Kennesaw is now Owl Country.
With the recent announcement that Kennesaw State University will play its first football game in 2015 , the campus already is awash in yellow and black.
“Nothing shouts school pride like wearing a KSU Owls football jersey on campus,” said Sarah Woodall, a senior working toward a degree in sports management.
Like Woodall, most of the 24,000 students at KSU, as well as faculty and staff at the north Cobb County campus, are excited about the prospect of gridiron glory. With the first game still more than two years away, evidence of this enthusiasm can be found everywhere.
- The college bookstore is stocked with T-shirts, sweatshirts, hats, and key chains bearing the KSU Owl logo and the team colors.
- "It's Our Time," the school's anticipatory football slogan, is posted on billboards, some as far aways as Athens.
- At a recent basketball game, students applauded a preview of a new football commercial which will soon air.
For the last two years, athletic director Vaughn Williams led the quest to bring football to KSU. Williams said he’s delighted by the enthusiastic response from the students, even those who will graduate long before the first kickoff.
“I think people understand this is not just an athletic thing,” Williams said. “This is a university thing.”
The football thing means a lot to colleges and universities, especially in Georgia. Top-tier programs can generate millions of dollars for schools. Officials say such programs raise the profile of schools, helping boost student enrollment numbers and helping to raise money.
“I think college football is a big part of a culture of collegiate life in the Southeast,” said Scott Whitlock, KSU’s senior associate athletic director. “I think that’s because of the enormous popularity of college football in the South, that in many people’s eyes, whether it’s right or wrong, a university’s campus looks incomplete if it doesn’t have a football program.”
Kennesaw’s football effort began in 2006, but when former Georgia football coach Vince Dooley was brought in to head an exploratory committee in 2009, the campaign kicked into high gear.
Opened in 2010, Kennesaw State University Stadium was originally slated for soccer and lacrosse games. However, its long-term planned use was always for football. The 10,000-seat open air facility guarantees Owls students will only have a short commute to tailgate and enjoy the game on campus.
Not everyone at KSU is rabid about football’s arrival. Some students who graduate before the first game are not happy about having to shell out extra $100 student fee to fund football.
“We are not exactly thrilled with the fact we have to help pay for the program through increased tuition,” Woodall said.
However, other students like senior Travis Clark chose to attend KSU because of the rapidly growing campus and the early whispers of football.
“I’m honestly shocked at the amount of students who are against the addition of football because of a mere $100 fee,” Clark said. “Any fee that potentially adds exponential value to my degree is perfectly fine with me and, in my opinion, should be embraced.”
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