Should the University be represented at Roses by the best college sports teams, or by a barbarians team consisting of the best players from the college sports leagues?
Traditionally, barbarians teams have been selected for football at Roses. This provides an opportunity for players who don’t play for the university teams in their sports, whether it be because they’ve never tried, or because they were deemed not good enough. They can represent their university with the same pride that they do for their college every week.
But this year, it will be different. There are plans for a knockout tournament for college football in week one next term. The winner will earn the opportunity to represent the university at Roses. A similar tournament might occur for rugby.
This will presumably come as a disappointment to Wentworth, newly crowned champions of college football this term. They will have to win the tournament next term to have the chance to compete at Roses.
In netball, the winners of college leagues have traditionally found themselves representing the university at Roses. However it is hoped that the new tournaments will ignite peoples interest in the weeks leading up to Roses. If brought in, it could become a major event in future years.
This begs the question why a single college side competing at Roses is better than having a barbarians team. Many college football players also play university football, at various levels. The majority, though, play only for their college. Having a barbarians team at Roses gives them something to achieve, on an individual basis.
But then it could be argued that this devalues the relationship between college and university sport. If college sport is to provide a feeder system for university sport, then college football players who are picked for the York barbarians side should in truth be playing, or at least trying out, for UYAFC.
There is a great spirit within college football. Teams are often made up of good friends, and the players know each other well, on and off the field. Giving teams the chance to win the right to represent the University at Roses as a college, therefore, is the way forward.
I’ve got a good idea – the week before the College Cup, let’s hold another knockout tournament. But we’ll condense it into one week. If this pits only the 1sts teams against one another (and wouldn’t that be a little arbitrary?), then that’s a mere 3 games in one week, the week before the CC starts. Good plan.
What happened last year? Surely this should have been all sorted out before the college league even started.
Seems that the 1sts league provided the opportunity for all the colleges to compete against one another why have another competition.
Also who would choose this Barbarian team?