Basketball season is an exciting time for Bellarmine. Both the men’s and women’s teams have made it to the NCAA tournament the last two seasons.
Do students show up to support both teams? No. Knights Nation’s tweets from this past week made it evident that the women’s basketball team is an afterthought.
According to Knights Nation’s Constitution, which is posted on their Engage page, its goals are, “to encourage student support of and involvement with the University’s Athletic programs.”
By encouraging the University community to attend an event during the women’s game, the organization is not fulfilling its goals. In addition, its actions are telling students that the women’s game is not important. If the men played before the women, the tailgate would not be held during the men’s game.
Women’s team standout Raven Merriweather and Bellarmine’s most recent 1,000-point club member, took to Twitter to show her frustration.
Knights Nation waited until the next day to “fix” its mistake.
I’m not sure if the original tweet or the response is more offensive. If Knights Nation wanted to draw a large crowd for both teams, the tailgate would have originally been scheduled to begin before the women’s game.
Knights Nation President Sarah Wilder said: “We were approved by SGA (Student Government Association) and ADG (Alpha Delta Gamma) to help them promote the event. They did most of the planning, and our job was to put it on social media.”
Alpha Delta Gamma President Duffy Baker said: “Some of the ADG guys on SGA may have been involved in the planning.” However, he made it clear that ADG was not the official sponsor of the event.
SGA Vice President of Public Relations and ADG Public Relation chair Braden Hall said: “SGA and ADG had nothing to do with the planning of the event. There was a committee formed with Bryan (Hamann) but it was never affiliated with any particular organization.”
Assistant Director of Student Activities Brain Hamann said, “The Student Activities Council is hosting the tailgate.”
The mission of the Bellarmine Student Activities Council is “To organize and provide a diverse co-curriculum; intellectual, spiritual, emotional, social, recreational, and cultural programs and activities. To enrich campus life by promoting interaction and involvement by all members of Bellarmine University and the surrounding community.”
The tailgate being held during the women’s game does not promote interaction and involvement by all members of Bellarmine University and the surrounding community.
On Dec. 1, one day before the tailgate, there was a time change in the Daily Knight, on a poster in the stairwell to UDH and on SGA’s Twitter page. All three announcements listed the event starting at 12:15p.m., 45 minutes before the women’s tip-off. Although 45 minutes is enough time to enjoy refreshments beforehand, the event still continued during the game.
Regardless of who sponsored the event, the women’s team schedule has been public on Bellarmine’s athletic website since Sept. 19.
At 12:15p.m. four people were at the tailgate. Eight minutes before the start of the women’s game, there were eight students in the student section. At tip-off for the women’s game, there were roughly 100 people in Knights Hall and 13 students in the student section.
At halftime, there were four people at the tailgate. There did not seem to be any encouragement to leave the tailgate and go into Knights Hall for the women’s game. At the end of the women’s game, there were eight people at the tailgate.
While the tailgate did not attract a lot of students, the principle of the event being held during the women’s game is the issue. Students already do not show up for the women’s game and an alternative event like this one sends the wrong message.
At the start of the men’s game, there were close to 100 students in the student section. Per usual, students filled the section as the women’s game took place.
This is not only an issue at Bellarmine but a nationwide issue. According to the NCAA, during the 2016-2017 season on average 60 percent more people showed up to Division II men’s basketball home games than women’s. At the 2017 GLVC Tournament Championships 2,054 people attended the men’s games and 1,902 people attended the women’s games .
There are many factors that play into the attendance differential. Publicity is a major factor.
“I’ve always wanted some entity, a newspaper or a TV station to cover a female sport as they do a male sport and vice versa and just see what the attendance would be…and go forward from there” women’s head coach Chancellor Dugan said.
The Bellarmine community can and should support our teams equally.