The most important rule of IMs: Get up and play! Photo: George Harris/YH

If you are a passive observer of intramurals, you might automatically conclude it’s another David and Goliath tale, a classic example of the big guy beating up on the little guys. Silliman is a force to be reckoned with, holding three championships in the past four years, and the argument I always hear from my players is that they’re bigger than us, and that means we can’t win. Patently false, my friends. Intramurals is not about the number of students. It’s so much more.

Timothy Dwight College and Trumbull College are roughly the same size. They are also two of the smallest colleges at Yale. However, TD has more Tyng Cups than any other college at Yale, while Trumbull has historically been rather lackluster. (Full disclosure: I am the Head IM Secretary for Trumbull College, and I have spilled more blood in her name than anybody.) I have devoted a significant amount of energy to intramurals since I got here two years ago, and what sets our system apart from other universities­­—and makes it better, in my opinion—is the residential college system. Most school’s intramural programs are set up so that students organize and establish their own teams, allowing some teams to dominate by gathering a small group of great athletes. Yale’s intramural teams are affiliated with the residential colleges, eliminating this problem by making all intramural sports pick players from a smaller set of randomly allocated students.

As everyone knows, each college at Yale gets a randomly assigned group of freshmen every year. Since each residential college gets a random group of new students every year, the overall influx of talent is equal from year to year. However, four colleges (TD, Pierson, Stiles, and Silliman) hold a large majority of the Tyng Cups (41 out of 75). What’s keeping Trumbull, Branford, Morse, and JE in the basement (only eight combined wins)? Quite simply, some colleges are bringing more people to the field from year to year.

The strongest predictor of a college’s success is its participation level. According to the Head Intramural Secretary, Dan Geoffrion, DC ’10, “There is almost a direct correlation between the Davies Cup and the Tyng Cup.” For those who don’t know, The Davies Cup is awarded to the college with the highest participation level, while the Tyng Cup is awarded to the college that is most successful in all intramural sports. As a result, high participation is the best chance a college has to win the Tyng Cup. The last two years’ Tyng champions were also Davies winners. This is true across the board, from large colleges like Silliman to small colleges like TD and JE.

The effects of high participation are manifold. If you bring more people, chances are, a few of them will actually be good at the sport you’re playing. Any IM secretary can tell you about the diamonds in the rough they’ve found just by getting people to come out and play a few times. On top of that, extra players mean substitutions, which can make all the difference in games that can drag on for hours. Of course, it’s easy to say that colleges need lots of people to play to be successful.

It’s much more difficult to understand how colleges keep a high roster of devoted intramural athletes. There are three pillars of a strong intramural program: organization, spirit, and a culture of intramurals. A strong organization can bring in people who have never played before. Strong intramural programs make their freshmen excited about being a part of the college athletic department. This draws in a steady stream of talent, helping to replace the constant drain of graduating seniors. These programs are self-sustaining, constantly pulling new people into something they believe is powerful, and keeping experienced athletes happy with wins and college glory.

The spirit of a college feeds the organization. When students love the residential college that they represent, they’ll go out and play a sport they’ve never tried before. They’ll put off a paper for a few more hours. They’ll push themselves to play harder, and they’ll encourage other people to do it with them.

Finally, a culture of intramurals grows out of a strong organization and high college spirit. This culture pulls in the skeptics. It scares other colleges. It makes people feel like being an IM powerhouse is in the very nature of their college. That feeling is a self-fulfilling prophecy. IMs is like pimping. If you walk like you’re good, talk like you’re good, and act like you’re good, you will be.

So it’s clear that IMs is, at its heart, a numbers game. Yet there is a place for everyone who wants to participate. It’s a system built for the idea of sportsmen and women pushing themselves just because they love the game. All the colleges start off on a level playing field, without the benefit of top five recruiting classes or media hype. We all get the same people from year to year (except for Trumbull, because we get the best people). What matters is what the students in a college do. At the beginning of the season, it’s up to every IM athlete to decide his or her own destiny.

By George Harris