<p>Hi, I'm a high school senior on Long Island and I just verbally committed to W&L's wrestling program. Something I have come across on many forums as well as with current students is that there is a tradition at WLU that students and any spectators at the home football games leave the game after the first half. As a sports fan this is something that isn't a huge deal but just stood out to me. Is it real/enforced? How prominent is it today?</p>
<p>“Enforced” is not exactly the way to word it. No one is going to berate you for staying. But most students only go to the football games on homecoming and parents weekend. On those weekends the sororities have halftime receptions—that is where tradition comes in. Most students choose to leave after the receptions. Some go back.</p>
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<p>The flip side is that students spread themselves over lots of sports and maybe tend to treat all sports the same - unlike at other D’s big school, where very few students (percentage wise) go to anything other than major sports. D at WLU frequently goes to volleyball and swimming - in fact this year the football coaches had the players attend other sporting events to support the athletes. D said her friends on volleyball team loved having football players cheering in stands!</p>
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<p>My son is a sophomore in the football team at W&L. We had heard of this tradition, too, but we haven’t seen what you’re describing. Maybe 15% of the fans left at halftime of the 2 games we attended this year–and that was opening day and Parents’ Weekend. Nice big crowds. Not sure if you were aware, but leaving at halftime was enough of a problem at U. of Alabama that Coach Saban has placed Fraternities and Sororities “on probation”, actually rescinding their student tickets for home games until the student fans shape up. It’s good to be the King!</p>
<p>I’ve attended a few games over the years and don’t recall ever experiencing a mass exodus at halftime. Maybe I was too focused on the games to notice. WLU usually has very competitive teams, and who doesn’t enjoy watching their school win?</p>
<p>This was always the case in my day, because we were having fun at the fraternity house halftime party and too lazy to walk back to the stadium. We did go back for the lacrosse games however. They were much more exciting than football and the team was excellent. I echo the comment about students supporting a variety of sports. A very healthy percentage of students participate in W&L sports and the school is small, so you are likely to have friends on various teams and find yourself going to water polo games, wrestling matches, cross country races and other small sport spectacles that large university students would not consider worth their while.</p>