Riley Dulin - Sports Editor
With the Fighting Scots set to win yet another Midwest Conference football game, Grinnell college abruptly cancelled their football program prior to the game this October.
Overall, I am extremely shocked and disappointed with this decision. The rationale for it was that Grinnell’s football team did not have enough healthy players to continue their season. It is extremely unexpected. After all, of all the sports cancelled due to a lack of participation, who would have expected it to be football?
While football is likely not the highest priority by any means at Grinnell College, I believe that it is absurd for them to have to cancel their season. With an endowment of over a billion dollars, there is no reason that the school cannot devote more money to recruiting athletes across the U.S. Taking away football effectively undermines the college experience for not only the athletes themselves, but also for the students who support the athletes every week.
With St. Norbert leaving the MWC next year and Grinnell’s football future in disarray, it is imperative for the conference to find teams to potentially join. Otherwise, the Fighting Scots may struggle to fill their schedule.
Liam Meyer - Contributing Writer
On October 1, the Grinnell football team made the announcement that they would forfeit the rest of their season. With their last 5 seasons winning just 8 out of 50 games, should they just discontinue the program entirely?
Based off the Grinnell Football Twitter account, they continue to actively recruit athletes, which shows that they are still attempting to grow the program. With an academically sound school like Grinnell, it is hard for them to recruit athletes with high test scores and GPAs. Their average ACT is a 30-33, which makes it hard for them to hold that standard to incoming athletes. If they are to grow their program, they need to lower their academic requirements for athletes, which will take a few seasons for results to show, but it would eventually pay off. However, the integrity of the school is at risk by admitting students with substantially lower test scores compared to others not involved in athletics. I feel that at the Division III level, a healthy mix of both is necessary to hold a competitive athletics program and a substantial academic core. In order to fix Grinnell’s losing reputation, they need to lower their academic expectations and recruit more athletes that will change their program.
CJ Bonifer - Photography Manager
In an October 1 press release, the Grinnell College athletic department announced that they would be killing the football program for the 2019 season. The reason for doing this was a lack of depth on the roster to fill positions. The move by the administration got attention from Barstool Sports, The Washington Post, The New York Times and Bleacher Report. The question that permeates in my head following this decision is: Why field a team?
After reading the Washington Post piece and the opinions of the players on the team, as well as the institution’s administration, it seems as if Grinnell College does not want the football team to exist on the campus. One player even told the Washington Post that “there’s a lack of institutional support.”
I do recognize that Grinnell is a top 15 liberal arts college that cares more about their students’ performance in the classroom as opposed to their performance on the field or on the court. But if this is the case, why have football at all? Collegiate athletics at the D3 level, no matter how small, is more than just a commitment from the athletics department. It’s a commitment from admissions, alumni, and the senior staff.