Eastern officially has 23 sports this week.

Not exactly, but it sure seems like it.

No, gymnastics or field hockey hasn’t been added as an Eastern sport this week.

Neither has equestrian or rodeo or rifle made its arrival in Charleston.

Neither has lacrosse or men’s rugby, both club sports here at Eastern, been added as a certified NCAA sport.

So why all the large crowds, and students, yes actual apathetic Eastern students, walking across Fourth Street to venture over near all the Eastern athletic fields?

Oh yeah, that’s right, for a little game of tug-of-war.

The glorified Greek Week event Tugs is here.

An event mostly outdated by the time a college student reaches high school, but one that swells in popularity once a student at Eastern becomes a brother or a sister of a fraternity or sorority here.

With this spectacle of all sporting spectacles, the Greek community at Eastern is out in full force to support these so-called athletes.

The massive crowds that overtake the area near Campus Pond are quite surreal.

Larger crowds attend this athletic event, if Tugs can generously be called that, than most official athletic events at Eastern.

What a joke.

Tuggers run miles upon miles, practice in the cold and train like most Eastern athletic teams do.

And some do one of the most unthinkable things a college student can do: abstain from drinking.

People start training for Tugs in January, or even earlier than that. Tuggers have official weigh-ins, have their cleats checked and some participants lose as many as 20 pounds in order to qualify for the Little Men competition.

Wow.

Talk about commitment.

Or just plain stupidity.

But hey, who can blame them when this very newspaper blows this childish competition out of the water.

Three front-page photos this week showing the excitement, determination and clear enjoyment that these Tuggers are going through.

Checking out dennews.com on Thursday, one wouldn’t have known which would be a bigger deal.

The story about Thursday’s Tugs competition, or the fact that the controversial Don Smith wrote another letter to the editor ripping minorities.

Well, this campus has its priorities, with outrage being expressed at the Tugs story, while barely anyone takes notice of Smith’s letter.

And why?

All for maybe five minutes of glory and their place among the highest of all Greek immortals.

Or maybe for a minute of embarrassment as a team gets overpowered right into Campus Pond.

The few and the proud that remain standing can claim a win and advance onto the next round. The few unlucky end up in Campus Pond (the first three people that touch the water in Campus Pond signify a loss to their Greek organization) with mud covering their t-shirt and a sad, beaten look on their face.

This event has grown in absurdity every year I’ve been on campus.

But as long as there’s Greek Week, there will be an event Greeks seem to enjoy even more so than getting drunk – Tugs.