I refuse to believe that AU lacks school spirit.
Every time you see someone wearing an overpriced t-shirt or sweater with the words “American University” emblazoned on it in some fashion or form, that is school spirit. Most people don’t spend the extra cash on clothing if they don’t value the message that clothing sends.
Now seems like a good time to talk about school spirit as the men’s basketball team begins its second round in the NCAA Tournament. Arguably the most recognizable AU team is heading to the NCAA Tournament for the third time in program history after overcoming low expectations before the season began.
The idea of no school spirit really suggests is that AU is not passionate about its varsity teams.
This notion is also false.
To think the number of AU student fans who show up at a basketball game would match up the number of those at a Kansas or UCLA game is preposterous. AU is a small school and for most of the “big time” programs, the student sections at a Kentucky or North Carolina would probably constitute a sizeable proportion of AU’s total population.
Could more AU students attend games? Absolutely. Is the student section usually completely unoccupied? Not really.
But that’s just men’s basketball. What about the student turnout for other sports at AU? With the exception of a handful of dominant teams that are not football or men’s basketball, the turnout tends to be less for sports which are not football or men’s basketball. AU is no different. With that said, a lack of turnout at other sporting events is not directly correlated to on-field performance
Still, the notion that AU does not care or is not passionate about its athletics is also without merit. The night AU won the Patriot League, American University was trending on Facebook and it had nothing to do with WONK, TDR or a KPU speaker. It had to do with sports.
Anyone who was at the BU game can validate that the AU student section “outperformed” the BU student section despite the fact that BU had more students in attendance.
Fans of the visiting team don’t storm the court if they are not passionate about their team. The same way fans don’t petition White House asking for the President to put AU in his Final Four if they don’t care.
Attending sporting events is not everyone’s main priority in college. But let’s not pretend that being a sports fan and showing some school spirit isn’t one of the highlights of “the best four years of your life.”
It doesn’t take a sports wonk to be a sports fan.
