It's not something you see every day: Amherst College students ditching the books to pick up a broom. But it's not to clean their dorm, instead they're playing a game no one thought could exist in real life.

"We have a lot of sports here. Everything from karate to ultimate frisbee but Muggle Quidditch is definitely the new thing here," said Tracy Huang, a student at Amherst College.

"Muggle Quidditch" is an adaptation of the game played by wizards in the Harry Potter series. Basically, it involves two teams trying to get a large, white ball (volleyball) into a golden hoop (painted hula hoop). But there is one drastic difference. In the books and movies, they do it all while flying.

"Yeah, we can't fly," said Alex Benepe, co-creator and commissioner of Muggle Quidditch for Middlebury College. "That's the whole point of this game. It's an adaptation of real life with something that seems like you can never adapt it."

Benepe says more than 80 colleges are now on board with the game, and every day it is growing in popularity. Friday's game also had an interesting appeal in the fact that it was the first nationally televised Quidditch game in history.

Friday morning, the Amherst team played Middlebury live on the CBS Early Show. Weatherman Dave Price even dressed up for the part, playing the role of the Golden Snitch. The character every player is after to seal their team's win. Price said he thinks the game will be a great success.

"This is a great team sport, so I will bet you that Quidditch continues to expand," said Price.

"It's really kind of in a league of its own," said Heather Wilson, a student at Amherst College. "It has a little bit of everything. Sort of some basketball, I guess, if you're shooting through hoops; a lot of running; a little soccer. It's a mix of a whole bunch of stuff."

"We put this together in an amazing amount of time," said Robyn Bahr, captain of the Amherst team. "We've got our fabulous players and it's just a lot of fun."

Now all that is left is for the creators of the game to sit back and watch as Quidditch takes the world by storm.

To read about how the game was started and about Middlebury College's Quidditch Campus Tour:
http://www.middlebury.edu/about/pubaff/news_releases/2008/pubaff_633411029873034956.htm