ACU students love intramural sports.

More than 3,000 students drop their books to pick up a football, basketball, volleyball, racket, golf club, baseball glove or pair of cleats every year to play intramural sports, according to the intramural department.

Whether representing campus organizations, social clubs or just a group of friends looking for a combination of fun and competition, intramural devotees’ passion runs deep at ACU.

But despite the faithful participation, the intramural options intramural arena lacks one essential ingredient – a cohesive effort by the student body, intramural department and university to make intramurals fulfilling and enjoyable to a maximum degreecontinue to decrease. ACU does not offer as many sports as in the past and fewer than two other Church of Christ-affiliated schools.

Although participation continues to grow intramurals on campus do fulfill most of students’ participation needs, improvements are necessary, specifically the cost and amount of sports offered more sports should be offered so more students will have a reason to play intramurals.

Intramural director Danny Kittley said ACU tries to expand the number of sports offered, but because of a lack of interest it sticks to the main sports.

The 2007 fall intramural season includes only three sports: flag football, softball and waterball.

The fee to play flag football rose to from $200 to $275 from $200; the fee to play softball increased to $150 from from $100 to $150$100; and waterball dropped from a full season sport to a weekend tournament.

The participation cost climbed and the number of sports offered this fall dropped, but the amount of money every student pays for intramurals did not change.

Students pay a mandatory $75 student activity fee each semester that is split among the Students’ Association, Campus Activities Board and intramural department. The intramural department, which receives $5 from each student.

Intramural director Danny Kittley said the additional fees to play intramurals fund 90 percent of intramural costs and without the additional fees intramurals could not operate at its current capacity. Kittley said he did not have the information for the amount of money intramurals receives from the university. Your credibility stands at risk if you go without this hard data. Go to McCaleb. No data guts your point. Tell him you’ve got Harding and Lipscomb data but can’t get ours. See if he wants to let Kittley look bad without the data. In the past ACU has offered as many as 15 sports in a year, last year ACU offered eight.

Kittley said that the intramural department hasn’t decided how many sports will be offered this year. We hope they will offer more.

Because the intramural department’s budget relies mostly on additional fees, the cost of playing lands significantly on the pocketbooks of students.

At Harding University and Lipscomb University intramural sports’ popularity mirrors ACU’s, but similarities end there.

Although Harding and Lipscomb intramurals get a cut of some form of a student activity fee, students at Harding and Lipscomb do not pay extra fees to play intramurals.

Jim McGowen, Harding director of men’s intramural sports, said students do not pay any additional fees for playing intramural sports. Meanwhile . McGowen said that on a budget of $19,000,

Harding offers four team sports and 10 individual sports throughout the year – six more sports than ACU offered last years.

Lipscomb does not charge its students additional fees and offers nine sports during the fall semester, five more than ACU in the fall this year. Lipscomb offers 16 intramural sports overall, with almost no participation fees. Andy Mankin, director of campus recreation, said students must pay green fees for golf.

The sports are operated on a budget of about $55,000.

If two schools close to the smaller size of ACU can invest offer more in intramurals options than our university, it can improve the quality and scope of its intramuralsACU needs to step up to the bar.

Diversity in the number of sports offered will strengthen the intramural experience at ACU. Intramurals are already loved by ACU students, and with more sports the love will grow.