Belmont-Lipscomb rivalry is unmatched in quality, dwindling in popularity David Boclair
by David Boclair
The T-shirts worn by many in the home team's student section last January proclaimed: "There's a reason it's called 'Belmont' Boulevard."
In case anyone wondered, that was evidence enough that the passion behind the Battle of the Boulevard has not changed for those who support either Lipscomb or Belmont. The competitiveness of the contests since the local basketball rivalry was reborn in 2004 has shown a similar truth for those who play the game.
It's the scope that has changed — shrunk, to be exact — and there's evidence to suggest that erosion continues to this day, with the latest installment set to take place Monday at Lipscomb.
An unfortunate downside to the decision by Belmont and Lipscomb to upgrade their respective basketball programs to NCAA Division I has been a downsizing in the magnitude of their annual meetings on court, which these days take place in venues—Curb Events Center and Allen Arena—designed at least in part with these specific contests in mind.
In an era when the Bowl Championship Series has diminished the perceived value of dozens of football bowl games, when there is talk of expanding the NCAA basketball tournament to accommodate more schools from the power conferences, when Mike Leach's actions in the training room and Rick Pitino's actions in the bedroom are considered national news, Lipscomb against Belmont or Belmont against Lipscomb (depending upon your orientation) is nothing more than a peculiar local institution.
It does not have the cachet to produce a national television contract and therefore attract casual viewers the way the Army-Navy football game does. It does not even have the national impact it did when Don Meyer led Lipscomb and when Rick Byrd was in his early days at Belmont, when NAIA institutions in Oklahoma, Idaho and elsewhere had reason to care.
Even the locals, though, are starting to look away — or not to pay The Battle any notice whatsoever. Attendance for Belmont-Lipscomb, Lipscomb-Belmont on both schools' campuses — while still far superior to any other game during the season — is in a steady decline.
Two years ago the crowd at Lipscomb was 5,289 and at Belmont it was 5,074. Since it has dipped annually and fell below 5,000 in 2009 (4,778 at Lipscomb and 4,026 at Belmont).
That's a far cry from Feb. 17, 1990, when the game was played at Vanderbilt's Memorial Gymnasium and attracted a crowd in excess of 16,000 — the largest in NAIA history.
Quality not in question
Any loss of interest cannot be attributed to the quality of play. Regardless of the year-to-year strengths of the respective teams, the competitiveness of the showdown is beyond question.
The last time a team won three straight in the series was when Belmont swept the home-and-home in 2004, the year the rivalry was resurrected, and then won the first meeting in 2005.
They split the two meetings last year after a pair of Belmont victories in 2008 and two Lipscomb triumphs in 2007. All were decided by 10 points or fewer.
In the last 10 meetings each has won five times. Three of those games went to overtime (one to double overtime), including the 2006 Atlantic Sun tournament championship, at which an NCAA tournament berth was at stake.
The series has failed to produce at least one overtime contest only twice in the last six years.
Still, fewer people than ever seem to care. Those who do, care as much as ever, however, because—let's face it—the distance between the campuses makes it impossible for them to ignore one another.
That power of proximity will be put to the test in another way this season—the schedule. Typically, these games have been played roughly a month apart, but this season's return match at Belmont will be Jan. 26—15 days after the first one.
We'll see if less time to forget the result of the first meeting will help others remember why Lipscomb-Belmont, Belmont-Lipscomb became such a compelling rivalry in the first place.
Email editor@nashvillescene.com.
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