Last week I took aim at the lack of raucous support at Stanford Stadium and particularly at the Axe Committee, but I’m starting to wonder if my accusations were a bit misplaced. So now it’s time to fry bigger fish—the Department of Athletics.

The main concern I have is over the Red Zone point system. This year, extra points can be earned by attending some of the non-football events on campus, and at first glance this seems like a great idea. Cardinal fans are rewarded for showing their support at something other than football games, and the smaller sports should benefit from bigger crowds and perhaps even get the chance to convince a few more students to start following them more regularly.

But the system is flawed. Not only is there no guarantee that students won’t just scan their IDs and leave—and don’t be fooled, I know at least some of you do—but the Athletics Department has also chosen to pick games that clash with the football schedule. Saturday was a case in point; the Red Zone-point-earning women’s volleyball game against Washington started at 7 p.m., just two and a half hours after the football team kicked off against Washington State in Pullman. Anyone with a passing knowledge of college football should realize games run more than two and a half hours.

I left the TV with 14 seconds remaining because I wanted to do more than just rack up Red Zone points; I actually thought it would be an interesting excuse to watch some volleyball. I caught the last set but missed a 96-yard kickoff return for a Stanford touchdown.

Committed Cardinal football fans are given a tough choice. To guarantee a seat at the big home football games, they may have to skip watching part of some of the away games on TV. And women’s volleyball is not the only potential schedule clash this season. The women’s soccer game against Cal might suffer the same fate, depending on what time the Oregon State game gets scheduled.

I don’t want to criticize the Athletics Department too much because it is hard to complain when you get the chance to go to every home game of every sport for free, but I do have to wonder how it made a decision that technically may reward fans for not watching away games. Was this simply a scheduling error or a consequence of outside forces dictating kickoff times, or could it be that the department fundamentally doesn’t understand what it should mean to be a dedicated fan, that people want to watch both the home and away games?

At the end of the day, gaining points does not make you a good fan—it means you’re smart and know how to work the system. Many of those with the most points will have spent less time watching Stanford sports in the flesh than those below them. If the Athletics Department really wants to assign points like this, perhaps it should try scanning students both in and out and giving out points according to total time in the stadium.

The other justification for turning my attention on the Athletics Department is the protestations I got from a few members of the Axe Committee last week. I can’t excuse them of everything—I still feel they could do more from within the Red Zone rather than on the field—but it does seem that their hands are tied in terms of what they are allowed to get away with. They can’t, for example, swear or demean the other team.

I’m sure that rule is not an exclusively Cardinal one, but it does seem quite strange if you think about it. The football field is a realm of intense violence where players can do things that would get them in serious trouble elsewhere—shoulder barging a fellow citizen to the ground is not usually acceptable. Families with young children sit in the bleachers and happily watch and encourage what goes on without worrying about the lesson this might be teaching their offspring. Would the odd curse word yelled out in this controlled environment really be that shocking and damaging?

I guess this might just be me railing against authority—maybe I should be occupying Wall Street instead of writing this column—but I simply don’t get the rules that the powers that be decide for us.

 

No one tells Tom Taylor what to do. Take on “The Man” with the Tom Taylor Rebel Alliance at tom.taylor “at” stanford.edu.