Are college cross country programs fraternities and sororities?

Interesting observation. The cross country teams I have coached have been called frats for a good reason. The team gradually became competitive in academics with each other, and encouraged each other to run for student body positions like treasurer, president, etc. After some years, parents asked their children to consider joining the cross country team, thinking it would help their grades.

Cults is more accurate.

Most of my team hated me because I was outgoing, partied, and was generally not a socially awkward introvert. So....no, not like a frat.

A track team is much more like a fraternity.

ddd4 wrote:

Most of my team hated me because I was outgoing, partied, and was generally not a socially awkward introvert. So....no, not like a frat.

they really hated ddd4 because he was the 7th man and could have been 5th, dropping 20 points from the team score at conference if he'd have gotten serious instead of being too hungover to do morning runs most the time and missed some workouts

lol @ caring what place you score in your college events. Huge life impacting days those are. Definitely worth being a closeted all-in robot training and living like a month for four years.

ddd3 wrote:

ddd4 wrote:

Most of my team hated me because I was outgoing, partied, and was generally not a socially awkward introvert. So....no, not like a frat.

they really hated ddd4 because he was the 7th man and could have been 5th, dropping 20 points from the team score at conference if he'd have gotten serious instead of being too hungover to do morning runs most the time and missed some workouts

monk*

ddd5 wrote:

lol @ caring what place you score in your college events. Huge life impacting days those are. Definitely worth being a closeted all-in robot training and living like a month for four years.

ddd3 wrote:

they really hated ddd4 because he was the 7th man and could have been 5th, dropping 20 points from the team score at conference if he'd have gotten serious instead of being too hungover to do morning runs most the time and missed some workouts

ddd5 wrote:

lol @ caring what place you score in your college events. Huge life impacting days those are. Definitely worth being a closeted all-in robot training and living like a month for four years.

Teammate of the year, this guy. I wouldn't have wanted your selfish attitude on my teammate either.

lettuce run wrote:

I think athletic programs substitute and function like a frat/sorority at a lot of campuses. Do you agree or no?

I think this is pretty accurate. I think a lot of teams room together in the same dorm suite, throw their own parties, do their own community service activities.

At my college, all the sports teams were essentially frats. I would also say that almost all the serious extracurricular groups on campus functioned as frats. A capella groups, improv comedy groups, etc