Crossing the Blues

Fans Campaigning to Ask Harry Potter's Quidditch to Become Official College Sport


Harry Potter's broomstick dash quidditch is set to become an official U.S. college sport - if student fans of the film franchise get their way. Scholars at UCLA, Harvard and NYU already have quidditch teams and now there's a push on to get the game recognized as a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) competition.

If that happens, governing body officials will be obliged to pump funds into the sport and the best young players may be offered scholarships to attend universities that excel at the game, which was created by Potter author J.K. Rowling. The campaign to get the sport recognized comes as New York prepares to host the Quidditch World Cup next month.

Commissioner of the International Quidditch Association Alex Benepe, who plays for the NYU team, tells MTV, "Anybody who comes to the championship match of the 2010 World Cup this year will be hard pressed to say that quidditch would not deserve to be an NCAA sport. It's an intense game."

Although the stars of the "Potter" movie take off on their broomsticks when they play quidditch, the players of the non-magic game run around a field with broomsticks between their legs at all times, catching balls.