Time to take back tailgating in lot 63

(NOTE: This article originally appeared in the October 1, 2010 edition of Central Michigan Life.)

Football fans and party seekers alike again face the year-old dilemma: Is it even worth it to tailgate in lot 63?

After the month that has seemed like years since the last home football game, the Chippewas return to action Saturday against Mid-American Conference West rival Ball State and the controversy over tailgating will once again return.

There’s no need in going over the administration’s failed tailgating policies that is killing game attendance and school spirit — they are horrible and we all know it.

Competing Facebook events have already sprouted up inviting students to tailgate either in lot 63 or to tailgate on Main Street.

From where I sit the answer is clear on where to spend your Saturday afternoon: Lot 63.

Fool Us Once, Shame on You; Fool Us Twice, Shame On Us

It was a conversation everybody around Mount Pleasant was having and we were all making the same jokes at the expense of the University of Cincinnati as Brian Kelly was ducking and dodging questions about going to Notre Dame.

"Boy, that sure sounds familar!"

"We heard the same things three years ago!"

"He's good as gone."

While everyone was making the jokes about the man who abandoned CMU before the 2006 Motor City Bowl, everyone in denial or were ignoring the chain reaction that Brian Kelly leaving Cincinnati for South Bend would set off.

The Big Ten is the Big Move CMU Needs

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before.

The head coach of the MAC Champion Central Michigan Chippewas is leaving for the University of Cincinnati.

Butch Jones will follow in Brian Kelly’s footsteps for the second time in three years, succeeding Kelly at Cincinnati after Kelly, who was CMU’s head football coach from 2004-06, left for the University of Notre Dame.

The university is now at a crossroad, do they want to be taken seriously as a football school or continue to be a big fish in a small pond and be a coach feeder system for bigger universities who take football seriously?

The answer is simple; Athletics Director Dave Heeke must do all within his power to have CMU join a Bowl Championship Series member conference.

And if he is not willing to do the work, the university must find someone who will.