PRESS BOX: Frat culture’s takeover of sports is dangerous

Kyler Gilliam, Staff Writer

The dangerous rise of online conservatism, specifically among Generation Z men, has been evident in many spaces where young men usually congregate. Sports are no different. 

With the downfall of traditional television in the modern age and online spaces constantly growing, the online sports community is becoming a legitimate part of the sports ecosystem.

However, that space has been heavily influenced by the growing fraternity culture that the Republican Party has used to capture the attention of young men during President Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign.

Young men are flocking to spaces that are inherently conservative, which is filled with casual racism, homophobia and xenophobia. 

This creates a harmful environment in the growing ecosystem of the online sports network.

Modern fraternity culture acts as a constant reminder of the “glory days” of a non-politically correct society, which makes these companies more appealing to high school and college-aged men. 

Their entertainment comes at the expense of others and has dangerous pitfalls, such as the promotion of alcohol and gambling, which pushes young men into dangerous rhetoric and habits. 

This community thrives on being offensive to those without a large foothold in sports, and calling out this behavior can lead to scrutiny.

Since the audience does not usually belong to the communities they are being offensive to, they cannot be truly boycotted. 

This allows for offensive jokes to go unchecked and lets prejudice spread in the online sports space.

During the 2024 presidential election, these increasingly right-leaning spaces and communities were integral to raising Trump’s profile among young men.

In 2016, Barstool founder Dave Portnoy endorsed Trump in a blog post voicing his disappointment in the state of politics at the time.

“I am voting for Donald Trump. I don’t care if he’s a joke. I don’t care if he’s racist. I don’t care if he’s sexist,” Portnoy stated. “I hope he stays in the race and I hope he wins. Why? Because I love the fact that he is making other politicians squirm.” 

This led him to an interview with Trump during his 2020 campaign, and started the president’s use of podcasts to engage with young men.

Trump’s interview with the “Bussin’ With The Boys” podcast, hosted by former NFL players Will Compton and Taylor Lewan, reached over 480,000 views on YouTube.

The online sports community supported Trump during his campaign, and when he returned to office, traditional television networks such as ESPN began to open up to the online sports space.

On Aug. 28, ESPN announced Lewan and Compton would appear on the morning show “Get Up,” starting on Sept. 4. They will be brought on to discuss college football, according to an ESPN press release.

This comes two years after the network brought “The Pat McAfee Show” to its network, a show that perfectly embodies the growing frat culture in sports.

Hosted by former All-Pro punter Pat McAfee, the show has been a platform for current Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers, to spread anti-vaccine propaganda on national television with little to no pushback.

ESPN is expected to follow the trend of the frat-coded sports podcast space due to its growing popularity, and I expect to see its conservatism creep into legacy media with it.

Until the political left makes a worthwhile attempt to engage in the online sports space, we all should expect our sports to get a lot more conservative.