It's a rite of fall, really. The leaves change, the temperature drops (theoretically), students show up late to football games and columnists spend a few hundred words decrying those empty bleachers in the north end zone. Frankly, I'm surprised we made it this far in the year without one of them.
The reasons to get to the game on time are often the same. When TV cameras pan across a half-empty student section at kickoff it gives the impression that Wisconsin fans don't care about football. When offenses start drives with the student section behind them, they don't face the same wall of noise they might struggle with if the seats were full. Or, my argument of choice, you paid $170 for these tickets, why not get your money's worth.
Those arguments to see kickoff are met with counterpoints that don't change either. Fans want time to experience the pre-game atmosphere (i.e. get bombed at 10 a.m.) and don't have enough time to do so with an early 11 a.m. kickoff, or the opponent isn't any good, so what's the point of seeing the whole game.
These are lame excuses, and fans should get to every game—even Austin Peay—on time. But even if they were valid, all of those reasons to miss kickoff are null and void against Ohio State, and there is no reason to miss kickoff this Saturday.
The fact that the Badgers are playing the No. 1 team in the country should be reason enough for students to make it to their seats by kickoff. Wisconsin has a chance to beat the top-ranked team in the country for the first time since the 1940s, and if that won't get fans excited enough to turn down another game of beer pong to stagger over to Camp Randall I don't know what will.
And those complaints about early start times not giving fans enough time to pregame? Irrelevant as well with the 6 p.m. start time, as fans will have all day to take in the Breese Terrace atmosphere. That means no setting an alarm so you can pregame and with a shower beer at 8:30a.m., or coming to the game in the second quarter because you barely had time to get a good buzz going.
The evening kickoff means you can still sleep until noon, then wake up and have five and a half hours to pregame. But it's sad that our fans will not be satisfied with the late start and inevitably show up late yet again. I understand wanting to get the most out of your five dollars, but even if there's still half of a keg left, make the heart-breaking choice to leave that beer behind to see kickoff.
Badger fans have a responsibility to get to the game on time this weekend. With ESPN's ""College Gameday"" in town, Wisconsin and its fans will be on display all day. If the student section is half-full when the Badgers take the field do you think Kirk Herbstreit is going to say, ""Well, you can't blame them for getting there late—you can't leave the pong table when you're still champs""?
When Gameday pans across crowds at the Swamp in Gainesville, Fla. or Ohio Stadium for a Buckeye home game, they are not showing rows of empty seats. They're showing passionate fans who realize the importance of seeing their team play all four quarters.
Wisconsin fans can be some of the best in the country when they want to, but getting them motivated has proved a Sysiphean task. Even head coach Bret Bielema has taken to asking students to show up on time, to no avail.
Each year we have these debates between the people who want to see all of a Badger football game and those who would rather stay for another few rounds of Louisville Chugger. And each year it seems half of the student section winds up getting into the stadium halfway through the second quarter, only to leave after ""Jump Around.""
Let's make this time different. When Ohio State comes into Camp Randall Stadium this Saturday, let's make sure Badger fans earn their reputation as some of the best in college football and get to the game on time.
WIll you be standing in line to get in to Camp Randall early on Saturday? E-mail Nico at savidgewilki@dailycardinal.com.
