Penn Staters are not happy with the university's decision to hold its Blue-White Game for freshman only, and for good reason.
If you're not familiar, the Blue-White game is Penn State's annual intra-squad scrimmage to give students and fans one last taste of game day. Although the Blue-White game was canceled this year, the university released a statement on March 17th that the final spring practice will be open to all first-year students in its place.
"We are pleased to be able to offer an opportunity for our first-year students to experience Beaver Stadium for the first time as Penn Staters," Barron said. "Because of the pandemic, these students have missed out on this special tradition of cheering on the Nittany Lions, and we hope this will be a memorable way for them to gather together and celebrate the final practice of the spring."
Although I understand that freshman haven't yet gotten the opportunity to experience Penn State football, what about the seniors who will never experience it as students again? I personally think money was the motivator in this decision.
Whereas freshman have three more years ahead of them to dish out money to the university, the seniors have already paid their dues. Opening up this opportunity for freshman may be an attempt to keep students from transferring and taking their money elsewhere.
Students started a petition on change.org to allow seniors to attend the practice. At the time I'm writing this, they are just a few hundred signatures away from their goal of 7,500.
I'm not a senior, but I feel for all those who are. I hope Penn State will make the right decision and open the practice to seniors, but I wouldn't be surprised if they ignored the thousands of signatures fighting against their poor judgement.