Comments on: Where Have You Gone CIA? ASUCI and Eater Nation Need to Step It Up

By: Former CIA a bay beh

Former CIA a bay beh — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 09:27:55 +0000

When I have more time I think I’ll write about all this. But I’ll list a few quickly. 1.Coach PD needs to go. He has only gotten us to 1 Big West conference final I believe in almost his entire career at UCI. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pat_Douglass So he hasn’t produced much for students to want to go to a UCI bball game but that’s not 100% his fault

2. This is a huge problem: Students keep telling each other “what’s the point of going to the game. we suck, we’re gonna lose.” This is a huge disease on campus. I remember trying to get people in the dorms, friends, everyone who was remotely interested in UCI or sports to go. 90% said that diseased statements. In CIA we were trying to fight that but it’s very hard.

I have other problems with what’s wrong with us. But I will mention that Eater Nation is basically trying to be some revamped CIA and it’s just terrible. The black shirts were the worst idea.

CIA is gone for now b/c students just don’t want to do it. It’s not too much work.

One more thing before I leave: Students at games feel embarrassed to make loud noises, cheer, move around, etc Students need to get rid of this stupid emotion when at a game. Seriously when I went to the games it was so fun to cheer w/ my CIA homies and all the students. I was running across the floor, making noises. People just need to bring out a little passion.

David can we write an editorial or anything for the New U? I think I’d be down to say something.

By: JG

JG — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 07:59:16 +0000

passionate writing. good stuff
ZOT ZOT ZOT

By: zotchatter

zotchatter — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 07:51:38 +0000

More students need to drink before the games. then the games will be fun. stupid boring freshmen.

By: Then-CIA Leader, Now-Grad Student

Then-CIA Leader, Now-Grad Student — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 02:52:29 +0000

The demise of CIA and the emergence of Eater Nation (which is a ridiculous name for a student section, by the way) was not, from my understanding, the works of ASUCI. From what I know, and from what I experienced while a CIA Leader, it was the UCI Sports Marketing department that led the change. In a year that they had said they wanted CIA to be more student-run, Sports Marketing took more control than they previously had (CIA’s funding came from Sports Marketing, I believe) and forced the name change and the new t-shirts which were god-awful ridiculous. Black shirts, really? The reason for that change was this: “It’s more threatening/fashionable.” It’s a student section! It’s supposed to be loud and obnoxious, not fashionable. But I digress. Under increased control by Sports Marketing, the organization that was CIA really became nothing more than their and, partly, ASUCI’s bitches. At Shocktoberfest/Midnight Magic, we were stuck outside at the event’s (an ASUCI event, I might add) information booth while ASUCI members got to go inside and see the basketball part of the event (the part that CIA should have been inside for). There are other instances, but that was a major one. They were very overbearing and, because of Sports Marketing, I stopped finding the games to be fun about halfway through the season.

As “graduated CIA member” said, we were restricted in what we were allowed to yell at other players/teams. This kind of goes along with what you, David Gao, said with the negative cheers. Now, I’m sorry, but compared to student sections at big name schools, we are downright TAME. I mean Barney tame. Sure, the students need to get more creative, but negative cheers come with the territory of being a student section. It happens at Long Beach State, UCLA, North Carolina, and Duke, among others. Duke had a good one a few years ago in a game against Florida State. There was a report released a few days before that game about the dismal academic performance of some Florida State basketball players, and so some Duke students showed up in cap-and-gown holding signs saying, “Florida State Basketball: Fear the Classroom!”. And the negative chants and yelling at individual players could be very beneficial to the home team. At several games in the 3 years I spent as a CIA Leader, we got in the heads of several players and it did affect their game. This is Division 1 basketball. They should expect it. Besides, it’s all in good fun. It’s all over-the-top (e.g. “You have herpes!”) and not to be taken seriously.

Anyway, back to the demise of CIA. Sports Marketing made it so NOBODY who was a CIA Leader at the end of the year wanted to be a CIA Leader. There are current undergraduate students this year who were CIA Leaders last year but just didn’t want to do it any more, and a large portion of their reasoning was Sports Marketing. We were trying to work something out with ASUCI where CIA could be under the umbrella of ASUCI as opposed to Sports Marketing, but before anything was able to really happen, an email was sent out to every student who had their ID card scanned at games saying that Eater Nation was here to stay and that they were starting anew. We were told NOTHING before that. The way we were treated by Sports Marketing led to the complete demise of CIA as none of us who could continue with it wanted to continue with it and none of us had the heart to try to bring new people in.

By: N

Wed, 06 Jan 2010 21:37:40 +0000

I agree with Tony L on pretty much all points. The games are not even that fun to go to anymore.

By: graduated CIA member

graduated CIA member — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 21:06:24 +0000

As an alumnus this year, I still love to go to the games, but the student section is PA-thetic. It’s a sad state of affairs to see the once fun and rowdy atmosphere completely removed. Granted, in the CIA days, the attendance was about the same, but the energy was infinitely greater. My friends and I used to heckle for the entire game. We’d run up and down the court with some of the opposing players just to get an adverse reaction. The time I knew that the fun was officially over at UCI basketball games was when we had an STD chant for every starter on the opposing team (ie: You have herpes! clap clap clap clap clap!, “player” has AIDS! “player has AIDS!”, etc.). Somebody from Athletics marketing came and told us to stop. We then went to generic diseases (ie: “you have E.D.! clap clap clap clap clap”, “player has the common cold!”, etc.) and were told to refrain from that, too.

By: Chris

Chris — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 20:39:56 +0000

Getting rid of the CIA was a HUGE mistake. I would like to see it brought back next year. I am a recent alum who doesn’t bother to attend games now that I’ve graduated. The lackluster atmosphere combined with the horrible Pat Douglass led teams have caused me to stay away.

Are you reading this Mike Izzi?

By: Frank T. Eater

Frank T. Eater — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 17:30:19 +0000

I never understood the “If you can’t go to college go to state” or STATE SCHOOL chants. Last time I checked all UCs are state school’s hence the name, University of California, Irvine.

Are the UCs too elitist to acknowledge they are STATE SCHOOLS too?

By: Tony L

Tony L — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 07:11:38 +0000

David’s article is spot on. I’d argue that the lack of spirit is not entirely the student’s fault. The athletic department have put themselves in this mess, namely the following:
1) Retaining Pat Douglass, who has not reached the NCAA’s in his dozen+ years. As if last night’s Cal Poly loss wasn’t enough, we shouldn’t forget previous losses to Cal State Stanislaus and the buttkicking we received from former bodybag Idaho up in Moscow a few years ago. Both games on their own are fireable offenses.
2) Crappy home scheduling (Laverne, Vanguard, and Cal State Bakersfield). Somebody explain to me how the freakin College of Charleston was able to get North Carolina to make a visit? We had Oregon and Utah last year, which were great. But we couldn’t find anybody to come here? Why not?
3) Security being too tight on who enters the Student Section (Who cares if non-students want to be loud and vocal with their peers? It’s not like the Student Section is filled to the brim each night.)
4) Parking- The price to park is almost the same as general admission!
5) In game entertainment- They used to throw out tons of Nestle Crunch. Now they throw out about 8 pieces. And the halftime entertainment with the Modern Dance Lady Gaga Gwen Stefani Kesha routine is awful. I’d rather watch the empty basketball court and hear the band play that song by Lit over and over again for those 15 minutes.

If UCI wants the students to show up and be passionate, they just need to win. That would cure everything.

By: David Gao

David Gao — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 20:40:47 +0000

Thanks for catching that, N. It has been corrected to “Completely Insane Anteaters”