The Power of Football

I went to the Stanford men's basketball game tonight against Central Arkansas, and there were less than 1,000 people in the stands.  Every section was flooded with tons of empty red seats, and the bleacher seats up top were almost completely vacant.  There was, however, one section that was moderately full, moderately loud and moderately energetic - amazingly, it was the 6th Man section, home of the Stanford students.  You may recall that, last year, I criticized Stanford basketball fans for being apathetic and weak.  At first blush, it seemed as if a new crop of students brought some life to Maples in time for the start of the 2011-2012 college hoops season.

This, however, wasn't true.  In fact, the only reason students showed up to watch Stanford basketball was because of Stanford football.  Tonight's obscure hoops match against Central Arkansas, you see, is worth one Red Zone (loyalty) point to next weekend's Big Game showdown with rival Cal, which is always a big game and this year is shaping up to be especially so.  If Stanford can hold off Oregon tomorrow (plenty of coverage and pictures from that game and the festivities surrounding it - including ESPN's College Gameday broadcast live from the Oval tomorrow morning - to come), next Saturday's Cal game will be for a lot more than pride; it'll be to clinch the Pac-12 North division and a spot in the first Pac-12 Championship game, as well as a potential berth to the National Championship.  If anything can get Stanford students to a non-conference basketball game, that'll do it.

The fact that the 6th Man section was somewhat crowded for tonight's game shows the power of a dominant football program.  While a great basketball team can't drive success on the gridiron (as Duke painfully discovers year after year), big time football can generate enthusiasm for basketball.  The question will be can Stanford build on the buzz around the football program, use it (and the loyalty points program) to push fans to basketball games, and maintain excitement in Maples after Andrew Luck is gone and the the days of National Championship contention are over?  Even if not, it's smart for the Stanford athletic department to do anything they can to leverage the football team's success for other sports while it lasts.

But why stop at offering one loyalty point for this season's Big Game?  Why not have a number of this season's basketball games earn Red Zone points for games next season?  While such a program wouldn't appeal to people graduating (myself included), and even though next year's football team won't be nearly as good as the 2011 version, it couldn't hurt to try to use the allure of tickets to next season's USC game, for example, to get people to show up to big basketball games against UCLA or Arizona (which last year were empty).  Tonight proved that football can drive traffic to other sports.  It would be wise for Stanford athetics to ride the football team's tidal wave for as long as possible.