Oakland University recently gained its own “Barstool Sports” affiliate Instagram account. Barstool is a digital media network that is well known for its Instagram presence, sharing sports-related news and user-submitted clips. Their popularity has inspired many “affiliate” accounts run by students from across the country for their own respective universities.

I spoke to the Oakland University Barstool account administrator — who wishes to remain anonymous — about why they wanted to create a Barstool account.

“Basically, I transferred here after going to community college and that was when everything was online. So I attended OU online for a year. When I finally got to go to classes in-person, I had a year until I graduated and wanted to make it the best year possible not only for myself, but all the students here. [I thought] this would help. I believe college is a very important time in a person’s life to make friends and create memories you’ll laugh at, the Barstool is a way to help connect people and create that for everyone.”

This isn’t the first time an OU student has tried to create a Barstool account, though. There is a now inactive account under the username @OU_Barstool that never received the same success that the latest incarnation has acquired.

The new account is growing rapidly due to the accessibility of Instagram and people sharing their favorite posts with their friends. This was the case for Garret Gilstorff, a sophomore at OU — a follower of the page.

“One of my friends told me about the page — how funny it was and that I should follow it,” Gilstorff said.

The administrator of the Barstool page has garnered support from the student community, except for one incident where the page refused to publish inflammatory content, and spawned a now removed competitor page. The administrator’s favorite content is when people send in content of themselves and their friends.

“I love all submissions that show people having fun with their friends, and show people making the most of their college experience, which doesn’t necessarily always have to be on OU’s property. To me, if you attend OU and you’re somewhere having a good time with people you met here, that’s the content I want.”

“I absolutely love running this page,” the administrator continued. “I’m going to be very sad giving it up when I graduate, but will post something showing my identity when I do graduate — so that’s something followers can look forward to.”

The administrator emphasized OU students should go out and curate new content for the page.

“Go out, have fun, meet new people, and send in the pictures and videos of that. I cannot stress enough that this page is nothing without content from our students. Posts can be anonymous, but someone’s post could encourage others to make the most of their college experience, too.”

You can find the account @oakland_barstool on Instagram for the latest updates on campus sports and campus life.