Do College Sports Really Matter? And How Much?

Hey, guys! It’s Eric at Solution Prep and today we’re discussing how sports culture impacts your college selection.

Yes, it’s fun to go to a big rah-rah sports school and have that culture on campus, and have games to go to. But believe it or not, you can go to a college that didn’t necessarily win the whole football championship last year, or the whole March Madness, and still enjoy that kind of activity.

There are three divisions in the NCAA — the National Collegiate Athletic Association. There’s D1 — the big one, the one that you see on TV — and every year when that coach’s poll comes out for football, when that March Madness bracket comes out for basketball, we get a good glimpse into the future of what colleges our students are about to start telling us they’ve heard are good. But them being on TV for sports doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re the best academic colleges or necessarily the best fit colleges for you.

There are also 300 colleges in D2 NCAA Sports, and the biggest division, D3 with 430 schools.

So my suggestion to you is, it doesn’t matter how they did in the standings last year. It matters what the culture is on campus. So when you go visit, see whether or not it seems students have school spirit, see what kind of attendance those sports games get, and how excited students are for them. Because even if they won this year, there’s no guarantee that they’re going to win any year that you’re there because they’re going to have different players on the team anyway.

So get going, and if you have questions call us at 732-556-8220. We are here to help.