I’ve never attended a college sports event.
Yes, you heard that right. I went through five (yes, five, not four) years of college without ever stepping foot in the stands of my universities sporting events. Now that I think of it, I actually have stepped foot in my university's basketball court for my graduation. That counts right? Some may say that I missed out on crucial college experiences and I’m fine with that because truth be told, I absolutely cannot stand sports. The only thing that would have changed my attendance, or lack thereof, is if I went to a school that actually took pride in their sports and had strong school spirit.
The truth is, I’ve never really had school spirit. The most spirited I ever got was dressing up for my high school spirit week in each day's assigned attire such as opposite day, college day, and costume day. If spirit week meant dressing up in silly themed outfits every day, you could count me in, but attending the Friday night football games? Count me out. In fact, the only high school football game I attended was our homecoming game that my boyfriend, who was on the team, was being recognized at as he was nominated for the homecoming court. I ended up being late to the game and missed his walk across the field with his flowers and homecoming sash in tow, but that’s beside the point.
Sure, if I went to a college that had strong school spirit, say, for instance, UNC or Syracuse, I would have felt much more inclined to hit up the local games and cheer on my team. But, this wasn’t the case for my school. There was no such thing as March Madness and my city most certainly didn’t come to a halt on football Saturdays. From what I heard, students at my school would only come for the tailgate, leaving the games themselves deserted like Chick-Fil-A on a Sunday.
According to EmpireToday.com, in the past two decades, the final four has been hosted in the south 60% of the time, a percentage much larger here than any other region. That being said, I sometimes feel like having no interest in sports makes me feel like the odd person out being that I live in the south, more specifically North Carolina, a state that lives and breaths college sports.
I’ll take Netflixing, shopping, and brunch on a Saturday over a sweaty football game anyway. Who’s with me?
