In the 2009–2010 academic year, Covenant Athletics began the transition from one sports governing body to another. The Scots moved from the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) to the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division III.
Since then, there has been little agreement on one thing: who our primary rival school is. Before, there was 100% certainty on who our rival was, the one school everyone on campus would get fired up about playing: Bryan College, a school that is still an NAIA institution.
After the transition, play between the former rivals has been limited. According to the Athletics archives, Baseball is the only team on campus that has played Bryan as an in-season countable game. (Note: This only counts teams that schedule one-on-one matchups.)
My original intent was to write an article about which school the student body perceived to be our rival, but the more students I spoke with, the more I realize they simply weren’t sure who Covenant’s rival is.
A couple of athletes gave their specific sports team’s rivals. Claire Mellott ’27 of the women’s cross country team said that Asbury is her team’s primary rival, while Isaac Leicht ’27 of the baseball team pointed to LaGrange. Around campus, however, students seem ambivalent.
Why do rivalries matter, though? Should Christian schools even have rivalries with one another? Should we here at Covenant single out one school to face the ire of the student body every time we play them?
s with most things, a rivalry isn’t dangerous to our Christian life until sin begins to influence it. When hatred towards opposing players and fans floods our senses and our identity is placed in the performance of our team, a rivalry becomes truly dangerous. On the other hand, when a rivalry is good, it can foster genuine love for the sport and mutual respect between two teams that understand how much hard work and dedication goes into the sport.
Maybe in the next few years Covenant will foster a rivalry with a school like Asbury or LaGrange. When we do, it should be a rivalry founded off the love of the sport and the stewardship of the abilities that God has given us.
Or maybe we’ll never have a rival in athletics again and if that happens, that’s okay. Though Dr. Philip Bunn of the Political Science department has expressed his hope that some day the debate team would have an intellectual rival.