Students participate in intramurals for a few reasons. Usually, winning is chief among them.

Sometimes, however, the desire to win is taken too far when teams or individuals attempt to gain an unfair advantage by sandbagging.

Sandbagging is defined in section 12 of the Eligibility section in the 2003-04 Intramural Handbook as a team that “plays below their skill level.” A team caught sandbagging runs the risk of being dropped from competition.

Each team sport has three to four skill levels that allow teams to play evenly matched games. The skill levels are designated by letters from A to D.

Garry Greenlee, associate director of recreation services, said that sandbagging usually happens in the B and C skill levels, where the difference in competition is more difficult to judge.

“Our top skill level is highly competitive, so if you don’t have some true, high-caliber athletes, you don’t belong in A,” Greenlee said. “If your team is composed of mostly people that have never played or played very little, they’re probably in D league. It’s the [B and C skill levels] that are the problem.”

Most of the sports require teams to sign up in a two-range skill level for preliminary games. In each skill level, A/B, B/C or C/D, teams play an average of three games to determine which side of the fence they fall on.

If a team wins more games than it loses, Greenlee said the team will likely be placed in the higher skill level. Preliminary scores also contribute to the skill level that teams are placed in for the tournament.

“If you are 1-2 [in basketball preliminary games], but you score 70, 80, 90 points, that’s not a ‘C’ team,” said Greenlee.

In order for a member of a team to be eligible for the tournament in an indoor sport, Greenlee said he or she must play in at least one preliminary game to correctly assess the skill level. For the outdoor sports, because of rainouts and other circumstances, the member must play before the semifinals.

It’s the sports that don’t have preliminary rounds, like broomball, that have the right conditions for sandbaggers.

Todd York, sophomore in family and consumer sciences education, said he played on an inexperienced broomball team this fall. He said competition is pretty even among intramural sports, except in broomball.

“We played against a team that had played before, so it really wasn’t a game,” York said of his team’s 6-2 loss in C division play.

Linda Marticke, intramural sports programs coordinator, said broomball is the toughest sport to keep sandbaggers out of because of the lack of preliminary games. She pointed out a few games where broomball teams won 5-0, 7-1 and 9-0 in the C skill level.

Greenlee said student supervisor ratings help to place a team who is “on the bubble” in regard to skill level. Student supervisors, he said, attend games and report back to him their opinion on a specific team’s true skill level.

“Three-fourths of our supervisors play the sport [they supervise], so they know what it’s like [playing the game] and they know the competition,” Greenlee said.

Despite all the checks in place, Greenlee said just like every system, the sandbagging system has its flaws.

“The majority of our teams sign up for the right skill level,” Greenlee said. “[Yet] there is always someone who will beat the system.”