49ers' program. The
Trojans may currently tenant the facility,
but the teams can share.
Just
as the Staple Center has multiple tenants,
so can the coliseum. People must come
out by the droves to make this a reality.
People must show school spirit, and expand
the Beach Patrol.
I
once again ponder, what is a university
without football?
Not
much I say, not much.
