Intramural and club sports. In addition to intercollegiate athletics colleges and universities have large programs for intramural sports.
Among men touch or flag football is very popular. Intramural teams often represent various student organizations, such as men s fraternities, women s sororities15 or dormitories. There are also teams on which faculty members play. Although intramural competitions are theoretically recreational in nature, they are usually very spirited and are taken very seriously by participants.
Club sports involve teams that are informal and have no official or varsity status but nevertheless take part in intercollegiate competition with teams from other institutions. Club teams sometimes serve spoils that are little known or practiced in certain regions, such as hockey in Florida. Some clubs strive to become varsity sports, whereas others, such as many men s and women s rugby clubs, prefer to retain the greater informality possible with club status.
It should be pointed out here that varsity athletic teams are usually very tightly managed by their coaches and require as many as two to four hours of practice per day. Students who want a less demanding schedule may therefore gravitate to intramural or club teams 2, p.293 . 3.2.