Forget football. College students are scoring big with esports.

During the pandemic, college sports lost many millions of dollars, forcing schools to close their programs.

But that wasn’t the case for collegiate esports, or competitive video game playing, which has been happening on campuses for about a decade and is flourishing along with the multibillion-dollar industry it helps fuel. For students, esports offers a way to earn college scholarships – worth $16 million by 2022 – and build a community. For the hundreds of schools participating, it is a pipeline for filling classes.

In Pennsylvania, the Arcadia University program has more than 50 players, with scholarships ranging from $500 to $10,000 per semester.

“Esports makes everyone here feel like I belong in the community,” said senior Corey Klevan, a computer science major.

In Idaho, Boise State University’s esports team started in 2017. The first two years of the program faced challenges from parents skeptical of its usefulness. But seeing their children get scholarships and deals on their name, image and likeness could change their minds.

“Parents catch on quickly,” says Chris “Doc” Haskell, co-founder of the program. “Two years was the distance between when they didn’t really trust it and now they come in as their child’s No. 1 advocate.”

Sean Ey’s left hand clicks on a computer keyboard with the dexterity of a court reporter taking notes. His right hand holds a mouse on which his fingers tap with equal dexterity.

He plays a video game as a soldier who hunts for enemies generated by artificial intelligence in an empty plane. They exchange fire with heavy machine guns until his avatar is felled. His PC screen taunts him with the words, “Mission Lost.”

Mr. Ey is not at home to play with friends. He studies, flanked by coaches who send thousands of dollars to his education every year to play video games for them. Mr. Ey, a junior majoring in computer science at Arcadia University just outside of Philadelphia, is part of the fast-growing collegiate esports world.

“I’ve been playing video games since I was four, so it’s been a big part of my life,” he says. “I’ve met so many people and to be able to do it in this style and play at such a competitive level is amazing.”

College sports lost during the pandemic many millions of dollars, forcing schools to close programs. But that wasn’t the case for esports, which has been on campuses for about a decade and is flourishing along with the multibillion-dollar industry it helps fuel. For students, esports offers a way to earn college scholarships – amounting to $16 million by 2022 – and build community through club and varsity competition. For the hundreds of schools participating, it is a pipeline for filling classes.

“The benefit of having an esports program at a university is clearly that it will drive enrollment,” said Nick Alverson, director of esports at Arcadia.

Michael Brooks, executive director of the National Association of Collegiate Esportswhich governs esports – rather than the NCAA – says increasing enrollment could be the gift that keeps on giving to both students and universities.

Transferable skills students gain through esports, he said, include becoming familiar with digital platforms, learning to broadcast and create graphic overlays, online streaming and managing online communities.

“These are the very same skills that companies are in incredible demand for right now,” he says, “and there are so few schools offering a specific curriculum to develop them.”

The National Association of Collegiate Esports began varsity programs at six schools in 2016. Today there are 217 campuses with varsity status. In addition, the association oversees the Starleague in the United States and Canada, which consists of more than 775 colleges, the majority of which do not yet have varsity teams. It also tracks the total number of esports scholarships awarded.

At the end of each semester, championships are held for varsity and club teams for 17 esports, including games like Super Smash Brothers, Rocket League, Call of Duty and Rainbow Six Siege. Games can include card games, war games, shooting games, racing and one-on-one combat.

“A sense of belonging”

In Pennsylvania, the Arcadia University program has more than 50 players, with scholarships ranging from $500 to $10,000 per semester.

“Esports makes everyone here feel like I belong in the community,” said senior Corey Klevan, a computer science major.

His parents were skeptical of his recruitment out of high school to play Hearthstone, a strategy-based multiplayer card game in which players can cast spells, fight in duels and summon special characters to fight for them.

“I didn’t like reading and refused to read. And (my parents) were yelling at me to get off the games. And then I get a scholarship to play video games,” Mr. Klevan says, laughing.

Over the past three years, playing esports has helped him gather good friends and make memories. Mr Klevan, the captain of the campus self-defence club, says esports has helped him deal with trust issues and socializing. He doesn’t see a professional career in esports in his future. His mother has gone from being indifferent to playing video games in college. As for his father’s demand for good grades, he has a GPA of 3.77.

Traditionally, schools marketed their appeal with big-name sports programs, said the esports association’s Mr. Brooks. But a growing gaming population was ignored. The Internet was a game changer for multiplayer competition – people no longer had to share the same physical space to play together.

“Eventually the recognition came – and I think it was actually overdue – that if that’s what our customers identify with, if that’s what their passion is, if that’s what they put their time and energy into, then we have to value offer that matches that interest,” says Mr Brooks.

Sponsorship and advertising revenues have ultimately led to the funding of esports programs at many colleges, including some schools that partner with game publishers for naming rights to esports arenas. For example, the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth is introducing one new arena this semester.

Gaming in style

In Boise, Idaho, 25 esports team members compete in the 7,000-square-foot space Boise State Esports Arena. The three-story building — across from a hotel, a Trader Joe’s market and several takeout and sit-down restaurants — is where battles are fought in Overwatch and Valorant, two first-person shooter games; and Rocket League, a vehicular football game. The main theater is decorated with leather seating for spectators, and the building offers a Battleground space for intramural use and for the general public.

The broadcast control room, with its assortment of screens, resembles the command center for a NASA shuttle launch. It is complemented by the Studio, a designated space with furniture and a large projection screen where players can be interviewed.

Chris “Doc” Haskell co-founded the program in 2017. He was a professor of educational technology and games researcher. Today, Boise’s esports program makes top 10 lists, such as a recent one from esports promoter nerdstreet.com, and another from BestColleges.com.

“I was doing some research for a keynote I was going to give about other ways to use games,” says Dr. Haskell. He realized that esports had the potential to really take off. “I found out it was going to be huge, like, oh my god, this is going to be huge. And we have to do something about that.”

Boise State University’s esports program started with a small budget, which has grown to $500,000 annually. It now offers $150,000 in scholarships each academic year, ranging from as little as $500 to $1,000 per semester to full rides, says Dr. Haskell. Advertisers and local businesses have flocked to the broadcast company, which reaches more than a million eyes per month and airs 30 to 40 hours of live content every week.

Students benefit in countless ways, Dr. Haskell says.

“We are a platform for other departments to inject their curriculum into, so communications, athletic training, athletic leadership education, computer science and cybersecurity all have elements they can bring in and use,” he says.

Varsity members of BSU’s esports team must maintain a 3.0 GPA to play. That’s a selling point for parents. In the first two years of the program, there were challenges from parents who were skeptical of the program’s usefulness. Seeing their children get scholarships and make deals over name, image and likeness is all the empirical evidence needed to make them turn around.

“Parents realize it quickly,” says Dr. Haskell. “Two years was the distance between when they didn’t really trust it and now they come in as their child’s No. 1 advocate.”