While the historical success of the athletic department as a whole is clear, it seems that DU does not boast a sports culture as strong as its counterparts on the list, according to DU students.
“I don’t think that our sports culture is as dominating as it is at other schools,” says Collin Burns, a junior at DU.
Burns believes that there are certain ‘cliques’ for different sports that exist among students at DU, but he does not think that you necessarily need to know everything about sports in order to be involved on campus. He mentioned that he has attended “a couple” of hockey games before, but that is the extent of his involvement with sporting events on campus.
At DU, hockey games are by far the most popular sporting event to attend on campus. During the ongoing 2019-20 season, DU ranks seventh in attendance among 60 other teams, raking in an average of 5,797 fans per game and filling up 96% of the available seats in Magness Arena. For comparison, men’s basketball only attracted 1,255 fans on average in 2019, filling 17% of the available seats.
Maxine Nussbaum, president of the club volleyball team and a senior at DU, believes that there is a prominent athlete culture rather than a traditional sports culture on campus.
“You really know who the athletes are, but it’s not necessarily like ‘Oh, let’s go to the game,” says Nussbaum.
According to Nussbaum, club sports teams get “club sport points” for attending games on campus. Nussbaum says that in the past, she has been to basketball and hockey games for that reason, but she has yet to attend any sporting events this school year.
Similarly, junior Anne Matsusaka does not regularly attend sporting events simply for fun.
“I used to be on the DU dance team, so it was kind of required that we were always there,” says Matsusaka.
Matsusaka believes that there is “honestly no” sports culture on campus at DU.
“I think it’s pretty low key. People who love it, love it, but it’s not very widespread,” she says.
College sports culture and its competitive nature has often received a reputation for being toxic, because of rowdy fans and scandals that sweep the nation. This is especially prominent at schools with large student bodies and dominant sports teams like at Michigan or Florida.
One major thing that sets DU apart from other schools on the previously mentioned national championship list is that there is no football team. In fact, the 39 highest grossing collegiate sports programs by revenue are all on the list because of their football programs. Football is without a doubt the most popular college sport in America, and DU students think that it is possible that the sports culture on campus would be heightened if DU were to have its own team.
“If we had football over here I think I’d be more interested in doing that, especially since I’m from Texas, and I played football in high school,” says Burns.
Matsusaka would agree.
“I definitely think that [sports culture] would be more prominent,” she says. “The past couple of years it has been low key since we haven’t won anything huge (…) I think that more sports would definitely help.”
The MFJS Reporter -- Winter 2020 M-W 
This is a great article and definitely something that has had me thinking a lot about the sports culture at DU and what we as students can do about it. I personally find that the difference between our school and others is that most people who come here do not come here seeking a “college experience” that involves tailgating and football games since we do not have a team. Being from Louisiana, I see many people choose their colleges strictly based off of the football culture, specifically at any of the SEC schools. I think at DU people are just simply interested in other things. It is crazy to think that we have such a good hockey team and little interest though. Great article!
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