Wednesday night at the Pete Hannah Center. Samford is up by 20 with 10 minutes left in the game. A media time out is called. The marketing girl leads a group of kids onto the court to lead the crowd. They line up and put their arms around each other as F.L.Y.’s iconic intro to “Swag Surfin’” starts to play.
The student section and band get into position. They wait for the lyrics to start and the beat to drop, but it never comes. No lyrics play. The kids look at each other unsure what to do. The student section tries to find the right beat to follow the song. The rest of the stands let go of each other.
The recent enforcement of an athletics rule about music may completely change the culture of Samford Sports. The rule is that all music played at games and practices has to be approved by Athletic Director, Martin Newton.
“There are no new music rules, just enforcement of our previous rules.” Newton said.
Many changes have had to be made because of the new enforcement. Songs that Samford fans are used to hearing will no longer be played at games.
“They gave me a playlist of approved songs that were family friendly.” said Marcus Phillips, aka, “DJ Skippo”, who is and has been the DJ at most Samford Basketball home games in recent years.
Phillips was able to still have fun and do his job with the new playlist but felt a difference.
“I was trying to keep it where I could hype everybody up, but it was kind of off; it just didn’t hit the same.” Phillips said.
Fans may be sad to know that game day favorites such as “My Dawg” by Lil Baby, “Swag Surfin’” by F.L.Y., “Family Ties” by Baby Keem & Kendrick Lamar and “Dreams and Nightmares” by Meek Mill will no longer be played during Samford games.
“It will have an effect in game days but at the same time it won’t because the players are aware of it and I can still play songs that fans love.” Phillips said.
Some of the fans at the game noticed a change in music at the Wednesday night game.
“They didn’t play a couple of songs that they normally play, like not even ‘Put Your Hands Up in the Air!’ which I thought was weird.” said student section frontman Fletcher Bryant.
Even though some familiar favorites were not played, fans did not seem to care a whole lot.
“It didn’t feel that much different; it was just like they had a new set.” said Bryant.
Despite some of the controversy, this enforcement did not come from a place of malice, but rather with the interest of Samford fans at heart.
“Samford Athletics has always been committed to providing a family-friendly atmosphere at our events. Said Associate Athletics Director for Marketing, Communications and Broadcast, B.J. Millican.
While the environment at Samford games will be different, the goal of athletics is to encourage a welcoming environment for all ages.
“While our existing policy regarding lyrical content in music has not changed, we recently reviewed our enforcement process to ensure it aligns with our standards.” Said Millican. “We took the opportunity to tighten our approach and reinforce our commitment to creating the best possible experience for our fans, student-athletes and community.”
Samford men’s basketball only has three more home games left. As the season is coming to an end, one of the promotional tactics is saying fans only have a few more chances “to swag surf with your friends.”
If Samford men’s basketball wins out, they will clinch the regular season Southern Conference championship title for the third straight year.
