welldad

I was watching the game last night between Rice and Tulsa and it looked like there were 100-200 people in attendance. What's up with that? Is there no school spirit?

NYSkins1

I guarantee that there were well over 100–200 people in attendance; we just have a huge stadium, so it looks like there aren't that many people there. We actually have the highest-percentage average student attendance at football games of any D1 school; we just have a very small student body, and a very large stadium.

anxiousmom

There is actually tons of school spirit - but there are also TONS of activities, so watching a football game doesn't always make it to the top of the list. My kids both have/had lots of school spirit and LOVE/LOVED Rice - but they are participators, not spectators. Rice has SO many club sports and pickup games between the res colleges, and only 3200 or so undergrads. Here's a list of intramural sports: Activities Calendar - Rice University Recreation Center
Now look at all the club sport teams: Club Sports Listings and Contacts - Rice University Recreation Center and Campus Recreation
Now look at all the varsity sport teams: Rice Official Athletic Site See the problem? So many teams and activities, means more participators and less people just to sit and watch.
Rice kids are BUSY, what with school work, research, res college activities, sports activities, committees and volunteer work - but they for sure don't lack school spirit!!!!

Dorian_Mode

Also note that it was raining last night, which certainly limited attendance.

slik nik

I heard the Rice-Vanderbilt game a week before had 10,000-20,000 people in attendance.

BerkeleyMom

I'm not sure whether Rice football games are usually well attended or not, but I don't know why this should be a measure of whether Rice students (or students at any school, for that matter) have school spirit or not. In my experience, Rice students are extremely proud of their school and very involved in school activities. Isn't that school spirit?

Modulation

In addition, there's a lot of (residential) college spirit, which is reflected in college games like powderpuff.

aibarr

As someone who went to every single home game during her four years at Rice, it's tough to go out week after week after week and watch your team get the tar beaten out of themselves by bigger, badder Division I teams who don't hold themselves to high academic standards. I mean, there's a reason that the banners in the stadium proclaim our Nobel Prize winners and Fulbright Scholars instead of our Bowl Games and our Heisman Trophy winners... We're very proud of our football team, and there's a small-but-loyal group of students who attend every game, but those are our friends out there on the field being body-slammed by seven-foot guys named Bruiser.

I think you'll find that Rice students are extraordinarily passionate about their school, but that it just doesn't manifest itself in football fanaticism.

(Baseball, on the other hand... standing room only!)

LWMD

The "official" attendance was 11,400 -- according to final stats on the Owls web page.

My son is a Rice grad and I agree with every comment above about Rice school spirit.

Saturday will be interesting at my house: as I said, my son is a Rice grad and my husband is a Naval Academy grad.

I will have to cheer for both!

We try to watch Rice on TV whenever it is broadcast around here.

Colleges00701

Hahahaha, at least you guys have a football team.... My school doesn't have one.