Baylor’s esports program develops critical thinking, communication, and collaboration through team competition — while emphasizing balance and healthy habits. As a Christian institution, the program fosters community to counter isolation among young people.
Baylor also supports advancing research in gaming and helps schools nationwide establish healthy esports cultures.
The largest Baptist university in the world
Baylor University sits in Waco, Texas, and counts itself as both the oldest continually operating university in Texas (founded 1845) and the largest Baptist university on the planet. Its R1 research designation puts it in the top tier of American research institutions — which is the context for what makes its esports program unusual.
Esports meets academic research
Baylor treats esports as both a competitive program and a research subject. Faculty have studied the effects of structured gaming on adolescent social development, academic performance, and mental-health indicators; the resulting playbooks are shared with K–12 partners trying to launch healthy esports programs of their own. The practical upshot: Baylor’s approach treats “balance and healthy habits” not as a throwaway virtue but as a testable, measurable design goal — one that can make its way from a research paper into how a 14-year-old experiences League of Legends at a middle-school club.
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