Letters to the Editor

Seeing red over lack of Blue Raiders

I was dismayed and disappointed in The City Paper for making another colossal mistake for overlooking MTSU again!

Middle Tennessee State University, which has 26,000 students, was not mentioned in the Monday edition [Dec. 14] ...as usual. Instead of writing about a 9-3 football team (which is the best college record in the state this year at the Division 1-A level) that will be playing a 7-5 Southern Mississippi in a nationally televised bowl game on ESPN [in] prime time Sunday night, they have Larry Woody's "That's Racin" column about "Good Ole Boy" local stock car racing from Highland Rim Speedway.

The City Paper has no problem covering the University of Tennessee athletics which is 176 miles from Nashville. Granted UT has many graduates in Nashville, but not near as many as Middle Tennessee State University. You won't omit the Music City Bowl. You will cover the University of Kentucky and Clemson University, but as usual you overlook the largest undergraduate university in the state right down the road.

MTSU is in the Nashville Davidson County MSA and should be covered in The City Paper. Murfreesboro has a population of 75,000 and a county population of 150,000. Highland Rim is a very small town and is NOT part of the Nashville MSA. MTSU will be going for its 10th win of the season, over $1,000,000 in bowl winnings, and a possible ranking in the final AP and USA Today Coaches Poll. What happens at a local stock car track 20 or more miles away is not suitable for The City Paper.

The City Paper published its demographics not too long ago. As I recall the average reader has a four-year college degree and a median family income of over $50,000 a year. This demographic does not typically follow racing, especially local "good ole boy" racing.

I am sure the 25,000 plus MTSU graduates in Davidson County would much rather have a MTSU Bowl Preview column rather than a racing column about local racing not many in Nashville or certainly your readership care about. Maybe next Monday you will cover the outcome of the game.

John Mathieson, Nashville