This story on ESPN.com, written by a Delaware alum, suggests that the reason UD does not play Delaware State is race. (for Jared, DSU is an all-black school) Hopefully this is not true. I have wondered before why we didn't play them since it seems like a natural rivalry.
It is hard to prove that race is involved, but the excuses of the UD officials are pretty lame. It's disturbing and embarrassing if it's true.
Do you guys have any other information on this?
Thursday, September 20, 2007
UD-DSU Non-rivalry
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9 comments:
As much as I hate to admit it, I think that this guy is dead on. The past few years I have wondered this, especially after I learned that I had falsely assumed that Delaware State was a Division II team. This year is a great one to bring this to light, because competition is no longer a valid argument, as Delaware State is nearly a top 25 team.
The key here is that Delaware should be interested in playing the best competition. Looking at Delaware's schedule the past couple of years has been rather disappointing as it has consistently looked weak. The last time I remember a valid, tough schedule was the 2003 championship season.
We should dump West Chester from the schedule, because no one would care (minus the band). Our rivalry is with Villanova and that should be the only game that is scheduled every year no matter what.
Jeff makes a good point about students having a say about their teams, but when we attended no one was clamoring for the Delaware State matchup. Unless things have changed, Delaware students could care less about anything except for the extra-curricular activities involved with football.
And Delaware is an ultra-white school—in it's culture as well as it's student body—so it wouldn't surprise me if there was underlying racism in this topic. How could we change this?
I think the old school fans would not be happy about sacrificing the West Chester game. We've been playing them for a good long while. I've always appreciated their band as well. I've been going since Gannon played. My grandfather and the guys in our family always sat in the North end-zone. Del State didn't have a decent program until recently. I'd much rather see Navy on the schedule, or another Division I team. Playing Del State might be a fun, but I don't think there has to be a conspiracy involved to keep them off the schedule.
Jeff Pearlman was a sensational (and I don't mean that in a good way) writer for the Review when I was a student. His columns were often full of flamethowing and were unfortunately light on thoughtful analysis. His claim to fame later in his career was getting John Rocker to spout off about New York while being the star closer for the Braves.
All these years, and I've never forgotten his name. He had a talent for writing, and I thought he abused his position as a commentator. More interested in generating controversy than enlightening anyone. He would twist facts and fail to bring up arguments or facts that contradicted his view point.
Anyone who went to Delaware over the last 15 years (so Pearlman should know) knows that UD has gone to great lengths to recruit minority students. Calling it "white as snow" is a cheap shot.
I can't say I know why UD doesn't play DSU. I can say that Pearlman's article contains no evidence that race is the reason. I can't help but continue to think the man is an attention loving blowhard punk, and is unfairly trashing his old school to keep his celebrity status among sports journalists going.
Thanks for posting the article. I'm curious how the administration will respond.
I haven't been to a UD game in 4 or 5 years, but if I recall correctly football games are a time for students to recover from morning drinking binges and get ready for evening drinking binges. There are few students who would know the difference between Delaware St., the UD practice squad, Navy, or Newark HS. I recall the student section to be absolutely pathetic. I am sure they rose up with excitement in the championship year, but I expect it has returned to its former ineptitude by now. I'll see first hand on the 29th. Regardless of the opponent, night football is the best football. I hope the students get that, although I expect there will be more students at Kate's at 7 PM than UD stadium.
Clearly my main reason for no scheduling DE ST is that no one cares. A secondary reason is that we need West Chester on the schedule. Every school at the top of a division needs to schedule a cupcake near the start of the season. You don't go undefeated by playing only Top 25 teams. You need to get guys prepped for the big games, and give time to play backups and freshmen before it really counts.
I don't really see why race would be a factor. I just counted that ~39 of the ~99 players on the team are non-white. That 39%. If the UD athletic department is racist, then why are these players on the team. If the AD is so racist that he won't schedule against a black college, then why is he allowing the recruitment of blacks. The racist anlge is a load of crap.
Although, I do agree that UD is a very white school, despite their carefully crafted photo shoots that depict an alternate reality. If UD is the state school of Delaware, then it should reflect the state demographics, which are 75% white and 21% black. Stats are here: http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/10000.html. I don't know why there is a gap.
Finally, here is another great question to ponder... Why is our mascot a cockfighter? Mike Vick and Roy Jones must not have gotten the literature explaining this fact when they were recruited. Otherwise they certainly would have attended. Doesn't PETA have anything to say about this?
Now we're talking!
Ok, so a few things based on Brian and Chris's comments. I am not in favor of deleting West Chester from the schedule per se, and yes! we need to continue to schedule teams like Navy. BUT, do we really need or care about Monmouth? A division II squad? How many cupcakes can you schedule. 14 straight wins against West Chester = a cupcake (plus they are a Division II school).
I contend that the only reason that no one cares about playing Delaware State is that we haven;t been consistently playing them. Having West Chester or Villanova as rivals is completely arbitrary outside of their proximity and conference ties.
Recruiting black players is not enough to prove that race is not a factor. When 39% of your team is non-white you can say that Delaware is not including race in their recruitment, but that's not the issue. Plus, the driving factor for recruitment is winning, not academics or race.
Here's something that we need to consider as well: Delaware State is a traditionally black institution. That means that if you invite them to play Delaware, and it would most likely be played at Delaware, then you have a stadium filled with (a majority of) white people, and then the small corner visitor section filled with black people. It would look like segregation and feel like a racist situation. So even if the AD and Trustees aren't racist, I do think they have the school's image in mind (and mind you, it's a very image-conscious institution).
Finally, I don't know much about the writer or his propensity for getting people fired up (as he has done pretty well with us), but I do know that he makes a simple, logical point. It makes sense to have a Delaware-Delaware State matchup, and there have been no good reasons to justify the lack thereof.
I do think I would enjoy a game against Del State instead of Monmouth. I’d prefer a game against Temple over Monmouth. (Actually, I might even prefer Temple over Del State). The question of why we don’t play Del State has been asked for years. I just think it is irresponsible for Pearlman to declare the decision not to play Del State “oozes with racism.” His sophistry does nothing to forward the cause of good race relations.
Ben, I think you gave a plausible reason in your last post. I think Delaware can be concerned about the implications of playing a smaller, heavily African American school without being racist. Do any of the in-state rivalrys that Pearman comes up with have such an obvious race/size differential? I honestly don’t know, but he dismisses the claim that it might be divisive a little too quickly. Administrators might even be concerned about the behavior of their own fans, who have become a little more rowdy/unsportsmanlike over the last few years (and I don’t mean the student section). Putting Del State on the schedule has a little bit of risk to it. Putting almost anyone else on the schedule is a safe (if boring) decision.
One last thing. Pearlman wrote the article before he sought out people for quotes. I doubt he disclosed his angle before talking to Lavan, the DSU coach. You’ll probably find over the next few days that the people he quoted will say that he quoted them out of context. Certainly jumping from Lavan's quote that there "has to be something else" to race leaves people with the impression that Lavan endorses Pearlman's point of view. He didn’t do Lavan or the DSU program any favors.
All of this is getting a little ironic in light of the incident at Delaware State.
Here are columns from the News-Journal weighing in on the issue:
Pearlman adds nothing new to debate
UD's refusal to play DSU goes national
Also, why aren't we playing Delaware State in basketball? Scheduling is much more flexible than football.
K.C. Keeler's comments...
Door open to UD-DSU matchup
Another update...
UD-DSU can be done, but when?
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