The best thing about college is football

I would like to start my first column of the new school year by

welcoming the incoming freshmen to the wonderful world of CSU.

Going to school here is such a great experience that the norm has

been to graduate in five years instead of the more traditional

four.

Now there are many great things about going to college. The best

thing of all however, apart from realizing that you are

conveniently located in a building with a thousand other people of

the opposite sex looking to explore their newfound freedom, is

football.

CSU is the only college I have been to but I am willing to make

the generalization. Football season is great, even the people that

don’t enjoy sports love going to football games.

That’s because it’s as much of a social event as it is an

athletic competition. During any given part of the game at Sonny

Lubick Field at Hughes Stadium you will find half the student crowd

on the concourse behind the student seats.

Here you will see many of your friends and when you get towards

the evening part of your collegiate career you will see many of the

friends you thought you would never see again and this inevitably

ends up in a chorus of “Wow, what are you doing here? I haven’t

seen you forever!”

Now, these reunions are usually brief because in general there

is a very good reason that you haven’t seen someone forever and

it’s because you don’t want to spend your time together but it

gives you someone else to tell your latest anecdote to anyway.

Our stadium separates itself from most of the college stadiums

in the country in a most agreeable way: it sells beer. This in

itself is partly responsible for the amount of time spent at the

game, but not watching it.

Standing in the beer line while hearing the roar of the crowd

has become as much of a CSU tradition as the jingling of your keys

during the ensuing kick-off. And don’t get me started about

tailgating.

Alright, I will get started about tailgating. This tradition of

gathering 50 or so of your closest friends grabbing a barbecue and

a cooler, or trough as the case may be, of beer is quite possibly

the greatest thing you American’s have ever come up with.

The school very kindly allows vendors to provide a plethora of

entertainment in the build-up to the games including bands and lots

of opportunities to grab some free food, win a couch to watch the

game from or snag a “Fear the Mu11et” T-shirt.

These events are wonderful fun for all as long as people realize

that it is important to enjoy the event responsibly. I would

imagine that there is ample opportunity to get in trouble at a

football game if you have been celebrating the occasion a little

too hard.

This is even truer for the big game this weekend against our

rivals with the long hair, bad smell and bulging wallets, down the

interstate. The police will be looking for trouble makers and those

who have been tear gassed in the infamous Rocky Mountain Showdown

in 1999 will tell you that you don’t want to get on the their bad

side.

So wear green, support our team, have fun but most importantly

of all be safe.