COLUMN: Changing Penn is not football friendly

Miles Cohen, Commentary Why is it so difficult for students to walk 10 to 20 minutes to one of the most historic stadiums in the country and see what is usually a pretty exciting football game? It has little to do with what everyone claims is wrong with Penn football. Such excuses as the early starting time of Ivy League games, the anonymity of Penn's non-conference opponents and the fact Franklin Field has AstroTurf and not grass are bogus. The real reason students are so apathetic towards the football team is that University President Judith Rodin and Provost Stanley Chodorow have made it their mission to enroll teenagers from every state in the U.S. at Penn. The University has become so diverse (which, for the record, is a good thing), that the East Coast mentality which up until the mid-1990s was prominent, is no longer as evident. The dissipation of the Northeast base from Quakerville directly affects attendance at Penn football games. In general, it is hard to get students in the '90s motivated about any college sport that is not broadcast on the big three networks, or that does not appear regularly on ESPN's SportsCenter. Even Tri-State students and Pennsylvania natives have a hard time following Division I-AA football. Why this phenomenon is occurring is a topic for another column. But if the community around Philadelphia is not curious about Ivy League football contests, it is hard to expect students from California, Florida or Texas to show much interest when Penn gives Brown an old-fashioned butt-whippin' in football, as it did this past weekend. Only 12,000-plus fans attended the Parents Weekend showdown, as compared with the almost 22,000 that showed up on the equivalent weekend last fall. Thanks to a combination of ResNet in the Quad and the ever-increasing lineup of televised college football games on the weekends -- there were seven games last Saturday that spanned six states and four regions of the U.S. -- students from outside the East Coast now have the option to stay indoors and watch the college football team they grew up rooting for, rather than sit for four hours in the freezing cold, watching non-scholarship athletes tangle. This is a rather lame excuse. But one has to remember, it is freshmen who usually make up a majority of people occupying the student section at Franklin Field, or at least this has been the trend in recent years. In the past, the Penn frosh community -- minus ResNet -- would awaken to the noise coming from Penn's band, and feel somewhat compelled to trek out of the Quad, and see what Ancient Eight football was all about. Those that had any school spirit probably enjoyed the game, but others witnessed their first and last Ivy action. Now Rodin and Chodorow have modernized the Quad, and with the click of a remote, wide-eyed, first-year students have the option to channel-surf and watch whatever their hearts desire. The opportunity to see big-name schools such as Michigan, Penn State, Notre Dame and Florida take to the gridiron each week, seems to have captured the community's attention more than a Penn-Brown football tango. It has become clear this fall, with the atrocious attendance figures of most freshmen, and upperclassmen as well, would rather watch ABC commentator Keith Jackson yell "Whoa Nellie!" all afternoon, than walk half a mile to witness Quakers linebacker Darren MacDonald pummel the life out of any opposing player who gets in his way. It would be ridiculous to refer to the Penn community as a bunch of lazy students mesmerized by the boob tube. There is some truth to this notion, but in reality, TV can not solely be blamed for the lack of interest in Penn football. The option of a quick-fix solution to the problem is not realistic. If the Penn community can find the right angle, the thought of watching a Red and Blue football game should be just as exciting and entertaining as vicariously experiencing Division I-A contests. Rodin and Chodorow should not be hanged in effigy because of their zealous endeavor to distinguish Penn from the other homogenous Ivy colleges. But along the way their plan to have a multicultural student body from every corner of the U.S. (and the world, too), plus the desire to make the University a cable- and Internet-friendly institution, has seriously disrupted the enthusiasm and flow of students traveling to Franklin Field.