If you follow the national college sports scene, it seems like you only hear about its negative aspects. You hear about the basketball player accepting money from boosters or the football recruit who cheated on his SATs. However, college sports play an important on thousands of campuses across the country. They are not just crucial to big name schools. Their importance touches more than just the athletes competing on the teams. Even at the smallest colleges, you will see a strong contingent of students rooting on their teams. Don’t think of one of those football stadiums filled with 100,000 people. Picture a small gym that holds a couple hundred people rooting on a Division 3 women’s basketball team and you will see why college sports are a vital piece of the fabric of a college campus.
College students want to belong to something; it’s that simple. It could be a fraternity, a debate team, a campus choir, or really just about anything. College sports offer a chance for everyone to become involved. It does not matter if you have never picked up a football in your life or if you even know how the game is played. There is something magical about joining a group of a 100, 1000, or 25,000 of your fellow classmates and rooting your school to victory. The athletes thrive on the support. As a student in the crowd, you feel a connection or camaraderie with your peers.
As support builds for a college sports team over the course of its season, the anticipation for each game becomes bigger and bigger. A buzz is created around campus. Being a part of this frenzy makes you feel like a part of the school. Competition is a healthy thing, especially in sports. Some students take this too far and cause trouble by overly taunting opposing fans and teams. It is too bad that we only seem to hear about those knuckleheads. The vast majority of students are attending games to feel good about their school, their friends, and themselves.
The next time you are watching a Saturday afternoon football game between two powerhouse teams from huge universities, picture the small Division 2 school a couple miles down the road. The student body, while not nearly as large as the schools on television, cares just as deeply about their school. Having school pride is conducive to creating positive school spirit.