Brahma Bowl Is Just Two Teams Shooting the Bull

Saturday’s Brahma Bowl game at Pierce College couldn’t be better named.

A brahma is a type of bull.

And there has been plenty of that connected with this football game.

On both sides.

In one corner, you have the Pierce College football team, unbeaten in the Southern California Conference and naturally invited to be a participant in this inaugural event as the host school.

So what does football Coach Jim Fenwick do? He calls a bump and run two weeks before the game, threatening a boycott.

No pay, no play. Simple as that.

Fenwick was angry that Pierce administrators had made the Brahma Bowl a fund-raiser for several of the college’s sports.

The boycott was called off after college officials said that Fenwick’s program will receive half of the proceeds from the game earmarked for Pierce.

“Here was a football game with the football team not getting the benefit,” Fenwick said. “I talked about all of this to the players and they all agreed we should not play the game if we were not going to get something back for our program. We’re talking about what is fair.”

Or are we talking about what is selfish?

These are tough times financially for the junior colleges. So tough that although the Los Angeles Community College District may receive up to $3.3 million this year from the state lottery, the windfall will merely balance this year’s expected deficit.

A college, particularly a junior college, tries to have a well-balanced program. That is a real struggle these days. Pierce’s baseball team nearly went out of business a few years back when its money dried up.

Most of these athletes are competing for the love of the sport. You don’t find too many serious career athletes at the junior college level.

So who is to say that a lone tennis player, performing in front of maybe only friends or relatives, is any less worthy of support than a team of football players competing in front of several hundred people?

“Football isn’t the only sport on campus,” said Richard Moyer, assistant dean of student services at Pierce. “Everybody is appreciative of football, but we’re trying to build a balanced program. Sports has lots of masters to serve. And it’s a lot harder to sell wrestling than it is to sell football.”

Sure, football needs more money. But so do a lot of other junior college sports.

Jim Fenwick, of all people, ought to know the importance of being a team player.

On the other side of the Brahma Bowl field, you have Moorpark College, a team embroiled in a controversy over the eligibility of five of its players. The players in question were caught in a disagreement between school officials and the governing California Assn. of Community Colleges over the deadline for dropping classes without losing eligibility.

Until Friday, all Moorpark College students could drop a class and receive a withdrawn mark rather than risk a far-more-damaging F. Withdrawing from any class, however, would have left fewer than 12 units on the schedule of five football players, according to football Coach Jim Bittner. And 12 units are required by state rules to play football.

The college maintained that the 12-unit requirement was no longer in effect after the eligibility list for the Brahma Bowl was drawn up last week.

Two other players who short of units were allowed to enroll in classes 13 weeks into the 21-week semester to become eligible for the game.

Said Paul Dunham, Moorpark athletic director: “If you can find an instructor who will let you into a class, even at this point in the semester, then you’re back in. Even if he gets an F or a D in the class, he’s still back in 12 units and still eligible for sports.”

He’s also probably eligible for many years for a spot in an unemployment line.

Is the overriding priority at Moorpark College eligibility for the Brahma Bowl?

Just get in a class. Any class. Fs. Ds. Once the game is over, who cares?

“Some of our players were contemplating dropping classes,” Bittner said, “either because they didn’t need the units or were not getting a high enough grade.”

Didn’t need the units? What in the world were they doing in that class, just killing time until the football season ended?

The Brahma Bowl.

How fitting.