<p>OP, it would help if you define what you mean by a sports culture. Here are two extremes.</p>
<p>UFlorida has national level teams in virtually every sport in which it competes and on days with home football games school spirit and the game will be all over campus. Big sports school right? However, Florida actually has relatively few varsity sports and it is a very big school so the odds you have a varsity athlete on your dorm hall or in your class are pretty low. (UF has 18 varsity sports)</p>
<p>Lots of folks in this thread are recommending LACs. LACs typically have among the most varsity teams (often 30+ teams) which means 1/4 to 1/3 of the students are often varsity athletes … the sports culture is often very low key but a huge percentage of folks are involved in it. The athletic experience is totally different than at a LAC from UF but athletics definitely plan a big role on campus.</p>
<p>What about athletics are you trying to avoid?</p>