More CC Research Needed: Colleges where most students are into sports

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Colleges where most of the students are into sports (playing OR watching)</p>

<p>As always, many thanks to all who have contributed to our research so far. Now we're looking for schools where most of the students have a strong preference for sports, where they're either passionate fans of their varsity squads, or where they actually participate in some level of organized competition, such as at the club level.</p>

<p>As always with these subjective evaluations, no parsing, please. We're just looking for names and supporting rationale.</p>

<p>We need:</p>

<ol>
<li><p>College name.</p></li>
<li><p>IMPORTANT: Your knowledge source (how you know this to be true). Please don't go on reputation alone. First-hand experience is key here.</p></li>
</ol>

2

<ol>
<li><p>Notre Dame. Most of the students are into watching <em>and</em> playing. Something like 80% earned varsity letters in high school. Numerous participation opportunities through inter-hall team competitions and other venues. Have the only (I think) fully-equipped/outfitted/tackle intramural hall football college teams. Bengal Bouts–boxing that runs from fall to Feb. and raises lots of money for Bangladesh missions, Bookstore basketball outdoor tourney in March, lots of hockey and other intramural sports. Lots of students jog/run on campus. Student body appears very fit.</p></li>
<li><p>S attends.</p></li>
</ol>

3

<ol>
<li>UNC</li>
<li><p>[2009:</a> Franklin Street celebration | dailytarheel.com<a href=“I%20think%20that%20video%20adequately%20addresses%20things”>/url</a></p></li>
<li><p>Michigan</p></li>
<li><p>Football is obviously the big sport, but most events have been pretty well attended. I was told the football stadium is the largest in the Americas, but I am not sure whether that’s true.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>A few honorable mentions:</p>

<p>1: Duke
2: They tent in the cold for tickets. That’s pretty hard-core.
<a href=“http://media.palestra.net/images/af9/651/4c9/5f6/f915bb581b136d1d6f16.jpg[/url]”>http://media.palestra.net/images/af9/651/4c9/5f6/f915bb581b136d1d6f16.jpg](<a href=“http://www.dailytarheel.com/content/2009-franklin-street-celebration]2009:”>http://www.dailytarheel.com/content/2009-franklin-street-celebration)</a></p>

<p>1: Wake Forest
2: They TP their own quad after they win a game.
<a href=“http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e0/WakeForestRolledQuad.jpg/400px-WakeForestRolledQuad.jpg[/url]”>http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e0/WakeForestRolledQuad.jpg/400px-WakeForestRolledQuad.jpg&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Around 75% of Chicago students participate in intramural sports, so athletics play a larger role than people might think, though fan turnout even for varsity games leaves much to be desired. Ratner is quite nice, and PE courses are required. Mens sana in corpore sano. ;)</p>

4

<ol>
<li><p>MIT – many levels of intramurals.</p></li>
<li><p>son attends – sports help relieve the stress of p sets…</p></li>
</ol>

5

<ol>
<li>Colorado College</li>
<li>Son attends</li>
</ol>

<p>^^ Another healthy mind, healthy body school. #9 on Princeton Review’s “Everyone Plays Intramural Sports” list. The Outdoor Club is the most popular student organization. Many students leave campus during weekends and breaks to hike, camp, or ski. D1 men’s ice hockey has an enthusiastic following (among both students and townies) and the team attracts some NHL prospects. However, the school abandoned men’s football last year. I think the athletic orientation, on balance, is much more towards the participant than the spectator/fan.</p>

6

<ol>
<li><p>UNC-Chapel Hill</p></li>
<li><p>I’m currently a student at UNC. Chapel Hill goes crazy over basketball games, and as our football team has gotten better, the atmosphere in Kenan Stadium has become electric. Truly is a great place to spend a Saturday afternoon/evening. Other sports, such as baseball and soccer, experience a very high degree of success well.</p></li>
</ol>

7

<ol>
<li><p>All the service academies. Mandatory intramurals unless you are on-season for a sport or other activity. Mandatory attendance at home football games.</p></li>
<li><p>Attended one.</p></li>
</ol>

