Tuesday, August 29, 2017 Nebraska Intramural Sports ranks first in Big Ten, 14th nationally
The Princeton Review recently revealed their latest results of “where everyone plays intramural sports” and Nebraska came out tops for the Big Ten conference. Boasting a robust calendar with over 70 unique activities, Nebraska intramural sports are a fun, inclusive and active space for students to engage and connect socially on campus. Students participated over 58,000 times last year. Similarly, in a 2016 Campus Lab survey 51% of respondents revealed they play intramural sports, which cover traditional team sports - flag football, basketball, volleyball, soccer - to unique activities - broomball, bubble soccer, human battleship, and laser tag, plus games like e-sports, chess, billiards, pitch, and bowling.
Recent growth in intramural sports is centered on specific team activities, especially basketball and soccer. In the past year, 330 basketball teams and 320 soccer teams played in tournaments and leagues. Nebraska students said ‘social interaction’ ranks as the number-one motivation for participation when team captains were surveyed about why they play. Registered student organizations and clubs (RSOs) often use the intramural leagues as relationship-building activities for members. Some groups simply see Intramural Sports as a safe environment for a fun activity. Another reason for playing – but far from the majority – was “competition.”
Intramural sports’ role within Campus Recreation is to be a bridge between all students. Regardless of whether a student was a youth athlete or never previously set foot on a sports field, all are welcomed into a fun and accepting atmosphere. Teams and individuals, males and females, international and domestic students are encouraged to play. Students have the opportunity to interact not only with their own team but with the other groups of students competing as well. A program for opponents to get to know each other through pre-game conversation was piloted during last spring’s outdoor soccer season. The program was viewed as wildly successful, as sportsmanship was markedly improved over prior seasons.
For fall 2017, the lead-off intramural sports activities are tennis, sand volleyball, futsal, flag football, and slow-pitch softball. Upcoming events are the golf scramble, Madden Tournament, bowling, and broomball. Learn more about Nebraska intramural sports and view the event calendar at http://crec.unl.edu/im.