University sport is hugely important to student life in both the United Kingdom and the United States. In the UK, sports societies play a significant social role creating a strong team environment for those involved in the sport. However, those who are not directly involved in the sport do not always know about how the team is faring in the leagues. We have a really strong sporting community here at The University of Manchester (UoM). We have 95 student-led sports clubs, with the majority of those competing in BUCS. So why have we not heard more about their results? US collegiate sport has created a strong sense of community and pride around their sports teams, so how can we do the same for our teams here at UoM? How can we create a vibrant community atmosphere surrounding our athletes?
BUCS Versus NCAA
BUCS and NCAA are the governing bodies for university/collegiate sport in the UK and the US respectively. British Universities and Colleges Sport (BUCS) organises around 165 British universities and colleges into 54 different sports, with over 6,000 teams competing in many different leagues. National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) regulates 1,100 US universities, organising students into 3 divisions. Division I has the highest budget for sports and is the main gateway for student athletes into professional sports in America.
The NCAA is perhaps more commercially driven, wanting to help athletes into the professional fields as they have to meet academic and amateurism standards to be able to compete. NCAA athletes have registered their interest in collegiate sport since 9th grade (our equivalent of year 10) and must maintain a high grade point average to even be able to play sport at college level. This differs from BUCS, who have a focus on enhancing the student experience through sport, wanting to make it more accessible for all.
It becomes clear that collegiate sport in the US is something rather spectacular through the investment in it: the scholarships, the viewership, the feeling around campus.
The US Sporting Spectacle
Most students are involved with the games, whether that be actually competing or just attending. By far the largest sport on the US collegiate circuit is American Football, drawing in substantial crowds for every game. The sheer number of people attending the games outweighs the capacity of most of our Premier League stadiums. For example, Michigan University’s Stadium has a capacity of 109,901 with more than 100,000 fans attending each university game held there. This is compared to the largest stadium in the Premier League, Old Trafford, with a capacity of 74,310.
I spoke to Logan Reed, a student from the North East who went to the US on a soccer scholarship. He said: “I recently went to a Division I American football game at Oklahoma University which was at full capacity (80,000). It was an atmosphere that felt on par with stadiums in the Premier League on match day.” He further went on to say that “these schools have fans that do not even go to the school come and watch the team play”.
Viewership is a huge part of the US sporting spectacle as it has such a widespread reach. This creates a strong community sense around the teams involved. Logan shared, “the games are advertised all over the school. Every student there knows that you play a certain sport because sport is usually one of the school’s biggest achievements”. There is a real sense of pride around sporting achievement throughout the students in US schools, as every student becomes involved in the campus spirit.
The spectacle of US collegiate sport reaches further than just on campus as it is broadcast nationally. “Most Division I games are shown on ESPN”, stated Logan. ESPN is a major sports broadcasting company, so showing both professional and collegiate sports opens up a sizeable audience for US collegiate sports. This is in comparison to the UK, where the only university sport being shown on national television is the Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race, shown annually on the BBC. Televising US collegiate sports really opens up viewership to a new, wider platform, rather than being limited to just students themselves. Collegiate sport becomes placed on the same level as professional sport.
University sport is something that should be celebrated by the whole student community, as athletes represent our university. How can we foster that same sense of community here in the UK, especially at UoM?
Viewership in the UK
Since viewership of collegiate sport in the US is important to fostering a sense of community around athletes, how can we view university sport in the UK?
In 2023, BUCS released BUCS TV in partnership with Joymo. This platform aimed to showcase UK university sport to a wider audience, allowing fans to stream every match. However, BUCS TV has now shut down, with the Joymo website starting that “BUCS have decided to pause broadcasting to BUCS TV right now”. This service could have created a more national sense of pride of university sports but its closure reflects difficulties in creating a united platform for these sports games.
Despite the closure of BUCS TV, UoM launched their own streaming platform for university sport: UoM Sport TV. This streaming service shows all the BUCS matches, sectioning them by sport, making it very easy to use. They even showed the Campus League finals last year and are continuing to show the Campus League matches this year. The introduction of this service massively increases visibility for the teams involved, especially after the closure of BUCS TV. Since we do not have access to the same stadium facilities that US schools do, broadcasting the game on a TV service makes it far more accessible for students to get involved with viewing sports. It is a valuable forward in creating a sense of community pride at UoM, allowing students to feel more involved with our sporting community in both the BUCS leagues and Campus League.
Celebrating our athletes at UoM
Here at UoM, our athletes are incredible. The result of our BUCS teams last year put UoM 18th out of 40 teams in the league, showing just how strong we are as an institution.
On an individual level, UoM is home to some of the most talented athletes. Masters student Grace Harvey swam to victory at the 2024 Paris Paralympic Games, claiming gold in 100m Breaststroke final, and her talent was also commended at the 2024 BUCS Awards where she was awarded Sports Woman of the Year for para-swimming. The Mancunion interviewed Grace in 2021 off the back of her silver medal at the Tokyo games, where she discussed balancing academics with her intense training programme. This balance has clearly paid off as she really is an inspiring and decorated athlete, all whilst studying for her master’s!
Another individual is Archie Atkinson, a TASS (Talented Athlete Scholarship Scheme) athlete at UoM, is a highly decorated track cyclist. In 2023, Archie took gold at the British Track Cycling Championships. He then went on to compete at the 2024 Paris Paralympic Games, like Grace, and took an incredible silver medal and a world record in the Men’s C4 4K Individual Pursuit. UoM Performance Sport Team has supported Archie through his training, helping him to become a professional athlete.
These two stand out stories are exemplary of the talent we have here at UoM, showing just how big our sporting achievements are on a global level. Celebrating successes like these are extremely important in fostering a sense of community at UoM. Whether sporting successes are on an international level like the Paralympic Games, national championships, or the BUCS leagues, celebrating our success as a university inspires students to feel more connected to our sports culture at UoM.
With such a strong sports department at UoM, with notable individual and team successes, let’s do more to advertise it!
What can we do at UoM?
As students of UoM, we need to show more support for our teams competing in BUCS, as well as the Campus League teams. Show your support by attending the matches – go and see your friends competing! If you are unable to make it on the day, you can always tune into the UoM Sport TV service that is readily available and accessible so you can still support your friends and cheer them on. You can also follow UoM Sport on Instagram to stay up to date with any news and notifications about our sports teams. Involvement does not just have to be on a viewership level, you can also try out different sports through getting involved with the teams themselves and also through Sporticipate, which offers free beginners sessions for individual and team sports available at UoM, so be sure to check out their timetable for semester 1 this year.
What are The Mancunion Sport doing this year?
We want to be able to use our platform at The Mancunion to be able to showcase university sport and our incredibly talented athletes. We are sending correspondents to the matches to report on the games and the results, keeping students outside of the sporting circles up-to-date with how our teams are faring against other university competition. We also want to showcase different teams throughout the year, reporting on their successes and experiences in the leagues. We hope to build an even stronger connection between the student body and university sports through our reporting, aiming to create even more excitement around the competitions, just like they do in the US.
We can really take a leaf out of the Americans’ book when it comes to university sports. The introduction of televised coverage of UoM sports games is a really big step forward in fostering a community environment but we need to do more to celebrate our talents on the field. Keep an eye out for The Mancunion Sport this year as we highlight UoM Sport’s progress in the BUCS leagues and the Campus Leagues!