8

<p>Williams College</p>

<p>30% play a varsity sport goes to 70% if you add club and intramural sports
Williams is #1 in money spent per student on athletics</p>

<p>From Wiki:
Williams also has had success winning the NACDA Director’s Cup, presented to the institution within each NCAA division that has the greatest overall success in NCAA sanctioned-championships. Williams has won the NACDA Director’s Cup 12 of the 13 years since its inception.
In 2004, 2005, 2006, and 2007, the college achieved #1 rankings in both academics and athletics within its peer groups (liberal arts colleges as ranked by U.S. News and World Report and NCAA Division III institutions as ranked by the Director’s Cup calculations, respectively). Dual #1 rankings in any single year was an unprecedented achievement among the 1,053 NCAA member institutions.</p>

9

<p>Pennsylvania State University at University Park</p>

<p>and to clarify: PSU has the largest football stadium in the nation when Mich had to reconfigure some regular seats for handicapped seats. </p>

<p>[Penn</a> State Club Sports Homepage](<a href=“http://www.athletics.psu.edu/recreation/csindex.asp]Penn”>http://www.athletics.psu.edu/recreation/csindex.asp)</p>

<p>[The</a> Official Site of Penn State Intramural Sports at University Park](<a href=“http://www.athletics.psu.edu/recsports/index.html]The”>http://www.athletics.psu.edu/recsports/index.html)</p>

<p>The best link [College</a> Search - Penn State University Park - Sports](<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board)</p>

10

<ol>
<li><p>Clemson University</p></li>
<li><p>I read somewhere that 70% of students here play an intramural sports. People tailgate here for football games starting at 7 in the morning, basketball games are crazy. On football Saturdays, Clemson becomes the 3rd largest city in South Carolina. People will camp out for days for football and basketball tickets and we have an athletics organization called Central Spirit which promotes and attends every single sporting event that happens on campus (I went to 40+ swimming, volleyball and soccer games this semester)</p></li>
</ol>

11

<ol>
<li><p>University of Florida</p></li>
<li><p>Best friend attends. Says the Swamp is crazy on Saturdays, and people begin tailgating around 7 in the morning…even for night games. Also, football team won national championship in 2006 and 2008. Basketball team won national championship in 2006 and 2007. Also, intramurals constitute a huge part of campus life, according to my friend. Says flag football games can garner ALMOST as much hype as the real UF football team :)</p></li>
</ol>

12

<ol>
<li><p>University of Michigan</p></li>
<li><p>I am a studeny. We currently have the 2nd largest stadium in America but after renovations are completed, we will have the largest. Football Saturdays are crazy…consistently haver > 100k people in the stadium. Also, basketball is getting really popular (team made it to the NCAA tournament last year, made it to the second round -> lost to Oklahoma, curse you blake griffin!! haha). Ice hockey is also nationally ranked.</p></li>
</ol>

13

<p>Wake Forest has a very loyal student body who call themselves the “Screamin Deamons”. Also many of the students participate in intramural sports of some kind. My son who is a freshman, played football with his section mates and he is a member of the Club Baseball team. This team travels and plays other club teams from Clemson, Elon, James Madison, Duke, UNC, Ga tech. etc. Since Wake has a well thought of D1 program, this is a great alternative to kids that played in HS but were not able to get recruited by a big D1 program.<br>
A school with a big time sports program and opportunities to play at the club or intramural level was the #1 requirement of my son when looking at schools (although we insisted they be very good academic schools). His other choices were Notre Dame, Boston College, UCONN (our state U) and Miami (they had a great program that he was interested in). Wake fit the bill and he is really happy there.</p>

14

<ol>
<li><p>Texas A&M University</p></li>
<li><p>Current student. Most students are not only in to football, but all other sports. The town is pretty small, so even sports like volleyball and soccer have great turn outs. Not to mention the nationally famous “12th man”, where students go to football games and stand for the entire game, yelling and giving opposing teams a difficult time. There are many traditions that are inbedded in sports teams at Texas A&M, makes going to games really fun.</p></li>
</ol>

15

<p>I don’t think that the size of one’s football stadium is a valid indicator of their level of student involvement in athletics in general.</p>

