Are you ready for a knock-down, drag-out brawl? Well, I hope so because it’s that time of year again.

That’s right. It’s time for cardinal and black to duke it out for the right to the gold; it’s the Iowa vs. Iowa State game.

This in-state rivalry has been played out year after year, but this year I want to address the people who aren’t willing to embrace the soccer-hooligan-esque attitude. I want to ask those people who aren’t interested in the Cy-Hawk trophy to get in the game for once.

You see, the game itself is all fine and dandy, and it’s necessary to facilitate the rivalry, but the real fun lies out on the streets, in bars, on front lawns and in the stadium seats.

Allow me to explain.

In the wee hours, as sunlight barely hints at breaking across the horizon, hoards of fans prepare for a day of marvelous combat.

Some cover themselves in war paint, while others adorn themselves with gear to identify one another to those supporting the same cause.

Many of you are familiar with these activities. You may live near or even with those who let loose their primal selves when football’s familiar clarion call beckons.

What you may not know is what all this dress-up really means.

Their bandanas, hats, helmets, flags, bags, shoes, pants, shirts, coats and even underwear have a deeper meaning than merely supporting their teams and involving themselves in drunken outings.

These trappings are part of a time for people to break free from the bonds of society and let loose. These outings are as therapeutic as any other activity designed to let people forget how mundane or burdened the rest of their lives may be.

Now, it would be easy to say you already have a pastime to allow your release, so why would you want to go out and risk the possibility of bodily harm — actually quite rare — and the certainty of psychological affronts to not only your appearance, but to any and every aspect of your existence. And I mean some real nasty jibes and retorts. It’s cutthroat in fan land.

The reason is simple: It’s an adventure. And far too few people get to find adventure in today’s world that doesn’t involve actual survival or that is not simulated through video reality.

In this instance, the good times and crazy memories happen while those willing to take on a completely cavalier attitude don their teams’ colors to boldly and unabashedly hurl insults and taunts toward those generally undeserving of them — apart from their affiliations.

Now, all of you lacking interest in this that think it’s all rather barbaric and asinine need to come down off your high horse and realize this is one of those rare opportunities to interact with people you otherwise would not even meet. Yes, it is normally wrong to insult and make fun of a person because of their appearance or beliefs, but not during a college football game rivalry. Not when it is all, in the end, in good fun.

You get the chance to craft an alliance — even if it is only for a day — with a person who has little to nothing in common with you; possibly even the same people you would call enemies. You get a glimpse for a few hours into a life you would scorn — and can return, scorning.

Yes, the insults are childish, and yes, the fist-fights — a rarity — might be a tad unnecessary, but how many times in your life can you get to involve yourself in a gangland-like mentality/reality without having to worry, much, about the repercussions?

And don’t tell me you don’t think the ruffian lifestyle isn’t interesting. You watch the reality shows about prison and the movies with dashing rogues and fisticuffs, the same as everyone else. You have had the occasional fantasy about “What if.”

You may have shunted these feeling off moments after their inception, but you wondered for a bit what it would be like.

Toss aside my long-winded rhetoric for a moment and think about what you can do:

You get an extra day to enjoy the acting inherent in Halloween. Imagine you are going to a costume theme party, and you can actually act like your costume for the entire time and no one will find it odd. You can take on some alter-ego you’ve always wanted to try on for size, or you can just turn the volume up a few notches more than you would otherwise. Come end of the night, it all goes away, poof.

The only catch is you have to play at being a hooligan fueled by the singular goal of supporting the Cyclones or the Hawkeyes with every ounce of your being.

So, to all of you out there wherever you are, if you’ve never been “into” the whole hooligan thing, or even if you’ve never decided to care about anything more than the tailgating and after-party, try taking this one day out of the year to enjoy a little mayhem. Take this one day not to get involved with the sport, but to embrace the crowd mentality and let the chips fall as they may.

The point is, it doesn’t hurt — well, it probably won’t be drastically painful — for you to toss aside your inhibitions for one day to be brazenly rowdy, and make some memories that involve risk, but with a fair safety net in that all that will likely get hurt is your ego.

I’m an ISU student, but I’m going to go out and instigate some mayhem. I’m going to don my Hawkeye colors and flip sides during my school’s biggest game — I was born a Hawkeye.

You don’t have to deviate from your Cyclone allegiance; just stop being a regular fan for a day and try being a bit of a hooligan, like most Iowa fans are anyway.

As Tyler Durden said, “I don’t want to die without any scars.”