Football as an Intramural Essay

Abstract Intramural sports present a fun way for students to spend their time at school, and provide an excellent opportunity to introduce themselves in the new world of college. Students get the chance to meet new people by playing against them in various sports such as softball, volleyball, and basketball. These sports are also co-ed, meaning that men and women can play on the same teams or against one another. Intramurals is also a great way to improve attendance or boost student’s motivation to improve their grades. However, there is only a select variety of options for sports. Most of the sports would fall under women’s sports, with their being softball over baseball and volleyball over football. There aren’t many options for men to get involved in intramurals with no men’s sports to play. Adding one sport that’s a men’s sport will give men more options in participating in intramurals. The addition of football may be what this school needs to get more people involved in intramural sports at Alexandria Technical and Community College (ATCC). With a chance for more men to participate, and more women to get involved in men’s sports, it’s a sport that cannot fail if the right conditions are met. Too much contact could be an issue, but if it were even touch football (2-hand touch), there wouldn’t be very many problems. Adding football to ATCC intramurals is what this school needs to not only offer more options for students, but to help attendance and boost student motivation to improve grades. It will be beneficial for the school, and fun for the students. 1. 0 Introduction Alexandria Technical and Community College is a great place to get to know other students. One of the ways to meet the students is by joining their intramural sports and getting on teams that compete against the other teams of the school. 1. 1 Problem With having intramural sports comes the privilege of choosing what you want to do with your time. However, there are not many options for intramural sports. There is softball and volleyball, just to name a couple, but not many options for the students. This may be why there are a lot of ATCC students not participating in intramurals. We believe that the addition of one particular sport will attract more students, and that sport is football. 2. 0 Discussion 2. 1 Benefits to ATCC One of the main focuses of ATCC is to get their students involved in the school and the community. One of the ways they stride for this goal is to encourage students to join in intramurals. Our idea is that if football is added to the intramural list, it may bring in more students to participate in intramural sports, and bring more students together. 2. 2 Benefits to Students According to the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Proposition 48, students who participate in school activities and sports must maintain a GPA of 2. 0 on a 4. 0 scale [ (Begnaud, 2007) ]. With that being said, this would prove that students who participate in extracurricular activities would have to motivate themselves and push themselves to maintain a high enough GPA to still participate. This motivation would be beneficial to students, and with more students wanting to play football, this would motivate more students to succeed in school. So now the question is, â€Å"How do you know football is a popular sport? † Well, according to studies done by many colleges such as MSU Moorhead, football has been ranked the number one popular sport in the United States [ (Walter) ]. This means that given the choice, football would be the top pick for the majority of the nation. With that being said, if football is added to intramurals then students would choose it for their intramural and would be motivated to do well in school to be able to participate in intramurals. Figure 1. 1 2. 3 Effects on Attendance As was stated in section 2. 1, students would be more likely to do good in school because they must maintain a GPA of at least a 2. 0 on a 4. 0 scale. If students are to good in school, they must attend school and do well. Attendance is important to do good in school, so intramurals must effect attendance, right? This can be proven if the rules of the NCAA Proposition 48 are followed. 2. 4 Effects on Grades Again, the NCAA Proposition 48 proves that sports do have a major impact on grades, but only because they have to. Students must do good in school if they want to participate in intramurals. Figure 1. 2 2. 5 Right to Give Students a Choice in Sports According to the Constitution, we all have the right to free speech (Amendment 1). If this is true, then it should also give us all the right to a vote. So shouldn’t students be able to vote on whether or not to include football in intramurals? In addition to that, students should also have the right to vote on whether or not to choose if they want to play football as their intramural if it is added to intramurals. The point to be made here is that we all have a right to vote, so we feel that there should be a vote at ATCC on whether or not to add football to the list of intramurals. Our voices should be heard if there is something that we truly believe will benefit the people and the school better. 2. 6 Comparison to Schools with Football as an Intramural Sport It is very difficult to compare ATCC with other schools with intramural sports, and especially since ATCC doesn’t have football as an intramural. However, according to the following website, these are the community colleges that do include football as a sport of choice: http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/List_of_community_college_football_programs This website gives all of the schools that have football as a sport of choice. On this list, some of the schools are also listed on the list of the top community colleges in the US. ATCC ranked #8 on the list, while St. Paul College ranked #1, and they do have football as a sport [ (Washington Monthly, 2010) ]. So, could football actually help our students do better in school? It appears that it could, since 57% of all men in colleges played football [ (Heinlien, 2007) ]. 3. 0 Conclusion In conclusion, due to the facts given in the above sections, we believe that students should be able to participate in a vote for football as an intramural at ATCC. Also, whether the vote happens or not, football should be added to the intramural list to improve student participation, and to improve not only attendance, but grades too. 4. 0 Appendix 5. 0 Glossary Intramural-involving only students in the same school or college. That’s the only word we feel the need to define 6. 0. Works Cited Begnaud, B. (2007, February 15). The Effect of Athletic Involvement on GPA. Retrieved November 28, 2012, from Yahoo Answers: http://voices. yahoo. com/the-effect-athletic-involvement-gpa-benefits-201277. html? cat=25 Heinlien, E. (2007, October 28). The Benefits of Intramural Sports. Retrieved November 29, 2012, from Helium: http://www. helium. com/items/670511-the-benefits-of-intramural-sports Mueller, J. (2012, February 16). Do Sports Have an Affect on GPA. Retrieved November 29, 2012, from Stat Crunch: http://www. statcrunch. com/5. 0/viewreport. php? reportid=23966 Walter, T. (n. d. ). How Do Professional Sports in the US Rank in Popularity. Retrieved December 1, 2012, from Wiki Answers: http://wiki. answers. com/Q/How_do_professional_sports_in_the_US_rank_in_popularity Washington Monthly. (2010). College Guide. Retrieved December 1, 2012, from Washington Monthly: http://www. washingtonmonthly. com/college_guide/rankings_2010/community_colleges. php.