The University of South Alabama announced their decision to add a sportsmanship rating to intramurals on Aug. 28. This season, teams must keep at least a 3.0 sportsmanship rating to qualify for the playoffs. Each team’s sportsmanship will be tracked by the referees for each specific game. 

Intramural trash-talk may be limited more now than it ever has before. With the addition of the sportsmanship rating, teams will have to be careful when complaining about bad calls made by referees, and when trash-talking to the opposing team. 

“[The new policy] is to prevent a team that always tip-toes the line to make sure they don’t do it every single game,” said Stephen Newhouse, the Competitive Sports, Facilities and Rock Wall  Director at South. “We think this will help with friendliness towards our student officials.”

The referees, as well as students, will have guidelines on how to keep the proper sportsmanship rating. The first Official’s Clinic was held Sept. 5 so officials will know those guidelines now, and each team will be sent the guidelines before every sports season starts. Fans who are found heckling an official can also drop their team’s sportsmanship rating. 

“We know sports are competitive, so we aren’t looking for a perfect thing. We are just looking to improve the relationships between our teams and student officials,” said Newhouse. 

According to University officials, there were no specific incidents that led up to this new policy decision being made, and most schools around the country have sportsmanship ratings already in place. 

Intramurals started at the beginning of September and they offer a variety of sports including flag football, volleyball, basketball, soccer, and more. For a full list of intramural sports and instructions on how to join a team, visit IMLeagues.com.