2008 Woodie Awards
Sports Center craze
Issue date: 1/24/08 Section: Opinions
For most of us a typical morning starts with the alarming blaring, a groan and a roll out of bed. Hair spiking away from your head like an anime character, you stumble to the bathroom, and brush your teeth. Shortly after you return to your room, a set of wrinkled clothing is grabbed from the floor and put on as you leave the room for the trip to breakfast.
As you enter West you hear the faint roar of it, that familiar sound of whooshes, and clever commentary from a series of rotating anchors. As you swipe your card, you see the source of the sound. Sportscenter. You take your food, and get a seat with a view, not of the Nott, or the vibrant Seward Place, but of the TV. As you eat, and chat, you and your tablemates almost blankly stare as at the screen, as you learn about the California beating Southern Miss in Basketball. After the final score is delivered, a table is displayed showing Southern Miss's all time history against Pac-10 opponents, going back to 1993. Doting for a moment on the screen you look left and right, to see five to six other tables of men in baseball caps watching, waiting for their team. Like the kid from Maine who's a Notre Dame fanatic, despite the fact he's never known anyone that has matriculated there, and he personally has never left the northeastern United States (except for the weekend trip to Montreal freshman year). But you watch on, finish your meal and head to class. Only to encounter Sportscenter again at any of the other eateries located on campus. It is seemingly inescapable. Reamer, Upper, Rathskeller, West, a Minerva, your friend's dorm room all their televisions are either on with Sportscenter playing, or waiting to be turned on, already set to the channel.
To the eye of an outsider, it would seem that the student body of Union College has a rather large obsession with Sportscenter. That all students have a dire need to know the outcome of the International Bowl played in Toronto between Ball State and Rutgers (Rutgers won 52-30).
As you enter West you hear the faint roar of it, that familiar sound of whooshes, and clever commentary from a series of rotating anchors. As you swipe your card, you see the source of the sound. Sportscenter. You take your food, and get a seat with a view, not of the Nott, or the vibrant Seward Place, but of the TV. As you eat, and chat, you and your tablemates almost blankly stare as at the screen, as you learn about the California beating Southern Miss in Basketball. After the final score is delivered, a table is displayed showing Southern Miss's all time history against Pac-10 opponents, going back to 1993. Doting for a moment on the screen you look left and right, to see five to six other tables of men in baseball caps watching, waiting for their team. Like the kid from Maine who's a Notre Dame fanatic, despite the fact he's never known anyone that has matriculated there, and he personally has never left the northeastern United States (except for the weekend trip to Montreal freshman year). But you watch on, finish your meal and head to class. Only to encounter Sportscenter again at any of the other eateries located on campus. It is seemingly inescapable. Reamer, Upper, Rathskeller, West, a Minerva, your friend's dorm room all their televisions are either on with Sportscenter playing, or waiting to be turned on, already set to the channel.
To the eye of an outsider, it would seem that the student body of Union College has a rather large obsession with Sportscenter. That all students have a dire need to know the outcome of the International Bowl played in Toronto between Ball State and Rutgers (Rutgers won 52-30).
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