There are no excuses. The students need to go to these games. Period.

I myself had an interesting Friday night on Hollow’s eve and still managed to wake up at 10:30 and get to the student section…I too don’t understand why others can’t get out of bed. I’m an architecture major, get twenty-five hours of sleep during the week tops, and I’ve been to every game. It’s depressing that our students don’t give a crap.

…coincided with GRob’s 4. Freshman year, I attended all but 1 game. Sophomore year, I missed a couple more. Junior and senior years? I only made the trek when my father, an SU alum, made the trip down.

When all was said and done, I saw 1 SU win in the dome. Against Buffalo. In 2005. I saw more wins than that—3 times more, in fact—in the 3 football games I attended before I enrolled.

Now let’s talk basketball. Freshman year, I only attended a few games, but by the time the 2008-2009 season rolled around, I didn’t miss a single game.

Why the difference? As a student, it’s tough to effectively budget time. If I was going to take some me-time, I was going to get as much out of it as I could. And to be honest, sitting frustrated on a metal bench surrounded by other frustrated fans for 3 and a half hours just lost its appeal. In fact, there were a few times when I made the trek back to my apartment wishing I had skipped the game and finished up that essay I was chipping away at.

But when it came to basketball, I could expect a competitive game, and, in turn, a good 2 hours spent in the Dome. It was fun. I left, more often than not, with a smile on my face, and never regretted setting an evening or afternoon aside for hoops. The same went for lax.

Feel free to question my school spirit or call me a fair weather fan or dish out whatever other criticism you can muster, but it doesn’t change the fact that students are looking to get the most out of there time. Free tickets or not, I can see the appeal in attending some good Halloween parties and sleeping in over getting up (relatively) early only to see a couple of red zone turnovers and poor offensive execution effectively quash any chance of an SU win.

So is my excuse “worse than the attendance”? Sure. What kind of fan was I? If I truly bled Orange, I’d have been at every game, win or lose, right? I give all the props in the world to fans who are that dedicated, but you can’t expect that level of football intensity out of everyone. It just is what it is.

In a perfect world, every game would be packed. And a packed Dome would certainly better SU’s chances of winning. And a winning team would better fill the Dome. But now I’m being an idealist.

Like it or not, winning makes a substantial difference. I was as frustrated as the next to see a lot of silver in the student section Saturday, but come on, can you honestly blame them? Students have a lot of their plates—well, those that choose to, at least, but that’s another topic—and as much as I’d like to, I can’t hold it against somebody who truly believes a night on Euclid and morning in bed will make for a better weekend. I was, after all, in similar shoes just a year ago.

Here’s to basketball.