By Liz Funk

Remember the guy in your high school who consistently scored the winning point in every game—and every sport? When he graduated and went to a “Big 10” school, did you assume that “Big 10” meant “heaven”?

For sports lovers, Big 10 schools are heaven. As are Big 12 schools, and schools in the Atlantic Coast Conference.

Athletic conferences are regional associations of intercollegiate athletics for student teams. In addition to providing opposing teams to play, athletic conferences also provide scholarship money to student athletes and put emphasis on the pairing of academics and athletics.

The Big 10, the association for schools in the upper Midwest (think Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, Iowa, Minnesota) is in itself a bit of an irony; it’s made up of 11 schools, which is why the “Big Ten” icon has an “11” carved into the “T.”

The Big 12 is home to—you guessed it—12 schools, such as Missouri, Texas, Kansas, Nebraska and Colorado. The Atlantic Coast Conference hosts schools on the East Coast including Virginia, Duke, NC State and Wake Forest.

So, what it’s like to attend one of these schools? According to students and administrators, although there are a lot of sporting events going on, it’s not all fun and games.

Admissions
Let’s face it: Virtually every NBA, NFL and bocce ball aficionado from Maine to Montana wants to go to a school that participates in a large athletic conference. 

Hence, competition for a ticket in—namely, an admissions ticket—is tough.  It’s absolutely possible—but you will need to earn it.

A 1998 Texas state law guarantees admission to all Texas public school students ranked in the top 10 percent of their classes.

Augustine Garza, the deputy director of freshman admissions at the University of Texas, says, “only 4,500 students were admitted who weren’t top 10 Texans. That group of 4,500 students is made up of non-Texas residents, international students and Texan students not in the top 10 percent.” 

Even students in this pool must be strong “academically, boast a sparkling resume and put together some nice writing samples.”

Academics
The competition doesn’t end once you’re admitted to a big athletic-conference school.

Patrick Keenan-Devlin, the just-graduated student body president at Northwestern University (a member of the Big 10) passionately vouches for the academic merits of Northwestern. Despite the rousing social life inherent in being a Big 10, he says Northwestern students still regard academics as a high priority. 

“We’re a Big 10 that behaves like an Ivy League,” explains Keenan-Devlin.

Garza also emphasizes Texas’s various academic attractions, including extensive research opportunities for undergraduates. 

“Would I say our athletic offerings are a pull for prospective students? Absolutely,” he says. “But so are our academics.”

School spirit/ rivalries
If a Big 10/Big 12/AAC school was accused of not having school spirit, its students wouldn’t be too hurt; they’d know their accuser was gravely wrong.

If there is any league of schools known for possessing school spirit, it’s the schools in prominent athletic conferences.  Not only are these campuses draped in their school colors, but rivalries with other schools in their conference run deep.

Writes Will Blythe, author of To Hate Like This Is to Be Happy Forever: A Thoroughly Obsessive, Intermittently Uplifting, and Occasionally Unbiased Account of the Duke-North Carolina Basketball Rivalry (HarperCollins, 2006), “It is a basketball rivalry that simply has no equal. Duke vs. North Carolina is… the democrats vs. the republicans, the Yankees vs. the Confederates, capitalism vs. communism.” 

Expect such rivalry to exist at other schools, too—generally all in good fun.

Social life
With the exception of the University of Miami, Boston College and Georgia Tech, the schools that belong to the biggest athletic conferences tend to be set in suburban and rural areas (unless you consider Duke’s Durham to be a thriving metropolis). 

This generally means that students stick around campus for student activities, parties, and of course, sporting events.

Each school also has its own traditions for their spectator sports. “We are the nerds of the Big 10,” says Northwestern’s Keenan-Devlin. “We see Ohio State as our rival, but if you asked them, I doubt they’d feel the same way.” 

Keenan-Devlin explains an unusual school spirit habit: “At sporting events, we shake our keys at the other team and chant, ‘You will be our valet.’ 

We like to make use of the fact that we’re the only private school in the Big 10.”

The final draw of going to a school so involved in its athletics is the campus community that accompanies. Students find the atmosphere to be welcoming and student-oriented—and alumni tend to reach out to current students and other graduates to network, reminisce on the good old days at school, or celebrate their favorite sport season.