Both men’s and women’s social clubs will have more competition and more playing time as the leagues of large, medium and small clubs shift to round robin tournaments this school year.
Jim Gowen, director of men’s intramurals and club sports, took the standings from 2015-2016 and placed each club into a league.
“The idea of this is to create better competition from top to bottom in each one of the leagues,” Gowen said. “The last few years, there were teams in both large and small clubs that never won a ball game. The idea here is to create leagues that are more evenly able to compete.”
In previous years, each sport was set up in a tournament bracket. This year, each club will play every other club in their league, guaranteeing them three or four games. Based on the record of each club after the tournament, the club champions will be determined in each league. If there is a tie between two clubs in a league, they will face off to determine the champion.
In social clubs, designated members are in charge of sports for their club. One of Delta Gamma Rho’s athletic directors, junior Hayley Tobias, discussed how DGR — one of the largest women’s clubs on campus — was originally placed in medium league.
“I feel like the larger clubs are rougher,” Tobias said. “We get really rough with flag football and are really competitive with the other large clubs. Had we stayed in the medium league, we would have overtaken the other medium clubs and made it not fun for everyone else. I really like the round robin; I like that we get to play four games instead of two”.
Sophomore Tony Todd, an athletic director for men’s club Omega Phi, said he believes this system is more equitable and that it evens out the competition and makes it a lot more fun.
“You can always have a small club that has a lot of athletic people that can work itself up to the large league,” Todd said. “In that aspect, it is consistent and an even playing field for everyone else.”
Club sports have already begun with men’s softball and women’s flag football. When both sports are complete, men will play flag football and women will play softball before moving inside to play volleyball in October.
