If you’re an undergrad, you probably already know that the Kappa Sigma fraternity got its house back; if you’re a grad student, you might not care. Either way, you might be wondering why I feel I can justify writing about this in my sports column. Prior to the Fiesta Bowl, I would have agreed.

 

The way that tickets were distributed to students in Glendale meant that seating was randomly assigned, and there was no guarantee you’d get to sit next to your friends. Anyone who has been to the Red Zone in Stanford Stadium knows that that is not exactly the way we do things, and so, by some happy coincidence, we ended up, at first, sitting in a row in front of a handful of Kappa Sigs. But their presence steadily grew as numbers of them and their friends surged in for the kickoff.

 

Quickly the rows around us filled up, and then began to overflow. We were lined up almost two abreast, and there was a row of undergrads behind us standing on our seats. A couple of times during the game, security attempted to organize the chaos and send everyone back to their allocated places, but it didn’t work. New occupants streamed in faster than they could eject even those in the seats closest to the aisle.

 

In case you think I’m complaining about the disorder, though, I’m not. While it was, admittedly, a little cramped, it was awesome.

 

The frat boys and their friends around us were loud and nothing if not dedicated to the cause. We were just a few seats from the divide between the Cardinal and Oklahoma State fans, and all game long there was a healthy amount of abuse being traded with them—my favorite of which childishly adopted the chant of the Cowboys’ in-state rivals Oklahoma: “Boomer Sooner.” Whether or not the players on the field heard much of what was going on, the atmosphere in the stands was one of the highlights of the contest for me.

 

Kappa Sig had their house taken away from them due to “patterns of behavior that go … to a level that was dangerous” and “an alcohol culture that was dangerous,” according to Dean of Residential Education (ResEd) Deborah Golder in March 2011. While I can’t support anything that may have actually been dangerous, I can’t deny that the atmosphere brought by groups like fraternities is an integral part of college life, and alcohol—legal or illegal, and whether you partake or not—is a necessary evil that lubricates the social gears of campus.

 

Few would want to attend a completely dry university, because, the truth is, students don’t go to college just to learn what they are taught in lectures. The extracurricular activities and parties are just as important. In the same way, fans don’t just go to games purely to watch the on-field action. If you really wanted to study the game, you’d tune into it from the quiet of your living room on your HDTV and perhaps log in on the Internet to get a detailed breakdown of the statistics. Live sports are all about the atmosphere, and the atmosphere in college sports is all about the students. Why else would we get free entry to all athletic events on campus, and why else did we get such a significant discount to the Fiesta Bowl?

 

But not all student fans are created equal. I will happily “make some noise” at games and join in with the chants, but I know I’m not the most raucous fan out there; I’m not going to strip down and paint my chest. That is where groups like fraternities come in, and why it matters that Kappa Sig got their house back.

 

Without somewhere to meet up, it is harder for these organizations to bond, and over time, they and their influence might slowly fade, both on campus and in the stadium, where it matters most to Cardinal fans of all ages. You don’t have to be in a frat, be an undergrad or even like the idea of Greek life—the concept still seems weird to me—to benefit from their existence. Home-field advantage can make a crucial difference in tight games, and as Stanford struggles to create the same intense atmosphere that some other schools take for granted, there is even greater emphasis placed on the few who are willing to be sufficiently noisy and mischievous, those who put the team on their back.

 

 

Tom Taylor doesn’t need to be loud to put the team on his back. Find out how he runs with a broken f**king leg at tom.taylor “at” stanford.edu.