New York - The
University of Utah will become the first big-time sports school to offer
scholarships for competitive video gaming, so far the most high-profile entry
into collegiate esports.
Backed by the
Salt Lake City school’s video game development program, Utah’s first varsity
esports team will play Riot Games’ popular League of Legends and compete in
Riot’s collegiate league. More teams in other games will be announced this
year.
Utah is the first
school in the "Power Five" - the five richest athletic conferences in
college sports - to offer scholarships for video gaming, lending a high-profile
endorsement to the rapidly-growing industry. "We want others schools to
join us," said A.J. Dimick, who will run the new esports program.
"Let’s move this along together."
Funding for the
program will come directly from Utah’s Entertainment Arts & Engineering
department, which The Princeton Review named the country’s best video game
design program in 2016. Dimick declined to say how big the upfront investment
would be.
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The Utah
structure shows a possible road map for other schools to approach esports,
which have many of the same structures as traditional sports but don’t have a
natural home inside athletic departments. Dimick said he’s spoken with Utah
Athletics and for now, the varsity esports venture will happen without
financial help or marketing support from the school’s $70 million sports
programs.
Gamers on Utah’s
League of Legends team will all receive partial scholarships at first, Dimick
said. The long-term plan is to expand to more games and to make money through
marketing and sponsorship deals, eventually offering full scholarships to as
many as 35 gamers.
Though it’s
still early days for collegiate esports, a growing number of schools are
starting to support their student gamers. Utah joins a handful of other
universities - mostly smaller institutions - that offer esports scholarships.
The University of California, Irvine, recently built an esports-specific arena
on its campus, and the Big Ten Conference’s television network earlier this
year began broadcasting competitions between club teams from its member
schools.