Poor fan behavior in the Big Ten has been a popular topic in the news lately. The University of Wisconsin continues to work on addressing the problem of bad fan behavior in “town hall” type meetings. While we believe these meetings cannot hurt, aspects of the fan-behavior argument are missing here and should be communicated to the powers that be in the Big Ten Conference office.

Chancellor Wiley has stated that he does not feel the deteriorating game-day atmosphere is a reflection on the behavior of UW students. In an e-mail to The Badger Herald, Chancellor Wiley wrote, “Throughout my involvement in this issue, I have made it very clear that I do not consider this to be a student-behavior problem. With the sole exception of chants coming solely from the student section, most of the perpetrators of offensive behavior are not students.”

He goes on to say students are minimally at fault.

“The overwhelming majority of people who end up getting ejected from our games or arrested are not students. Are some students behaving badly and even committing some of the worst offenses? Sure they are, but in very small numbers. Overall, I think students are much more likely to be a part of the solution than a major part of the problem.”

The attitude Wiley employs should serve as an example for Big Ten officials. For the most part, students aren’t the problem but are being threatened with serious consequences if fan behavior continues to be a problem.

Big Ten Commissioner James Delaney explained there are three steps in the crowd-control initiative. The first step is to tell the university there is a problem at their school. The second step is to bring up the problem publicly, and the final step is to separate the student section.

Right off the bat, the Big Ten has alienated the student population by insinuating that crowd-control problems are solely are solely the fault of students, or it at least seems this way, because the students are the only ones threatened by punishment. This is an unfair stereotype and misconception that must be addressed and discarded before serious student cooperation to further the movement can be achieved.

For this crowd-control initiative to succeed, it must be a group effort. The old saying goes that if someone pokes you with their fingers together rather than spread out the effect will be more powerful. The Big Ten is a finger, each university is a finger, adult fans make up a finger, the NCAA is a finger and, finally, the students are a finger. All of these fingers must come together to make the hand as strong as it can be in fighting to improve college athletics.

It is important to make each group feel like it is an important part of the process to make a difference in game-day atmospheres. Making students feel responsible for the problems right off the bat is not the answer. The Big Ten must strive to include students and encourage them to be part of the solution instead of unfairly alienating them from the beginning as the problem.

Give UW students some credit; they are some of the most intelligent and motivated fans in all of college athletics. In the end, including them instead of directing initiatives at them will do more to solve the problem of fan behavior.

We ask the Big Ten to step off its high and mighty platform and look at who and what represent the “college” in college athletics. This campaign has tremendous possibilities to improve athletic environments and keep them respectable, but the shortcomings of the campaign absolutely need to be addressed.

We are all in this together. Putting students down from the beginning and threatening them with unrealistic solutions will not help matters.