This semester, I went from never thinking about football to having a backstage pass to all our games and working with the head coaches as a producer for Ferris Sports Television. I even had a bird’s eye view and a 4k camera when the Ferris football dynasty ended.
With the loss of the playoff game at Grand Valley State on Nov. 18, I witnessed the intense celebration from the fans of Grand Valley and Ferris folks hanging their heads with grief as the chance for a “three-peat” was lost.
Profound emotion was all around me. Ferris is a champion no longer, but honestly, the way I see it, we, the students, never were.
Ferris did not win a championship these past two years; the athletics program won a championship and more specifically, the hundred or so football players and their coaches are the ring bearers.
The accomplishments of a division two sport, while a dazzling spectacle, have as much relation to the students and University as the success of our Ferris bowling team.
We lost nothing while student-athletes lost another yearly contest. To lament this happening without being a member is a strange warping of the ego, a participation in tribalism that football is famous for.
We, the fans, have nothing to do with the losses or victories of our sports clubs. Loss or victory, it has no association with us. Consequently, this does not correlate with the quality of Ferris State University. Let this be a calming realization of the fundamental triviality of these competitions.
As Grand Valley begins its journey thirsting for superiority in winning sports matches, let us reflect on what the Ferris athletics program even is.
Ferris athletics is an organization that spends millions of dollars so that student-athletes have the opportunity to compete in sports competitively and rigorously to supplement the educational value of our students.
According to College Factual, the cost of Ferris football is more than the money it brings in. With an expenditure of 2 million dollars, half of the approved funding for athletics as a whole, the program has a net loss of $5,690.
I do not see this as a bad thing. It is refreshing that an organization would forgo profit to enrich the experience of its students.
With this in mind, let us frame the purpose of this large expenditure and ultimate deficit. If it is spent on people’s quest for rings, or feathers in the metaphorical cap of our campus, that is a strange thing for a University to celebrate.
If this money is lost so that the students of Ferris have the opportunity to balance responsibilities, make memories of a lifetime or any other ways that athleticism enriches the community that seems more fitting to the culture of the Ferris I know.
To quote the founder of our university, Woodbridge Nathan Ferris, “Millions of dollars for stadiums, millions of dollars for athletics. Do I fight athletics? No. Not athletics for the student body. We are paying far too extravagantly for educational substitutes, winning football games without winning games legitimately in the field of intelligence.”
To supplement the loss of the Ferris football team, what games of intelligence did we win on Nov. 18?
For me, it is to welcome the ego death of being a champion. Victory and prestige is not the goal of student athleticism. In the words of the NCAA, it is personal development and alternative avenues toward education.
To wish for more is the intrusion of the ego, an empty and corrupting motivator.