Grambling football revolt

[cliftonparksufan]

Team votes not to travel this weekend and game with Jackson State is cancelled. Here is an interesting sidebar to this story. This week I was in Topeka, KS and I stayed at the same hotel as the football team from Fort Valley State University who plays against Grambling in football. We talked to the coaches and the players and they bussed 20 hours to get to Topeka and then got beat by Washburn University 41-0 so I kind of understand what the Grambling players are saying. However, even though they are D-2 players, I assume they all get some type of aid, whether it is a full or partial ride and do owe more to the school than walking out. I'm sure they will be back next week.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/co...ambling-football/index.html?section=si_latest

 

[weakstraw]

talk about a once proud program. The Grambling board needs to make this their #1 priority.

 

[BomberOrange]

Team votes not to travel this weekend and game with Jackson State is cancelled. Here is an interesting sidebar to this story. This week I was in Topeka, KS and I stayed at the same hotel as the football team from Fort Valley State University who plays against Grambling in football. We talked to the coaches and the players and they bussed 20 hours to get to Topeka and then got beat by Washburn University 41-0 so I kind of understand what the Grambling players are saying. However, even though they are D-2 players, I assume they all get some type of aid, whether it is a full or partial ride and do owe more to the school than walking out. I'm sure they will be back next week.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/co...ambling-football/index.html?section=si_latest

My brother in law is the O.C. @ Washburn U. DII is a struggle and there are lots of loonnggggg road trips and recruiting is a bear. That said, Washburn's facilities are very nice and they aren't even a traditional power.

 

[Cusefan95]

The finances don't work - doesn't really matter the outcome of this specific situation, within ten years Grambling will have dropped football (unless state funding somehow increases substantially).

 

[Guy Fawkes]

That team should be ashamed. I would have laced them up without any coach. I played sports because I loved them. They are upset about conditions? D3 teams ride on buses where people have to sit on the floor for a spot for up to twelve hours. We roomed with six people with only two twin beds on road trips. We ate at a soup kitchen for dinner once and Old Country Buffet for breakfast the next morning. You try playing a game after that but no one complained and we laughed it off.
In the long run most D2 and D3 football teams will cease to exist because of finances.

 

[NineOneSeven]

That team should be ashamed. I would have laced them up without any coach. I played sports because I loved them. They are upset about conditions? D3 teams ride on buses where people have to sit on the floor for a spot for up to twelve hours. We roomed with six people with only two twin beds on road trips. We ate at a soup kitchen for dinner once and Old Country Buffet for breakfast the next morning. You try playing a game after that but no one complained and we laughed it off.
In the long run most D2 and D3 football teams will cease to exist because of finances.

Sounds like you know all the details of this situation.

Oh you don't? That's what I thought.

 

[oldpinepoint]

That team should be ashamed. I would have laced them up without any coach. I played sports because I loved them. They are upset about conditions? D3 teams ride on buses where people have to sit on the floor for a spot for up to twelve hours. We roomed with six people with only two twin beds on road trips. We ate at a soup kitchen for dinner once and Old Country Buffet for breakfast the next morning. You try playing a game after that but no one complained and we laughed it off.
In the long run most D2 and D3 football teams will cease to exist because of finances.

I don't know when you played but when I played in the late 90's at the D3 level it was nothing like that.

 

[Cheriehoop]

Sounds like you know all the details of this situation.

Oh you don't? That's what I thought.

What are your playing experiences under difficult conditions, please tell. Pretty bratty reply.

 

[SWC75]

I've always wondered what might have happened back in the 50's and 60's if Grambling had played LSU, if Tennessee State played Tennessee, if Florida A&M played Florida and if Morgan State played Maryland. The black colleges were like the old negro leagues in football- a lot of great players concentrated in a few schools due to segregation. Integration hurt them badly because their reason for being was being eliminated. Now look at Alabama's line-up. Imagine if they only had white players and those black players were playing for someone else. Maybe for Grambling.

 

[Guy Fawkes]

Sounds like you know all the details of this situation.

Oh you don't? That's what I thought.

Informative reply. You played intramural sports at SU? Clearly that entitles you to be all knowing about college sports.
I work with numerous Major colleges accounting departments and foundations and lettered from 2003-2007 at a D3 school that other board members went to. I think I understand the nuances of these situations better than you.

 

[oldpinepoint]

That team should be ashamed. I would have laced them up without any coach. I played sports because I loved them. They are upset about conditions? D3 teams ride on buses where people have to sit on the floor for a spot for up to twelve hours. We roomed with six people with only two twin beds on road trips. We ate at a soup kitchen for dinner once and Old Country Buffet for breakfast the next morning. You try playing a game after that but no one complained and we laughed it off.
In the long run most D2 and D3 football teams will cease to exist because of finances.

