_Kurtis Dunlap is a fifth-year senior at MU. He is an English major. He writes about student life as an opinion columnist for The Maneater._
We have been spoiled as Mizzou sports fans over the last five years. Mizzou teams have exceeded everyone’s expectations since moving to the SEC. We can’t forget all of the great things our school’s athletics have accomplished, and we have to continue to support the football team, even if they aren’t doing well right now. Our football team has competed in two Southeastern Conference championship games, winning the Eastern Division both years. Our softball team has been a constant in the top 25 rankings, along with the volleyball team. Heck, we even have two-time wrestling national champion and Olympic bronze medalist in J’den Cox.
The student body has to continue to support our sports teams even when they aren’t very good. To have the privilege to celebrate their victories, you have to support them through their defeats.
I was a freshman the first year Missouri became a member of the SEC. I can remember all of the excitement that was swirling around campus as football season approached. Everyone was so excited to be part of the best college football conference in the country. Finally, we were out of the shadow of Texas and Oklahoma.
The first game I ever went to was our very first SEC game against Georgia. We lost, just like we would a lot that year. A lot of talk went on during that season that we didn’t belong and were over-matched. The students stuck behind the team, and we were rewarded. Mizzou certainty didn’t look overmatched the next two years.
As long as I have been a student at MU, the student fan base has been pretty positive. We have usually rallied behind struggling teams and, for the most part, continued to support them. Right now, the football team needs our support more than ever.
Losing the Homecoming game is one thing, but losing to Middle Tennessee means we need all hands on deck; it would be the perfect time to jump ship and forget about this season.
I always think back to the first year we were in the SEC and all the obstacles we faced. It would have been easy to say that moving conferences was a bad idea, but we didn’t. We believed that we belonged.
We went on to win the East the next two years and had a chance to go to the national championship game in 2013. I saw and lived through the excitement on campus at that time. And now, I know how it feels to not be very good. I’ve seen the student section the past two home games, and it is pathetic.
I understand the attendance at the Delaware State game; it was really hot, and there was no way we were losing that game. But the game against Middle Tennessee had no excuses. The weather was perfect, the game time wasn’t too early that you were still hungover from the night before, and it was Homecoming. For a school that claims to have started the tradition of Homecoming, you’d think having a respectable number of students would be at the game.
Just because our team isn’t very good, it doesn’t mean we should stop supporting them. The student athletes have their jobs to perform on the field, just like the student body has the job of being in the stands to support and cheer them on. We cannot just pick and choose which years to support them. We are in this together, for better or for worse. And right now it is worse — which is when they need our support more than ever.