Every year, when Step Sing groups step onto the grid, the entire student body immediately begins talking about who their favorite groups are. Walk around campus and you’ll hear conversations about every group, who someone’s favorite is and who should win and why.
Sweepstakes winner is almost always controversial among students. But what nobody really knows is how is the winner determined. Groups of guys tend to be audience favorites, but a women’s group has won the past 3 years. What gives?
Guys’ groups tend to do the humorous part of the show better. It’s also easy to be captivated by a big group of guys singing and dancing around the stage and really enjoying themselves while doing it. They take pride in Samford’s greatest tradition. This makes them easy to root for.
Women’s groups tend to have better choreography. Most of their shows are very clean and crisp, making it easy for them to take the cake on the technical side. But do the judges have different criteria between the different groups? There is an argument to be made that they do.
Women’s groups seem to be judged more from a classic theater perspective. Is it clean? Is it appealing? Are their vocals easy to listen to? No matter how good or bad the plot of their show may be, if they are in sync and have good vocals, they seem to be in the running. Men’s groups have their work cut out for them. No matter how funny or audially appealing their show may be, if their choreography is not nearly perfect, they seem to be snubbed.
Take Sigma Chi in 2023. Their show was a fan favorite. From the Billy goat running around the stage, to the songs that they used, to their costumes, and their vocals, they were thought to be a shoe in for Sweepstakes winners, but ADPI took them down. It seems like there may be some bias in favor of women’s groups, looking like judging them may be a little lighter than on some of the other groups.
Staff Reporter
