What started out as a friendly and fun school spirit competition has become a source of frustration for many students. The SMU Varsity app, created to track points for this basketball season’s MOB memberships, has been posing several problems for those who want to spend time in the student section this fall.
Students have been checking each other into games, a problem that has been fixed technologically, but those who received undeserved points are keeping them. Most people who attend games have trouble getting service, making it difficult to check in and receive points. Some students are bothered by the fact that attendance at football games is worth 30 points while a soccer or volleyball is only 10. These are just a few of the issues people have with the system.
The app has its advantages though. SMU Defensive Tackle Gareth Riley-Ayers appreciates what the point system does for attendance at sporting events.
“I like the idea. It’s a cool incentive to get people in,” said Riley-Ayers. “That in combination with beer at the stadium shows a real commitment to do something different for more people. I’ve also seen it have a positive effect on other sports as well like [with] volleyball and soccer. It’ll be interesting though to see how it carries over to our other games where we don’t play big name teams.”
Senior Christopher Saul thinks the app is a great idea, but is disappointed in its lack of functionality.
“It bugs me that it’s so hard to use at the football games,” said Saul. “Because the reception is so bad, it’s near impossible to check in. Other than that I think it’s great. It’s building up the rest of our sports around the basketball team.”
Student Body Vice President Monica Finnegan also appreciates the concept, but isn’t satisfied with its attempts at stopping students from getting unearned points.
“I think it can be easily tricked by students just trying to mess with the system,” said Finnegan. “I think rather than an app, students should swipe their IDs as well, perhaps as they are leaving, so as to double check, if they really want to ensure students are staying at the game and being honest with the app.”
Finnegan is displeased with the way the Varsity app makes points unavailable to students who are more involved in other activities.
“I also have qualms with how it in some ways punishes involved students,” she said. “Certain games conflict with some of my extracurriculars, and I can’t come and will thus never be able to compete with the student who simply has more time to devote to going to various games because they don’t have the same work load.”
Senior Geenah Krisht believes the app should reward students equally for attendance at all sporting events.
“I think that the Varsity app is great in theory, however, I think it is wrong that different sports teams have different amounts of points,” said Krisht. “It is almost encouraging students to support football more than the other sports.”
Senior Preston Hutcherson is more concerned with the concept of bribing students to attend games.
“The integrity of the system has clearly already been compromised by people cheating,” he said. “Plus, it’s hard to feel good about forcing students to go to football games the way things are going this season.”
