Basketball season is almost over for the CU Buffs, and neither the Men’s or Women’s teams had the season they were hoping for. But even though they’re not in the NCAA tournament, many people in Boulder and the Denver metro area will be watching March Madness in just a couple of weeks. (And of course the Nuggets are still going strong, with a real chance to compete in the playoffs if everyone can get healthy.) So, there is a lot of basketball watching still to come as the season winds down. Published research links watching basketball games to increased alcohol consumption, and increased drinking inevitably also means more drinking and driving.
Many people will be watching these games, but for college students in particular, we know that watching sporting events contributes to drinking. Sporting events are an important part of college culture; they present situations that encourage students to gather and bond with fellow students (Rabow & Duncan-Schill, 1995). And of course, substance use is highly associated with watching these sporting events. One study showed that while on average students drank 3 drinks on a typical weekend, they averaged 7-8 drinks or more per day when watching playoff basketball games (Neal et al., 2005).
All this sports-related drinking also contributes to alcohol-related problems on campuses. At a football-loving school in a different state, they found that 46% of all campus discipline violations occurred on football weekends (Coons et al., 1995). And, we know that as drinking increases, so does drinking and driving. A study by White et al. (2017) showed that drinking increased by 30% when a school’s basketball team participated in March Madness, and the students reported a 9% increase in drinking and driving during this time, as well. While CU’s teams may not be in the tournament this year, CU students will still be watching – and many will be partying while they watch.
Last fall, we wrote a related post after noticing an uptick in DUI arrests in the Boulder area after CU football games. It is clear that nation-wide, watching sporting events, both in person and on TV, is related to alcohol consumption, and also related to increases in driving while intoxicated. Only about 20% of CU students live in campus housing, so 80% live in the surrounding areas of Boulder. Students will often take the Hop/Skip/Jump, or ride their bikes to get around, but there are still a lot of students driving around town. Even though ride shares have made getting a sober ride home easier, there actually isn’t great evidence that they have led to a decrease in the rates of DUIs. So we will likely see an uptick in DUI arrests around March Madness time.
As the peak of basketball-watching season approaches, and fans will inevitably be drinking while watching, it’s important that they make a plan to be sure to get home safely. If you need to talk with an attorney about DUI-related charges in the Boulder or Denver metro areas, call Kevin at Churchill DUI Defense. He has over 25 years of experience handling DUI and DWAI cases in Colorado.
