Hating on tailgating

Most of you have probably already seen the delightful Under The Button post on this so I will be brief, but for those who haven't:

Philly Magazine's Sandy Hingston went on a rant on her blog (for a fun 10 minutes, read the comments under her post), railing on Penn undergrads who attend the newly-instituted tailgates but then go "straight back to their room to study" instead of attending the ensuing football games. And I quote:

They have their noses stuck too far inside anatomy and political science textbooks to do what college students are supposed to do, which is get out to Franklin Field and root, root, root for a home team ...

Aside from "root root root for the home team" being a baseball reference and thus totally out of place in a post about football, her entire column seems utterly uninformed.

Yes, some students are leaving without attending the game. So what? Chances are if you've walked all the way down to 33rd street for some free burgers and a beverage, you might just head in to the game, even for a half. There aren't any hard numbers, but I can't imagine the tailgates are hurting attendance. And even if nobody from the tailgate went into the game, at least students are coming together in some form.

Hingston also claims that "Penn’s athletic department has resorted to bribery" in giving out food and other giveaways at the tailgates. Earth to Sandy: sports teams have been doing promotional giveaways forever. From dollar dogs to bobble-heads, that's just how the game works.

UTB editor Hillary Reinsberg makes a great point in noting that you can't instill a tailgating/football culture at a school overnight (even if there was once a strong culture years ago). Two tailgates aren't going to solve attendance woes. Maybe 10 years of tailgates won't solve it; we don't know. But you have to commend Penn Athletics for at least trying.