Are we a football school? Is football still our bread and butter? Are we a basketball school given recent successes in both M/W BB? Or are we becoming a Soccer school? Pretend you can only choose one. Also, I understand our high academic ranking, but since this is a sports forum, lets focus on athletics.
Football has long been king on campus, and we recently saw a great team last year, but student support has been an issue the last 5 years or so, with the section not quite as full and not understanding the game. You see cheering at incorrect times or not at all. I don't mean to sound nativist, but perhaps some of our students come from non-football areas? Or just decline of football playing out west?
Basketball: Lots of NCAA appearances and some wins for both squads.
Soccer: Becoming popular for Gen Z students and is already popular worldwide. MSoc had a great season.
What do you think? Also, I still love baseball but only certain college teams qualify as Baseball schools like Fullerton, LB, etc. Also our facilities are as lacking as our teams have been so it's really a battle of the three sports. Any other sport doesn't have the attention of the sports campus in the way the others can get.
The problem with the soccer season is that you blink twice and the season is over (in most seasons) because we are a quarter school and matches occur in the afternoon during a busy time for new students.
I honestly think we have minimal support for all sports unless they're actually broadcast on live tv. Whenever the basketball team hosts a televised game, it becomes a big deal.
I would agree with AggieFinn that it's bare bones support across the board. The demographics of the student body are much different now compared to ten years ago and certainly 20 years ago. I read an article not too long ago that UCD is the most racially diverse university in the U.S. And with that has sadly come the slow downturn in enthusiasm over the past decade :(
The current students aren't juiced about football and sports, in general. BaseballAtDobbins is correct that lots don't understand how sports like football work and this is a turn off for going to games or learning more about them. I think more students are familiar w/ soccer than any other sport because of its global reach. But is Davis truly a "Soccer School"? I don't think so. The history just isn't there. It's still a football school, just not on the level of a Cal or Stanford program.
However, it's wrong to try to compare Davis to other schools like I just did. But, nowadays, students and locals don't embrace that idea -- one that Jim Sochor trumpeted during his time in town and helped make Davis so unique and great; seeing past what we don't have and instead embracing what we do have to work with. Davis could use some more of that thinking now.