Our experience is that it can be a real problem, especially in the more established sports. DS does not drink, so though he was a regular and competent player he did not get selected for any of his (not very sporty) university’s ten teams. He reckoned the lower seven teams were selected on drinking ability alone. London, so it was fine. He joined a friend and took part in an individual sport at another University, and started playing football in a local seven a side league.
DD also played football but the girls team was far less established and did not come with the same baggage. A flatmate played a girls school sport and at the end of the initiation evening appears to have been dumped outside their house in the cold, disheveled and completely incoherent, with no memory of the evening. They had to carry her into the shower and put her to bed.
Initiations will be banned. They still happen. Bad behaviour, especially in some of the boys teams still happens. (At both DCs universities the rugby team ended up getting temporary suspensions for some pretty awful behaviour.) The surprise at University is that the adults running the sport are your peers. No games teacher to intervene or to select the squad. It’s a bit like the workplace, though without the life experience. Though most places will be fine you can find yourself in a dysfunctional environment with cliques and bullies. DD found that third years seemed to selected over first years. Not that surprising given it was third years doing the selecting. In her second year, her chances of selection increased as she had earned her place as part of the group, but she decided to drop down to a lower less competitive team as it was more casual and fun. In addition she joined friends playing a (very) minor and new sport but gave up after discovering that so few Universities played it that fixtures were all over the place. She also discovered during freshers week that the people who played another minor sport that she had played at school were not really her people.
Playing sport at University is worthwhile. It is a chance to meet other sporty people away from your course and student flat, and a good way of relieving stress and getting exercise. However it comes with problems. If you don’t fit with the culture of the team, you either put up with it or look for an alternative. Perhaps the issue is that people unhappy with the prevailing culture don’t stay to change it, and given clubs and societies are largely self managed, the ability of a University or SU to do much is limited. My advice would be to look for alternatives and you should eventually find your people.
(A very small tip. If there is a medical school at the University there will be medics teams, who often struggle to find 11 players, and may be open to ringers. Most are not a great standard, but they can be more open and fun. Fixtures are more likely to be with local teams, so less travelling.)