Riled up by road trip rankings

According to "Sports Illustrated On Campus," I'm a tool, and Princeton is less fun than Brown.

While I'm entirely willing to grant the former point, I must strongly object to the latter.

Confused? Allow me to explain.

In its Oct. 13 issue, 'SI On Campus' — a bimonthly publication best described as 'Sports Illustrated's scorned, illegitimate nephew — chose the Ivy League as the subject for its "college road trip" feature. The story evaluated how each Ivy university stacks up as a road trip destination, ranking the Ancient Eight based on an analysis of their sports and party scenes.

An online-only addendum also included a 500-word rundown of life at each school. Not surprisingly, a large part of the Princeton writeup was dedicated to explaining eating clubs, complete with stereotypes. Apparently my beloved Tower Club is referred to as "the tool shed."

Since my mom has repeatedly assured me that I really am cool, I took far greater umbrage with the result of the rankings than with being called a tool. According to the article, Princeton is only the third-best sports road trip destination in the Ivy League, ranking behind first-place Yale and second-place ... Brown.

Huh?

Now, the article was dead-on in its analysis of the schools ranked behind us. Dartmouth students can take pride in their frats and hockey teams — and little else. Cornell has the potential to be fun — but it's in Ithaca. Harvard students know how to party — but Cambridge shuts down way too early. Columbia boats a great location in Manhattan — until you have to commute 100 blocks uptown to the football stadium. And Penn just sucks.

I'm even willing to grant that Yale may be a better sports road trip destination than Princeton. The historic Yale Bowl is an amazing place to watch college football, students pack beautiful Payne-Whitney Gym for basketball games and I've been to a few good parties (without getting mugged) during my forays to New Haven.

But Brown ranking ahead of us? That place up in Providence, R.I., without academic standards or school spirit? A school named after a really ugly color? The university most likely to get kicked out if the Ivy League ever decides to become the Ancient Seven? Seriously?

My apologies, but I can't help but ask the obvious question: Was the writer, someone named Maggie Haskins, smoking something?

In fact, she might have been. A quick Google search revealed an interesting piece of information that Haskins neglected to mention in her article: She is a 2004 graduate of Brown.

Get the best of the ‘Prince’ delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe now »

So much for journalistic objectivity.

After making my discovery, I emailed Haskins and offered her an opportunity to explain her ranking rationale to the 'Prince.' I'm still waiting to hear back.

:::::

So we're probably more fun than Brown after all. But that doesn't mean the sports fandom culture at Princeton isn't in desperate need of improvement.

As my colleague Anna Lineback pointed out in her column Friday, Princetonians could learn a thing or two from our southern state school brethren. Our football team's success is irrelevant: Going to football games is simply what college students are supposed to do on Saturdays in the fall.

Thousands and thousands of students packed Michigan Stadium and Notre Dame Stadium on Saturday afternoon. Some went because they love football; others went because they love their school. Either way, while their memories of the dramatic endings they witnessed will fade over the years, they will never forget the excitement itself.

As Princeton students, of course, it is unlikely that we will ever get to experience a game of that caliber or consequence. But that doesn't mean we should give up. Instead of complaining about the lack of school spirit here, go to games and create some.

Give the Department of Athletics credit. For the Tigers' season home opener Sept. 24, they pulled out all the stops, offering free pizza and t-shirts to any students who ventured to Princeton Stadium. And yet, still, only 10 percent of the student body showed up.

What are we holding out for, free beer? I'm all for a new kind of Alcohol Initiative, but somehow I don't see it happening.

Besides, school spirit isn't something that administrators can artificially create. It's up to us, the students. The founders of the Jadwin Jungle — juniors John Boscia, Freddy Flaxman and Jonah Perlin — proved that it is possible to make an impact. According to Flaxman, signups for this season begin next week. The three Jungle ringleaders have already done the hard part; the least the rest of us can do is fork over five dollars and make some noise.

You only get so many chances to paint yourself in Orange and Black and go crazy, after all. Once our four short years at Princeton expire, this place we love so dearly will cease to be our everyday home. And though Reunions may be the world's greatest road trip destination, they only come once a year.

So instead of worrying whether Princeton is the best Ivy League school to visit, I'd rather focus on making Princeton the best place to be.