Are there any SLACs with sports and school spirit like State U's?

[Anonymous]

Just sort the Big East basketball schools by enrollment. Providence, Butler and Xavier are all in the 5,000-6,000 range. Villanova has already been mentioned and is bigger but great bball tradition.

[Anonymous]

Is the OP just asking if an SLAC have a vibrant student tail gate scene for football games?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Elon

Not a SLAC. It's a national university.

[Anonymous]

It iis a bit of a compromise, given their size, but I'd consider some of the Patriot League (D1) schools: Colgate, Holy Cross, Lehigh

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is the OP just asking if an SLAC have a vibrant student tail gate scene for football games?

It’s unclear. Even the Power 5 privates are not known for great tailgates. Northwestern is playing next 2 years at a 15,000 person temporary stadium. Miami plays at the NFL stadium an hour from campus. Etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When people say “school spirit,” they mean sports-centric, right? It always seems like a vague term to me, but that seems to be the gist of it.

If you can extend beyond D1 football, there are lots of smaller schools with big-time basketball programs that make it to the “big dance” most years.

But even sports like baseball and lacrosse can have strong followings at small schools (which sport is big often depends on the region). Especially if the school is in a small town with not much else to do, or in a league with strong rivalries. You’ll have lots of students turning up to cheer on their team, you just won’t have ESPN showing up for the pregame hype.

Colgate has a huge basketball following - their games are a lot of fun to go to in person.