The attendance in Hughes Stadium this weekend was greater than the entire student population at CSU, the most people to come to a game at Hughes since 2011.
It was in front of that crowd that the football team proceeded to lose after leading for the majority of the game.
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Later that evening, the CSU volleyball team extended its undefeated winning streak to 15.
Sports has been a pretty contentious topic in the past few years, due in no small part to the plans to construct an on-campus stadium. The question of the talent that would be drawn in by said stadium is one that is worth exploring, but another question comes from the talent that is already here.
CSU has some amazing athletes. Our basketball team went to the NCAA tournament last spring, and consistently drew both huge crowds and plenty of wins. Similarly, the volleyball team won 21 games last fall, and is currently one of only two teams in the country that is undefeated. The football team, too, has some incredible athletes; we know the talent is there, as you can’t go toe-to-toe with the No. 1 team in the nation and not be stomped into oblivion.
So why is it that more people show up to watch the football team lose, rather than just as many people (proportionally) come to volleyball games?
Maybe it’s time to shift our focus away from stadium building, and more towards working with the talent that we already have so that they can ultimately be deserving of a stadium.