Cortland NY – The prospect of spring and the return of warmer weather brings about a change of heart in everyone.
Students go from being cooped up in their dorms all winter to finally being able to walk outside without the need to bundle up. Campus goes from looking deserted to looking alive nearly overnight once the sun shows up for the first time.
The turning of the calendar to March brings about a lot of excitement both on campus and across the entire SUNY system. Each year the SUNY system participates in their Mascot Madness tournament, a play on the NCAA March Madness tournament.
The tournament is designed with the goal of bringing each SUNY campus together in a positive way and increase a sense of pride within each school’s community. The overall goal of the tournament is to create a higher sense of campus pride in a simple and entertaining manner.
“We started the Mascot Madness tournament in 2013 with the simple goal of increasing school pride at each one of our institutions,” said a spokesperson from the SUNY system. “The competitive nature of the tournament allows each one of our campus communities to bond together with a common goal in mind.”
For student’s at Cortland, a strong sense of campus pride is what attracted many of them here and other big events such as the annual Cortaca jug football game only heighten that sense of pride and community.
“I don’t feel like Cortland needs an event like this in order to bring people together or have them rally together,” said John Genova, a freshman at SUNY Cortland. “Of all the places I toured this was the only place where I picked up a vibe that people were here because they loved it here and not just here for school.”
For other students the Mascot Madness tournament provides an opportunity to share that pride with their family and friends back home. The tournament is another way for them to connect their school pride to the rest of their lives.
“I’ve been sharing the link with every single group chat and family member ever since they sent the information about it out,” said Elijah Peter, a freshman at SUNY Cortland. “I think having an event like this allows us as students to connect one aspect of our lives to others. Especially with some of my younger family members, sharing my experience here in any positive aspect is important to me.”
The sense of pride goes far beyond the current students and community on campus. For alumni the yearly tournament allows them to reminisce on their time and continue to support the school from where they are now.
“I’ve been gone for a few years now but you still feel that sense of community,” said Rich Samuels, a 2022 graduate from SUNY Cortland. “I work as a physical education teacher now and a lot of my coworkers here are from Cortland. For us we use the Mascot Madness tournament as a way to compare experiences and we make our students vote in the tournament as well. We want to beat the other teachers’ former schools.”
For SUNY the tournament may have been a simple idea with an easy goal in mind. For the students and alumni it has become something more than that. It has become an opportunity to share what they love about their school and campus.
The tournament bracket can be found online at SUNY.edu and voting in the first round runs until Friday at 2:00 p.m. with the second round of voting beginning on Mar. 18.