The leaves are falling off of the trees while shirts at Campus Customs have been flying off the shelves. It’s now the season of warm fuzzy sweaters, class registration and The Game. Like Mariah Carey’s annual Nov. 1 debut or “Star Wars” on May the Fourth, it is the time of year when our inner sports fans emerge from hibernation. This weekend, Yale’s social hierarchies will be completely reversed as we cheer on athletes instead of mathletes — for once. 

Outside of Morse and Stiles, athletes have a surprisingly weak grip on the Yale social scene, a stark contrast from the larger national culture. At most American colleges, athletes are worshiped by militant cheerleader squads and are soundtracked by armies of marching bands blasting their generic battle cry: “Go sportsball!” But at the Yale Bowl, high school try-hards are loud, and the hierarchies of high school have quieted down.

We do things differently at Yale. While doing pushups may impress our less developed Harvard counterparts, our preferred liberal arts party trick seems to be a debate over Foucault. We give clout to slam poetry nights and “Hamlet” performances. Yalies swarm the Davenport dining hall and barter with Fizz scalpers just to listen to DPops and the Yale Symphony Orchestra. And a cappella rush easily rivals that of a Southern sorority. Our main it-people are not hockey jocks but the Whiffenpoofs in their fancy tails. Meanwhile, Payne Whitney athletes’ most loyal audiences are the die-hard sports fans lying six feet under in the nearby Grove Street Cemetery. 

While it makes sense to focus on academics and the arts at an educational institution, it comes with some unfortunate side effects. You can’t have a conversation here without an unnecessary Descartes name-drop. Yalies claim to be more deserving of their acceptance than an athlete because they — or their parents — “worked hard for it,” while athletes only got in “because they can throw a ball.” Let’s see how smart we all are when we’re dressed head-to-toe in Yale blue — or not dressed at all — and Googling how football works.

Don’t get us wrong — we’re both tenants of the same dusty corner during gym class. We spent high school poring over books and reworking our college spreadsheet. One of us was a try-hard artsy kid and the other spent every weekend at debate tournaments. We’ve found comfort in the Yale community, a break from the stereotypes of high school. This is the exact life our high school selves strived for. Everyone’s path to Yale was different. Someone might not have shared the same struggles as us. But that doesn’t mean they didn’t struggle to get here. While some of us were studying for the SAT or playing our instruments, others were staying after practice running extra laps or trying to get that dive just right. One does not invalidate the other.

So, why should we care about The Game? We could say it’s about the camaraderie or a way to fulfill our innate competitive spirit. Perhaps it’s our way of pushing Harvard to finally improve itself. But a better reason to care is because it gives us a chance to enjoy the exceptional, diverse talent of our community, and thank our athletes for all of their hard work. 

This Saturday, let’s stop degrading people who would beat us at things. Not all of us are football players. We don’t have to be; we can just cheer on those who are. We must accept that we can’t be the best at everything in order to truly appreciate the value of our peers’ gifts. So let’s leave the competitive stereotypes, hierarchies and the ridiculous us-versus-them mentality behind us. 

Except for our superiority over Harvard. They can’t sit with us.

FAITH DUNCAN is a first year in Saybrook College. Contact her at faith.duncan@yale.edu. 

ALI OTUZOGLU is a first year in Silliman College. Contact him at ali.otuzoglu@yale.edu.