The shame of OU's football schedule
Published: 2/17/2012 7:44 AM
Last Modified: 2/17/2012 7:44 AM
If you're a powerhouse football program and you're going to schedule an FCS patsy, the least you can do is make that FCS patsy entertaining. That's why I considered it a stroke of genius for Oklahoma to bring in Florida A&M for a Sept. 8 football game.
The Sooners weren't bringing in the FAMU football team.
They were bringing in the FAMU band. The famed Marching 100.
Beautiful!
All Owen Field fans had to do was stay interested for a half. Then they could watch the 100 put on their show. They could watch the band that has played Super Bowls and Presidential Inauguration Parades and Grammy Awards.
They could leave the stadium anytime they wished after that, and feel they got their money's worth.
It seemed too good to be true, a throwaway game actually providing one of the highlights on the 2012 OU football schedule.
Well, apparently it is.
The Marching 100 hasn't, in fact, marched since last November. That's when drum major Robert Champion died as a result of injuries sustained during a hazing incident on one of the band's buses.
The state board of governors launched an investigation. So did the state's law enforcement department. The victim's parents filed a wrongful death suit. Four band members were arrested on hazing charges and expelled from the university. The band director was placed on leave. Suspensions of other hazing incidents involving band members were raised.
The band itself had its summer camp canceled and other clubs suspended. Who knows when it will be allowed to perform again, given the grisly nature of the story.
Google the 100's performance at a Dolphins game. Or on the ESPN College GameDay set. Watch the band belt out their songs while singing and dancing. Watch the drum line. To think that something so awful was going on beneath the surface of something so joyful…
What a terrible shame.
For so long, Florida A&M football games were worth celebrating, never mind the actual football, because they meant the Florida A&M band. That surely would have been the case in Norman next September.
Now, Sept. 8 sets up to be easily the low point of the Sooners' home season.
-- Guerin Emig
Written by
Guerin Emig
Sports Writer
