What are the people that are doing the scheduling for the football team trying to accomplish? Pitting the Huskies against powerhouse schools such as Iowa, Florida, Army and Illinois is not the right path for the team to get exposure and better yet, wins.

I realize that playing against well-known schools gains some exposure and helps recruiting, but in order to receive these two positive outcomes, the team would have to play well and not get smashed like roadkill.

It would only backfire on our recruiting hopes for signing All-American caliber high school players. I know that if I was a high school recruit that was heavily sought by Northern, I wouldn’t look too favorably toward the school after hearing about such blowouts as Fresno State (55-17) and Iowa (58-7) … and we haven’t played Florida yet!

What these schedulers are accomplishing here is to maintain Division 1-A status with averaging 18,000 fans for combined home games. This is not the way to go.

What I can see happen in the future is that (barring miracle upsets) we’ll lose and lose bad to these powerhouse schools, return home, receive low attendance figures because we’re losing and, in order to maintain Division 1-A status, schedule even more big schools and lose even more.

Let’s get out of this cycle before it ruins the program.

How about scheduling more games against teams in the Midwest and avoiding unnecessary trips to California and such where several people that go on those trips have nothing to do with football and have no right to go at the expense of the students.

My roommates and I have nothing really planned for the Oct. 19 match-up against Florida, so why not have us tag along? We wouldn’t mind, then.

Now, if we play against good teams and teams that are in close proximity to Northern and win or at least give a good game, the fans will show up to the home games and we wouldn’t have to worry about going elsewhere to get our attendance figures up. We have great athletes on this football team, but why go out and get them banged up against these big schools and lose any hopes for winning against teams of equal talent because of injuries.

I have the highest respect for our football players in sticking with it and giving their all in every game. In the meantime, as along as they play respectable and entertaining football, I will continue to go to the home games and be proud of our Huskies.

Tim Bowers

Senior

Meteorology