Football is the new giant sport on campus, but what about the others?

I’m not much of a sports person, but I love the social aspects of games, like homecoming and the community feeling that comes with rallying around your home team. I’ve always enjoyed homecoming at Mercer. This school does a great job creating an atmosphere, usually reserved for football games, around basketball games.

I’m sure it wasn’t hard though, because we love our basketball team.

And now, we love our football team, too.

Now that football is back after over 70 years, what will become of homecoming? Will we neglect the basketball team we have loved and supported in the past?

That would be rather fickle.

Will we have two homecomings and support both teams?

Sounds rather busy and exhausting. And what about baseball, soccer, lacrosse, volleyball and all the other sports at Mercer? Do they get a “homecoming” too?

Or, do we continue to have homecoming only for basketball?

We live in the south, y’all. That ain’t gonna happen.

The basketball team probably doesn’t want my pity, but I do feel a little sad and afraid that they might get pushed aside for football.

There doesn’t seem to be an easy answer to the question, “What about homecoming?”

Hosting two homecomings asks students to do a lot, and might seem a little contrived. It might seem like we’re patronizing the basketball team: “Oh, we don’t want you to feel left out, so we’ll give you a homecoming, too.”

Would we be able to support two teams within one homecoming, or would basketball eventually be forgotten in the football frenzy?

We’re all excited about football, but let’s not be so excited as to forget about basketball (or any of our other sports, really).

I don’t want to speak for the basketball team, but if I was athletic (which I’m not) and played a major, dearly-beloved school sport, I might feel neglected if another major, dearly-beloved sport took over my school.

The hype and excitement surrounding football at Mercer is great, but we have a basketball team—two basketball teams—and many other sports that need and want our support.

I guess I don’t have any answers to the questions I’ve asked in this article. But I do know that basketball shouldn’t be overshadowed just because we have a new sports team around. Basketball deserves our love and support just as much as football.

Whether we have one homecoming or two, I’m sure Mercer students can continue to support our basketball team with the same fervor as before.

Now, we just have more people to cheer for.