<p>That’s a legitimate concern, given that so much of Amherst’s early history and identity are tied to sports. For example, few people recall or are even aware that Amherst, Williams and Wesleyan (The Little Three) were founding members of the NCAA:</p>
<p>[NCAA</a> News Archive - Founding members hold true to NCAA educational mission](<a href=“http://fs.ncaa.org/Docs/NCAANewsArchive/2006/Membership+Information/founding%2Bmembers%2Bhold%2Btrue%2Bto%2Bncaa%2Beducational%2Bmission.html]NCAA”>http://fs.ncaa.org/Docs/NCAANewsArchive/2006/Membership+Information/founding%2Bmembers%2Bhold%2Btrue%2Bto%2Bncaa%2Beducational%2Bmission.html)</p>
<p>And, the interesting thing about that original group of colleges is that three quarters of them are presently Division III colleges, suggesting a very different picture of intercollegiate sports in 1906 than exists today. A hundred years ago, a typical Little Three athlete wasn’t so different from their classmates, kids interested in running, jumping and throwing an object as far as they could - but with extremely few prospects of ever getting rich by doing so.</p>
<p>Today, you can walk around any NESCAC college (the small college version of the Ivy League) and immediately tell who the athletes are; they are bigger, taller, heavier than most of their classmates, many of them having chosen Amherst over a comparable Division I college.</p>
<p>There’s nothing wrong with that per se; excellence comes in many forms. The problem is one of scale. At 1600 students, Amherst is the smallest of the Little Three. What that means is that in order to field a typical football roster of say, 80 guys, one in every 10 Amherst men have to be a member of the football team. Add basketball, baseball, wrestling, hockey, soccer and track and field and pretty much 40% of your classmates are members of some sort of sports team.</p>
<p>Can you avoid school spirit and all athletic events? Of course you can (only Wesleyan makes a big deal out of having “the oldest playing field in continuous use in America” - right in the center of campus.) Pratt Field is sufficiently far from the main campus that but for the occasional flu-like outbreak of purple clothing giving any hint at all, you’d have no idea of what is going on.</p>
<p>That being said, however, it depends on how pure you want to remain in your non-involvement: Amherst parties are open to everyone, but, the lowdown is that they are run by the sports teams.</p>