Knowledge and Nonsense – Our Academics and the Dean’s Cup

Ehiogu Bede Justin
We have approached that time of the year again – for our sports-loving AFASites – when the departments’ football teams confront one another in a battle of pressing, fitness, and tactics.
Every session, in the middle of the second semester, the 12 departments of the faculty gather their football teams. They are divided into 3 groups of 4, and the teams in each group face off in a round robin format.
The winners and runners-up of each group, and two best losers, advance to the quarter finals. There are two rounds of knockout, and then, two teams get to the final, which is played at the back of a losers’ final. And then we have our winner.
It is not complicated; it is fun to watch, it is competitive, and that is probably why it is survived despite the somewhat apathetic nature of many students and staff to sporting extracurricular activities.
A lecturer once made a comment – not to me in particular, nor because of the Dean’s Cup – about not liking football, describing it as nonsense: a bunch of people kicking a ball around, with heavy risks of getting injured. Some AFASites echoed the comment to me, this time about the Dean’s Cup. Their dislike was of football, not sports in general – I still wait for the day when I will meet someone who likes no sport whichever. Meanwhile, it is not the sport’s fault that it is the most widely-played and watched in the country.
To look at it from the aforementioned lecturer’s point of view, it does seem a bit ridiculous that 22 people would step onto a pitch, and kick a football around for an hour – a potentially injurious activity, mind-bending – then come out tired, sweaty, and hungry; one group sad, or perhaps annoyed and arguing amongst themselves, and the other feeling smug for having kicked more balls into a net. In a week, only a distant memory of it is left. Football is more than this, of course; but admittedly, in the layman’s view, it is nonsense.
I like the nonsense. And so do a lot of people, for sports is intrinsic to academics; intrinsic to life itself in fact. Fortunately, there are lots of measures to keep us focused on knowledge, lest we forget ourselves.
Women’s football is also played in the Dean’s Cup, mind you; so our female AFASites need not despair, nor go off about a male-intensive sports system. The rules are, of course, modified in such a way as to suit them; so, again, none need be reluctant to play for fear of tiring – it’s not that exhausting.
The male football is far more competitive, and discussed a lot more than the female. This is simply down to, I think, the fiercer and fitter nature of the male version, and generally their greater love of the game. Hence, in their trainings and matches are more intensity, passion, fervor, mobility, and of course, injuries – or hurt, if injury’s too strong a word. But I have regrown each of my biggest toenails four times now, so ….
The school, not just this current management, does not like any interference with the timetable, nor does it appreciate the cancellation of classes in any way. Even postponements are difficult. That is why one of my classes was once held on the same day as our school-organised orientation ceremony, but that is by the way. Because of this, students who play football during the Dean’s Cup tend to miss some classes for them, particularly the males. They just obtain permission from the department so no tests are taken in their absence, nor are they punished by attendance-conscious lecturers.
Whether this may or may not affect them is besides the point; they are always sufficiently devoted to their teams or willing enough to play that they make that choice voluntarily. But it does affect the number of spectators at the games. Most students are often not willing to miss their classes to go see a game, and perhaps rightly so. Whether this is appropriate or not is irrelevant; it is part of the school life, the status quo; and when the games come, it will be left to you to make your own choice.
It is entertaining, but not everyone likes or participates in the Dean’s Cup, just as not everyone likes attending classes. For those who do love the tournament, the season is here again. It is short but we will make the most of it, particularly if we love both the knowledge and the nonsense.