Seventy-five thousand screaming fans and national TV coverage are not needed for an exciting, competitive football game to take place.
According to avid residence hall sports fans, all that’s needed are floor mates or fraternity brothers, color coordinated T-shirts and $35 to sign up for one of the most popular sports in the dorms - IM football.
“I love it,” communications junior and IM assistant supervisor Andi Osters said. “I don’t think you can get this atmosphere anywhere else on campus.”
Osters is serving as a supervisor for the second year, and she said IM football is one of the most popular IM sports MSU offers, along with basketball and soccer.
“The mass amounts of people we get to play each year is unbelievable,” she said.
IM football games are played at IM Sports-East and Munn field. The game also consists of five leagues: residence hall, independent, fraternity, coed and women’s. Games are played seven on seven and made up of two 20 minute halves with a running clock which only stops in the last two minutes. The rules say there are no fumbles, and a person can pass as many times on one down as they want.
Other sports offered by IM facilities in the fall are three-on-three basketball, soccer and sand volleyball, along with roller and floor hockey, badminton and individual golf and tennis tournaments. Basketball, indoor soccer, inner-tube water polo, volleyball, softball and track are available in the spring.
“It’s as close to basketball as you can get,” Osters said. “If you’re good at the three-man weave, you’ll be good at this.”
Some players see IM sports as a way to get closer to friends or people on their floors in the dorms.
“I think it’s just a good way to get out with your boys,” kinesiology senior Renaldo McCray said. “It’s a good way to build some camaraderie.”
Although the league is primarily for fun, it does get very serious at times.
“Some people get way too serious,” political science senior Aaron Rivera said. “They think they’re Charles Rogers out there trying to get all the calls.”
The competition comes from the short regular season. Each team plays five games, and three wins are needed to make the playoffs.
After a team gets those three victories, they get a shot at the IM football championship in the playoffs. The playoffs begin in late October and run until winners and runners-up of the fraternity, independent and coed leagues are crowned with each receiving trophies and T-shirts, while winners of the residence hall and women’s leagues receive T-shirts.
“It gets really bad out when the playoffs start,” Osters said. “If you wanna win the championship, you really have to work. People know what’s at stake.”
Even with all the fun the players have, Rivera does see one thing that would add to the atmosphere Osters talked about.
“Cheerleaders, we need to get some cheerleaders out here,” he said.
