The 2009 Civil War football game will take place Thursday of Dead Week fall term, marking the Ducks’ first home Thursday night game since 1997.
The game will bring the athletic department $1.5 million through a contract with ABC, President Dave Frohnmayer recently told the University Senate, and will air on ESPN.
The game will “not only showcase our football program as well as an in-state rivalry that I feel is overlooked on the national scene, but will provide unprecedented exposure for the University of Oregon,” Athletic Director Pat Kilkenny said in a statement.
ASUO Senator Noor Rajabzadeh agreed with Kilkenny about the increased exposure – the athletic department is essentially an advertisement for the University, she said.
However, there is a caveat, Rajabzadeh said: If the University doesn’t have an equally strong or stronger academic presence, it reflects poorly on the University’s priorities.
Dave Williford, a spokesman for the athletic department, said Kilkenny and the entire department make it a point to consider and prioritize academics in every decision.
“We’re in the student business,” Williford said. “If students don’t come, there’s no reason to represent the University.”
He said athletics makes few decisions without consulting Frohnmayer and the Intercollegiate Athletic Committee. Kilkenny answers directly to Frohnmayer while the IAC, whose voting members include 11 faculty members and five students, acts a liaison between academics and athletics.
Janet Wasko, chair of the IAC, said the committee plays only an advisory role in decisions. It was asked for input on the 2009 Civil War decision, and members gave their opinions in e-mails, Wasko said.
“Mostly, the majority thought there was no problem,” she said.
Former IAC member and art history professor Richard Sundt was in the minority. In spite of Wasko and Williford’s assertion that athletics consults with academics, Sundt disagreed. “It’s very disturbing that the sense of the Senate and the faculty is not really taken into account,” he said.
Sundt also said he feels the athletic department becomes ever bigger and ever more costly, and is becoming out-of-proportion to the rest of the University. He said he understands athletics’ need to make money, but said he thinks it is time to reform the department.
The Thursday night Civil War game has an upside, said football head coach Mike Bellotti. “This schedule will allow our players to take a break for Thanksgiving, which they haven’t been able to take advantage of for the past three years,” he said in a statement.
Williford said this is true; since the Ducks’ schedule changed to include 12 games instead of 11 three years ago, the team has missed family Thanksgivings every year.
Fans have expressed concern that the game is on a Thursday night, which is a work night for most people.
Rajabzadeh said she isn’t concerned with the Thursday versus Saturday change, but rather the conflict between Dead Week and the Civil War.
The Civil War involves more than just a game, she said; there are festivities and activities for the entire week prior, which will only further distract from all of Dead Week.
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