College expenses usually include food, textbooks and tuition. But now students will have to worry about another expense – intramural sports.
BGSU intramurals are now “Pay to Play.”
“Pay to Play” requires each participant to pay a small fee to compete in intramural sports.
Scott Sehmann, director of Intramural and Sports Clubs, says the main reason for implementing “Pay to Play” is because minimum wage in Ohio increased last winter.
“We incurred a deficit in our budget,” Sehmann said. “We took a 15 percent increase in costs to operate the program.”
While a small portion of student fees goes towards recreational sports, the cost to run intramural sports is very expensive.
Because of the increase in minimum wage, the money from “Pay to Play” will be used to cover costs of employees, equipment and facilities.
How much will it cost?
Costs range from $5 to $10 for individual and doubles sports to $20 to $30 per team for team sports.
“Larger team sports like basketball, soccer and football have the most participants and the cost will be $2 to $3 per person,” Sehmann said. “It’s very reasonable.”
Sehmann says other schools charge at least twice, if not three times as much as BG will charge.
“We tried to minimize costs as best we could,” Sehmann said.
Sehmann expects a 20 to 30 percent decrease in student participation because of “Pay to Play.”
Ryan Buell, a senior at BG, is aware of the change, but still plans on playing.
“I don’t like that we have to pay, but I understand why we have to pay and I’m still going to play,” Buell said.
ADDITIONAL CHANGES
In previous years, students had the luxury of turning in rosters via e-mail – not this year. Students must now hand-deliver rosters to the Perry Field House.
Sehmann says 60 to 70 percent of students submitted rosters via e-mail in previous years.
The advantage of hand-delivered rosters is that teams will know exactly what time they are playing before the captain’s meeting.
“It’s instant scheduling,” Sehmann said. “Your team will know what time they are playing before they walk out the door.”
Although BGSU no longer requires validation stickers, students must still present a valid student ID at games to participate.
To participate, students must also sign an “Agreement to Participate” form, which is new this year. The “Agreement to Participate” form is basically a waiver stating the student is aware of the risks involved with participating.
Last year, the sportsmanship policy was introduced. A rating of acceptable, unacceptable or season-ending is given at the end of each competition for each team, and it’s based on the conduct of the participants shown throughout the competition.
Sehmann says foul language will be closely monitored this year.
“A point of emphasis dealing with the sportsmanship policy will be curbing foul language,” Sehmann said. “We want to try to eliminate that.”
Other changes include the elimination of forfeit fees, although teams will still face consequences for forfeiting games, and changes to the roster changes.
In the past, roster changes had to be made in person during the first week of competition. Students will now be able to make a limited number of changes to their roster during the first two weeks of competition, and students may make those changes at the actual game sites.
The team championship series is also new to intramurals this year. The teams are made up of a “core roster” consisting of at least 20 participants. Teams competing in the team championship series will receive points based on participation and game results.
The series will reward teams who participate in multiple sports throughout the academic year with a “champion” being named and awards given at the end of the spring semester.
In addition to the many sports already offered, two new sports for this year include badminton and cornhole.
