ESPN's Van Pelt rips Maryland students for lack of support

"You call yourself a student? Ha, how many football games did you attend? You're not getting your degree until you attend at least 10 dammit!! That's the only BS you're getting."

Wow, talk about your priorities. Of course, the clown went to Maryland and works at an all-sports station that exploits women (not for $$) and adolescents for profit.

 

Maryland tickets are free to students.

Here's the real problem. The coveted student ticket every year is for the Maryland-Duke game. About 10 years ago, after a near riot broke out, the Maryland athletic department set up a computerized system to distribute tickets.

Students log in and make a claim for a ticket. Then a lottery decides who gets tickets and who doesn't. You can improve your odds at getting tickets for the "choice" basketball games by attending football and basketball games. The more games you attend, the better chance you have for a ticket to the Maryland-Duke game. I'm sure many students are claiming their tickets, entering Byrd or Comcast to get credit for attending a game, then leaving.

Now that the Maryland-Duke game is over, students have absolutely no incentive to go to games. The Terps suck ass. This is probably the second-worst team Gary's had at Maryland. So they are throwing in the towel.

Van Pelt isn't helping matters any, but his heart is in the right place. I just wish he wouldn't be so public about his Maryland love. Kind of like Stu Scott and his Tar Heel shout outs.

 

Umm, it's Maryland. You're not Texas, Ohio St., Michigan, Duke, North Carolina, Southern Cal or any other perennial power. You are not ranked in basketball, your best sport, and are sixth in the ACC. Deal with it.

 

I hear you, but my point of view is that no one is better equipped to go after the school than one of its high-profile alums.

If anyone else does this, it's labeled whining or someone is telling the person leveling the criticism to worry about his/her own school. For Scott Van Pelt to do this to his old school should speak volumes.

Big difference between Van Pelt and Stuart Scott. The former is legitimately criticizing his school. When's the last time Scott let Chapel Hill hold it?

 

Van Pelt went to Maryland? I thought he got no closer than Pimlico.

 

it was love at first sight for middle shockey son when he visited college park in the fall. it immediately went to the top of his wish list in his college-application process (he's been accepted into the 'honors college' but it still remains to be seen if he'll receive enough scholarship $$$ to make it happen; his co-faves are ithaca, syracuse, delaware, cornell and northwestern (he's a long-shot to get into the latter two) and knows the school that ponies up the most dinero wins; if no one offers enough to bring the cost down to suny-range, he's fine with going to either binghamton or stony brook, the best fits for him).

at any rate (i didn't intend this to become a threadjack about my boy -- my point is: as big of a sports fan as he is, maryland's appeal to middle shockey has ZERO to do with, 'oh, boy, i can go to all those acc games!' sorry to disappoint alum like van pelt, but maryland's rise as an ACADEMIC institution is accompanied by a student body that is NOT going to go ball's-out to attend games.

when you mix the priority-change in student attitudes with mediocre sports teams, face-painted fans for tv cameras is going to decline. should the terrapins turn around their fortunes on the footasketball landscape i'm quite sure student support will rise again.

but the van pelts of the world have to take off their tunnel-vision glasses and see that schools like this are going to have front-running student support. if the school's teams aren't worth the 'new breed' of students' time they are going to find more productive ways to use their time than to paint their faces, get drunk and create derogatory chants.

don't ya think?

 

If we take a broad look at the whole situation, Van Pelt is part of the problem as to why kids are losing interest in watching sports. Sports have been promoted to no end, whether it be on ESPN or through the thousands of websites. Athletes, now celebrities when compared to the old days, make millions of dollars. The price of tickets put games out of reach for kids, and late start times make it difficult for a kid to become interested in the first place. If they don't watch it as a kid, they won't watch it in college.

I don't want this to be a psychological opinion on sports. However, the current state of sports make it difficult for kids to become true fans, unlike past decades.

 

I don't understand this post. I would argue sports are as strong as ever, and ratings dictate that. There's no statistical evidence to support your theory. When you combine gambling, fantasy sports, sports media outlets, superstar athletes, ratings, etc., sports is at the top of the pedestal. There will always be die-hards, casual, fair weather fans, no matter what decade or era.

 

Ticket price has no effect in school. Schools are not charging or overcharging students. And Maryland has one of the most raucous student sections when it feels like it. Its ability to rock its arena - corporate name gladly excluded - gives the school a notable home-court advantage.

Post really makes no sense. I couldn't attend much of anything growing up because of distance, other things going on and price of tickets. Didn't quash my interest in any way, shape or form. And I didn't have ESPN or the internet ...

 

That's nothing compared to Pitino's tirade at BU after losing a big conference game at home before about 420 people. The "CYO crowds" rant was probably the only time BU hoops ever made Page 1 of the Globe sports section during my Comm Ave. days. Northeastern was a much more jumping backdrop for the Pitino-Calhoun holy wars.
Hasn't changed much, even with the spiffy Taj Agganis, where they've played some hoops the past few years. Even the Vermont game this year (the Cats won the AE regular season title, but we finished a sweep in OT yesterday at UVM) ended up back up on "The Roof" (2.700-seat Case Gym, above Walter Brown Arena, the former hockey home ice now used mainly for practice and high school games).

 

"And these kids can't burn a couch for SHIT!"

 

Lacrosse(Men's Lax 12 National Titles and Perennial top 10 team and never had a losing season since the program began in 1924. Women's Lax 10 time Nati'l Champs and 2010 Nat'l Champs) and Field Hockey(2010 National Champs. National Player of the Year) are Maryland's best sports.