The importance of college football has a wide-reaching impact through the rest of the athletic community. College football provides the majority of the remaining programs the ability to compete financially and the Miami Hurricanes unite the community.
The Miami Hurricanes football program is a vital part of the sports landscape in South Florida. Over 50,000 people unite about a half dozen times in late summer and throughout the fall to cheer on and watch the football team. The impact football has on American society can not be overstated.
Football provides financially for the vast majority of collegiate sports to be able to be run. Without football, most college athletic programs would not exist. During an appearance on the Joe Rose Show on WQAM on Monday morning, Miami head coach Manny Diaz was asked about the pressure of football financially.
The Miami Hurricanes athletic program lost about $2.6 million with the cancelation of the NCAA Men’s basketball tournament. That is money that other sports depend on to function. Without football, most other sports would cease to exist. Most collegiate athletic programs will have to eliminate teams without a football season.
Diaz was asked about the pressure that football has to provide for other sports. The Hurricanes head football coach took the discussion in another direction and answered that sports build community. The sweeping loss of sports that has occurred over the last three weeks is unprecedented globally.
"There’s another thought on that. How much have we learned about how important sports is for community? And how much have we learned about the power of community? When something is taken away you realize how important it is.“I wonder if we won’t have a sort of renewed level of appreciation of ‘I was there’ and being in the stadium and cheering on whatever team, tailgating, the whole nine [yards]. When these things get taken away…we do see how important sports is to our culture.Certainly because we love the games but it is a sense of community. We’re evolutionary trained to want to belong to a group and that’s what sports does for us.”"
The half dozen times 50,000 Miami Hurricanes fans and players’ families are able to get together each fall have been a constant in South Florida for nearly 40 years. The Miami football team has had a major presence in South Florida before the Heat, Marlins and Panthers were created as new franchises.
Diaz has a keen grasp on what it takes to build a community of fans beyond the six home games the fanbase gathers every fall. He has utilized social media to create excitement. When the 2019 season did not live up to expectations Diaz muted the amount he has been posting on social media.
Sports unite people more than anything else in society. The feeling of being able to belong to the group as Diaz states will be a key part of society getting back to a sense of normal. The 2020 season will produce a lot of “I was there” moments for the Miami football team with new quarterback D’Eriq King.