<p>For one, once you reach a certain level of size, it becomes a matter of how devoted and passionate the fans are–a few thousand extra cannot make up for a lack of buy-in. Take ESPN Big Ten Blogger Adam Rittenberg’s list of his favorite Big Ten Stadiums.</p>

<p>[Ranking</a> my favorite Big Ten stadiums - Big Ten Blog - ESPN](<a href=“http://espn.go.com/blog/bigten/post/_/id/2380/ranking-my-favorite-big-ten-stadiums]Ranking”>Ranking my favorite Big Ten stadiums - ESPN - Big Ten Blog- ESPN)</p>

<p>Although Michigan’s “Big House” is the largest, it falls 5th out of 11.</p>

<ol>
<li><p>The University of Wisconsin-Madison Badger’s Camp Randall Stadium, despite holding a “modest” 80,000+ is #1.</p></li>
<li><p>I am currently an undergraduate student at UW-Madison and truly feel like my fellow students are more into sports than anywhere else in the country.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>Something else that must be taken into account is that this is not JUST a football topic. We’re talking about student involvement in sports in general. The big 3 Badger Men’s sports which attract the most fans (and the most money) are Football, Basketball, and Hockey. Not only are all three teams currently ranked in their respective Top 25 National polls, but each has sold out their student tickets for years, even this year despite our economic situation. And if you want to discuss size, although some schools like Michigan and Penn State boast large football stadiums, their facilities for basketball and hockey dwarf the 17,000+ person Kohl Center. It is difficult to find a school with 3 sports as consistent as those the Badger fans are blessed with, but we are evidence that it indeed pays off.</p>

<p>Our success in our major sports is complemented by valuable programs such as Women’s Hockey (2009 National Champions) and Crew, as well as a variety of other successful and competitive varsity, club, and intramural sports. The success of these programs requires student involvement in terms of spectating, playing, and administering.</p>

<p>And not to mention we are the Best College Sports Town in the Country. Just ask ESPN analyst Scott Van Pelt.</p>

<p>[America’s</a> Best College Sports Town](<a href=“http://www.uwtke.com/bestcollegesportstown.php]America’s”>http://www.uwtke.com/bestcollegesportstown.php)</p>

<p>GO BADGERS!</p>

16

<p>To throw in one that surprised me and probably no one would mention:</p>

<p>1) Wesleyan
2) When I took some students of mine on a tour there a couple of summers ago, the tour guide mentioned some ridiculously high percentage of students who were participating in sports, either club, IM, or varsity. I want to say the number was like 70+%.</p>

17

<p>I played a NCAA Div. I non-glamour sport at a Catholic University. We usually got 150-400 spectators for a game. One weekend, we had a tournament at Navy. We played Bucknell. During the first half, there were 150 spectators. During the second half, the crowd grew to 5,000! (The next game on the schedule was Army v. Navy. By the time our game was over and the home team was warming up, the place was an ear-splitting insane asylum.)</p>

<p>So, I would say - NAVY</p>

18

<p>College of the Holy Cross, West of Boston</p>

<p>25% of students at this 2800 student college participates in its varsity athletic programs.</p>

<p>Holy Cross sponsors 27 varsity sports; all but two of which compete at the NCAA Division I level </p>

<p>HC Alumnus</p>

19

<p>University of Maryland. Always sellout for basketball and football, as well as nontraditional sports, such as soccer. University of Maryland was ranked in the top 5 for attendance at soccer games in the NCAA.</p>

<p>Source: Brother went there, I’m going there. Also, in 2005 Princeton Review ranked Maryland #1 for “Students who pack the stadiums”.</p>

20

<ol>
<li><p>University of Southern California</p></li>
<li><p>I am currently a student. Obviously we are a big football school. The campus is absolutely packed on gamedays, and tailgaters usually start arriving at 6:30, no matter when the game starts. The student section of the Coliseum is always full and always the first to fill up. Other major sports get very good student attendance as well. Club sports are also quite visible on campus, they book field time and you can often see the rugby team, club soccer, ultimate frisbee, etc practicing outside.</p></li>
</ol>