Ohio University alum Christopher Denhart ’14 wrote a Sept. 2 blog at Forbes about the “Revenge of the Nerds: Athletic Scholarships for Video Gamers.”
Denhart is administrative director of the Center for College Affordability and Productivity. He earned a B.S. in Economics from the College of Arts & Sciences at Ohio University in 2014.
“Today’s Wall Street Journal features a true ‘revenge of the nerds’ story. Robert Morris, a small, private, liberal arts college in Chicago, Ill., now has a varsity video game team that competes in the game League of Legends. The piece chronicles an incoming student from his tryout through the award of a 25 percent (or about $6,000 yearly) tuition scholarship,” Denhart writes.
“Colleges continue to do more things to make them stand out, and attract students to apply. Robert Morris hopes to add video game championships (which have a much larger audience than you might expect) to its ‘claim to fame’ list. This e-sport joins the list of obscurities at RMU including a varsity men’s and women’s bowling team, and varsity women’s dance.
“This reminds us of the athletic scholarships available for chess at schools like Texas Tech and Webster University. Susan Polgar, the world champion and Grandmaster that head coached Texas Tech from 2007 to 2012, had players that captured 15 national, 2 state and 2 regional titles in four years. Now she is making a cool $250,000 salary to coach at Webster University (Ranked #1)….”
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