North Florida Bans Tailgating After Excessive Drinking, Focuses Blame On Greeks

Dent8 years ago

The party is over for students at the University of North Florida. Sayonara to a fun school tradition. Their pre-game basketball tailgates, affectionately referred to as “Swoop-gating,” have been banned until further notice by school officials after a student was hospitalized last week from drinking.

From First Coast News:

Too much booze, underage drinking and swallowing a goldfish. These are the reasons why there isn’t anymore tailgating at the University of North Florida (UNF).

UNF officially banned student tailgating, focusing on fraternities and sororities, for the remainder of the school year. The ban was prompted after a student was transported from an Osprey men’s basketball pre-game tailgate last week, according to UNF’s Associate Vice President of Student Affairs Everett Malcolm.

“We did have an alcohol transport a week ago,” Malcolm said. ”If you have one transport, you have the potential for others.”

Expert analysis by this Malcolm guy. A one time instance is surely a sign of hundreds of more cases to follow. Better to let these kids stay in their dorm rooms nippling on pre-game hors do’euvres of Tide Pods than to allow them to tailgate. And who’s eating goldfish? Is this happening often? Oh yeah, a one time occurrence equates to hundreds of others. I forgot the rule.

Double kudos to this guy for blaming fraternities and sororities specifically. Non-Greek students would never ever think to touch a bottle. Sound judgement in not including them.

“Tailgating, by definition, is probably not what is going on,” UNF athletic director Lee Moon told our news partners, the Florida Times-Union. “There were some issues going on that had to be addressed that were very critical and things that were going on that needed to be straightened out.”

“The rest of them stay out there and drink,” Moon told the TU. “That’s not what tailgating is, not what it should be. It should be about school spirit.”

I’m no expert on job requirements and all, but UNF athletic director is a position that requires a college degree, right? AD Lee Moon, have you never tailgated before, sir? Tailgating by definition is not drinking? What are you talking about?

To pretty much every college student on this planet, tailgating references waking up extra early on a Saturday to get absolutely plastered. Some of my best memories are tailgates wherein I get tanked by noon, end up skipping the game to take home a 4 who I’m sure is an 8, pass out, then wake up and ask where the 8 went. Ahhh the nostalgia…

Let’s be real here. If other schools shut down tailgating every time someone was sent to the hospital from drinking or housing live goldfish, college athletics would cease to exist. I’m pretty sure half the south’s economy is built on the purchase of game day Natty Light.

I know this is may come as a shock, but very few college students are going to come to a school where alcohol is frowned upon, unless it’s BYU but that’s not a glowing endorsement. North Florida officials, I urge you: trust your students to make the right decisions when it comes to their alcohol intake. Because if we’re being totally honest, only one out of a thousand going overboard is pretty good..

[via First Coast News]

Image via Wikimedia Commons