Don't Stop Believing

While the football team is scared of a team who was supposed to be a guaranteed win, the basketball team is trying to get some confidence while in Alaska.

I, meanwhile, will be back eating home cooked food and without high speed internet, so I will be in the dark about the results of the Rams upcoming games untiltheir conclusions, so instead I went on a little different track with this post.

Around the nation lately I have been noticing other schools using motivational ploys (which not to be confused with gimmicks, becasue gimmicks are ploys that fail) to get fans and teams ready for games.

The Rams were in a difficult situation against Montana where Grizz officials lured 7,000 fans, most students, to the stadium by offering free pizza and t-shirts (basically like crack cocaine for college students), and gaurenteed a huge home-court advantage by allowing them to sit behind the players benches. It worked.

Georgia did this (and this), which led to a spirited, despite the stupidity of the song, moment that energized fans and the team together.

It got me to wondering why CSU struggles lately to create an electric environment for home games, besides being rather awful.

I came up with a list of ideas to spice up CSU games in general, along with a few ideas that might

- Bring back Fum's song. Oh, who am I kidding. That one is done until Paul K leaves CSU.

- Have the band play Journey's "Don't Stop Believing" at one or two points during the game. UNLV does this with "Living on a Prayer" by the immortal Bon Jovi, and it certainly would get the fans singing along. If this replaced Fum's Song at the end of the third quarter, it would be better than watching the Golden Poms dance to some horribly poppy Justin Timberlake song.

For your viewing and listening pleasure.

- More highlights from past Ram games shown on the jumbotron at Hughes or piped throug the speakers at Moby. It is sad that the recent Poudre Valley Health System TV advertisement has shown the best highlights compilation of anything I have seen at CSU. Get the crowd excited with big hits by Joey Porter and BVP runs.

- Speaking of the last point, get some video boards at Moby.

- More free t-shirts and food. For a chance at a free pizza and a t-shirt college fans will make signs, dress like idiots, and yell and scream like crazy. Don't be cheap. If it is "Tees for 3's" as the announcer always shouts, give out more than two, make it rain t-shirts. Plus, CSU was 0-10 against Montana, so you won't be giving out many this year.

- Get the games back on ESPN. I had friends last year at the CU-CSU game so excited becasue they were on ESPN, until I told them the game was broadcast on Versus, at which point they realized no one had seen them. Get the worldwide leader back in here and you gaurentee a sell out everytime they roll into town.

- Bring back the late night magic. So some fans had a problem with 8 p.m. or 10 p.m. starts. Guess what, the students hate starts before 3 p.m. We are usually dead tired before then, so we don't show up or we don't get as excited. I before have shown that the Rams are almost unbeatable in Thursday night games at Hughes, but the Rams also used to play some barnburners as the late game on ESPN's Big Monday at Moby, a position we gave up for no apparent reason.

- Give students the seats they deserve. Two years ago students voted to raise the amount we payed for athletics, in exchange for better seats at Moby. Then, it didn't happen. We gave more money last year, but we still have to sit behind the baskets while many people that sit in the seats on either sideline mise well be empty seats for the amount of noise they make. Get us more involved, and we will impact the game more.

- At halftime of the basketball games, have two teams of fans dressed appropriatley be allowed to play a quick game for about ten minutes. Preemptively encourage fans to dress like basketball players (especially mandate court appropriate shoes) and pick 10 in the Arena that are dressed up and who show up early to the game. Get a sponsor to create gold and green jerseys, and let them go at it. Gaurenteed fun, better than the paper airplane toss.

- Win.