Conference a factor in lack of school spirit

Colleges throughout the nation have mascots, bands and clubs to help support the school they are a part of. With all the support from these outlets, what really makes a student body care about their school?

 

Many people grew up loving certain schools because of where their parents graduated from or the town they grew up in. Even though students may love the college they go to they may still love another school’s athletic teams.

 

Why is this so? Why do we tend to love other schools sports teams more than that of the university we attend?

 

One thought that can be brought up is the lack of athletics and the spirit that those teams bring to the school. College football is by far one of the greatest proponents of school spirit to schools.

 

Does the fact that UVU lacks a football team affect the school spirit here on campus? Some may say yes.

 

Here on campus we have students who walk around wearing BYU attire and don’t think of it as a problem.

 

“I think BYU is overshadowing UVU. They have a long history and tradition of school spirit that UVU doesn’t have,” said former UVU student Nicole Heslington. “There isn’t the background to build upon.”

 

There are however students and staff that don’t see this as okay.

 

Though BYU students most likely don’t see UVU as an athletic threat or threat at all, it can bother people here on campus to see people wearing BYU apparel.

 

“It’s fine in that they can wear whatever they want. What bothers me is when their loyalties lie with BYU essentially,” Heslington said.

 

“A lot of people I’ve talked to have stated that they are just at UVU until they can transfer to BYU almost implying that UVU isn’t worthy.”

 

For many students they are here to transfer to other schools but it seems like many more students are here because they want to be here and graduate from school here.

 

One other issue may steam from the fact that we as a school are not in a very strong conference. UVU lies within the confines of the

 

Great West Conference, a conference that no one really knows about in the larger world of college sports.

 

The hardest thing about being in the Great West Conference is the fact that most of the teams in the conference are located closer to the east coast than Utah.

 

It’s hard to create rivalries with schools that no one really knows about or even that are located on the other side of the country.

 

UVU tried to get into the Western Athletic Conference, which has schools like Hawaii, Nevada, and Utah State with decent football teams and a lot of school spirit.

 

UVU was denied entrance into the WAC.

 

Had UVU been given the opportunity to join the WAC, it could have helped just a tiny bit in promoting school spirit and maybe helped in pushing for a football team.

 

By Dale Jones – Sports Writer