You must have played at some shitty ass school to fit 6 in a room and sit on the floor of a bus for 12 hours. Sounds like my walk to school growing up. 3 miles to school, up hill both ways. Oh and it always snowed, even in summer when I wasn't in school.

 

[NineOneSeven]

Informative reply. You played intramural sports at SU? Clearly that entitles you to be all knowing about college sports.
I work with numerous Major colleges accounting departments and foundations and lettered from 2003-2007 at a D3 school that other board members went to. I think I understand the nuances of these situations better than you.

It rained a few times outside at skytop.

In all seriousness though, my post did come off as being a so I do apologize for that. My point was that I think there is much more to this.

I had been reading alot of comments on the espn article and many of them kept referring to the student athletes as "spoiled brats" because they refused to do their "job".

If these guys really refused to play a game they love, things must be that bad. That's what I am saying.

 

[NineOneSeven]

What are your playing experiences under difficult conditions, please tell. Pretty bratty reply.

Never drove 750 miles, and that is exactly my point.

 

[Guy Fawkes]

You must have played at some shitty ass school to fit 6 in a room and sit on the floor of a bus for 12 hours. Sounds like my walk to school growing up. 3 miles to school, up hill both ways. Oh and it always snowed, even in summer when I wasn't in school.

I didn't say it was all the time but it happened. Plenty of alumni of University of Scranton that can vouch for the stories. We had 50 man baseball travel squad (included JV squad) on a athletic budget for 32 players. Had to cut corners somewhere. And no I do not recommend the Soup Kitchen in Fort Pierce, FL.

 

[Chip]

Should we ever find ourselves competing against Grambling for recruits, I feel pretty comfortable saying that we have the much better facilities.

There's a silver lining everywhere, just need to make sure you find it.

 

[All4SU]

Having just read the article, I'm still unclear whether this is a protest about Grambling or something larger.

 

[orangeinohio]

I heard a report on ESPN this morning that it's not just that the facilities are crumbling but it's also that they're supposedly totally unsanitary - mold and mildew growing everywhere. From the standpoint of the players, there's a whole health and safety component to this protest.

 

[Capt. Tuttle]

talk about a once proud program. The Grambling board needs to make this their #1 priority.

So in your opinion a traditionally black college needs to make sports its number one priority. I would think it would be attracting and educating lots of qualified young African American students to take their place in the world and compete in society on an equal footing. I think the board might better say football is not that important to our mission. Season cancelled. See you next year, if you want to play.

Sent from my SCH-I200 using Tapatalk 2

 

[All4SU]

So in your opinion a traditionally black college needs to make sports its number one priority. I would think it would be attracting and educating lots of qualified young African American students to take their place in the world and compete in society on an equal footing. I think the board might better say football is not that important to our mission. Season cancelled. See you next year, if you want to play.

Sent from my SCH-I200 using Tapatalk 2

See, that's my thought too. If these kids weren't good enough to get into a D1 program, they are long odds to make any kind of a career out of football other than coaching. So first and foremost, Grambling is responsible to them for their education. For these kids, playing football should just be a means to that goal. Somehow that message is lost in this article.

 

[weakstraw]

So in your opinion a traditionally black college needs to make sports its number one priority. I would think it would be attracting and educating lots of qualified young African American students to take their place in the world and compete in society on an equal footing. I think the board might better say football is not that important to our mission. Season cancelled. See you next year, if you want to play.

Sent from my SCH-I200 using Tapatalk 2

How do you take what I wrote to mean that it should be a #1 priority? So, if a team fires it's coach, they should just fold up their team and move on? Without football, some of those students would have never made it Grambling. Without football, the leadership of some of those students would never come to fruition.

The board should make that their #1 priority because for all they know, they are about to lose 75 students who just may quit the school.

 

[weakstraw]

See, that's my thought too. If these kids weren't good enough to get into a D1 program, they are long odds to make any kind of a career out of football other than coaching. So first and foremost, Grambling is responsible to them for their education. For these kids, playing football should just be a means to that goal. Somehow that message is lost in this article.

Then why have a program? Lets get rid of the SU program? Easy for everyone to say what should be done with a program when we SU has been in the shitter for 10 years.

 

[Capt. Tuttle]

How do you take what I wrote to mean that it should be a #1 priority? So, if a team fires it's coach, they should just fold up their team and move on? Without football, some of those students would have never made it Grambling. Without football, the leadership of some of those students would never come to fruition.

The board should make that their #1 priority because for all they know, they are about to lose 75 students who just may quit the school.

Y

Because, this is what you wrote:" talk about a once proud program. The Grambling board needs to make this their #1 priority."


Write what you mean, mean what you write.

Also, it should be either " the Gambling board (singular) needs to make this its (singular) number # 1 priority" or "the Grambling board members (plural) need to make it their (plural) #1 priority", but not "(T)he Grambling board needs to make this their #1 priority."