NEW YORK — Is esports actually a sport? It’s a question that has been debated by those in the mainstream — much to the annoyance and bemusement of the esports community that has built up an industry based upon competition, skill and engagement. Generally, it doesn’t seek that level of validation.
The question wasn’t asked by SportsBusiness Journal/Daily executive editor Abraham Madkour, who moderated Wednesday’s panel featuring major college conference commissioners on Wednesday. But the commissioners went ahead and addressed it at the Learfield Intercollegiate Athletics Forum, making it clear how differently they view esports compared to traditional sports as they weighed whether or not it should be a part of college athletics.
“First of all, it’s a misnomer. It isn’t sports,” Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby said of esports. “And so therefore, it looks very different than what we do every day. I can’t think of a single motivation to get involved in it other than the money, and I just am sort of lost in the conversation of it because if we wanted to make money, I guess we could get into real estate development and we could get into other things that are misaligned with our core business.
“It’s entertainment. It’s games. I don’t see how it aligns with what we do every day. Many of the games are extraordinarily violent, which I think probably campuses should be concerned about as well.”
Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott responded by Bowlsby’s comments by half-joking, “I hope you have that on tape because seven years from now I’ll come back and esports will be an NCAA sport and all that.”
The Pac-12 in 2016 following an internal review of the growth of esports among students in its member institutions saw the presidents and chancellors approve Pac-12 Networks to hold esports competitions. But Scott said despite the intrigue, the conference decided for now not to move forward with esports in as an official sport because the presidents and chancellors had questions about promoting video gaming as a healthy activity and also how to govern it.
“There is some rationale that’s resonating on our campuses for why it does make sense as a competition between universities,” Scott said. “It’s got a lot of the competitive dynamics, mental preparation. It is tethered to academic areas — computer science and all that.
“It certainly does not fit with what our traditional definition of sports is, but I think that is evolving. I think what we think of sports today may change.”
Scott said the conference could come back to this debate down the road. Utah, a Pac-12 institution, already had fielded a varsity esports team and become the first Power 5 Conference school to do so. Esports programs are sprouting up at campuses across the country, and the NCAA is studying possible involvement.
“The way we’re rationalizing the involvement is by treating this as more of an institutional collaboration,” Big East commissioner Val Ackerman said. “We’re trying to find ways where our schools can come together, take advantage of our togetherness which is strong and sort of to superimpose that on the conference brand as a way to build that brand, build their brand, demonstrate potentially some revenue, potentially engagement with other kinds of students.
“These aren’t athletes. They’re students, many of them STEM students. This is the way some of our presidents seem to get them feeling some level of institutional pride. Maybe they’re wearing the university name on a T-shirt instead of a uniform, but I think there is something to that collaborative nature of the activity.”
For some, the notion that esports isn’t sports is a hurdle that appears to be a difficult one to overcome for inclusion to take place.
“I think the biggest question that our conference has is, does it really fit our the mission at this point in time, and so far is answer to that certainly leans more toward the ‘no’ answer than the ‘yes’ answer,” ACC commissioner John Swofford said of the conference’s discussions on esports. “We don’t want to be in the position by not understanding it and not educating ourselves to miss opportunity that we should have taken advantage of.”
Added SEC commissioner Greg Sankey: “It’s clearly a competitive endeavor…but is it a sport? It’s not athletic per se. There are certainly some fine motor skills and visualization and understanding and conceptualizing that are part of that. But I was part of a stock group when I was in college. We’re not talking about should we be presenting an intercollegiate stock competition. It’s an interesting evolution. It’s e-competition, e-gaming. Is it esports? It’s great labeling that’s been introduced that probably has created some of this consideration.”