My normal Saturday mornings during football season usually revolve around getting ready to go watch the Cyclones.

I am one of those crazies who waits in line for an hour to get a good spot in the student section, only to wait another 90 minutes or so for the game to start. And I love every second of it.

Last Saturday, however, was different. I had been back in Davenport the night before, and had to rush back to Ames to make it to the homecoming game against Oklahoma State. I arrived midway through the second quarter and enjoyed finally seeing the Cyclones win (and actually look good doing so). As I approached Jack Trice Stadium, however, I noticed something was amiss.

In the sea of cars surrounding the stadium, I saw an unbelievable amount of people still hanging out and tailgating. I found this somewhat disconcerting, but became downright mad when I got inside. There were – a staple of Jack Trice – too many empty seats. There was room for both school’s bands to sit in the stands, with room to spare.

I have heard people who have been here longer than me alluding to the poor attendance habits of Cyclone fans, about how many people leave at halftime and how quiet our crowds are in our embarrassingly small stadium. But since I am usually in the third or fourth row, I had never noticed before Saturday. As the gun sounded for halftime, I thought I would do a little investigating.

I joined the thousands of fans who funneled out for halftime and simply took a little walk waiting for the half to end. When I went back, I noticed not even a fraction of the people who were there for the first half came back, most instead choosing to eat, drink and be merry outside the stadium.

I have news for you, Cyclone ‘fans’. People in Texas or Florida don’t do that.

Apparently, people in the South, as well as those across the state, have figured out something some of us have not. Teams need their fans. There is a reason why home games are preferable to road games, and it is all about the 12th man. Although we continue to wonder why the team has a history of losing, our 12th man is in the parking lot by the third quarter.

I was right in the middle of the atmosphere when we beat Iowa, and I can say with little doubt that if we had half that spirit for all home games, our team would be a contender for something besides the Independence Bowl.

I don’t know if Cyclone fans are too into basketball to care for the football team or if Ames really is too small to support a major Division I-A team (although Ames is a heck of a lot closer to Des Moines than Iowa City is). Maybe it is that people’s attention spans simply won’t run for three to four hours without some alcohol. Whatever the reason, I felt ashamed to be a Cyclone fan for the first time Saturday.

The only thing worse than a half-assed fan is a bandwagon fan, and I can assure you we won’t be gaining any of those as long as our fan base is as vanilla as it is now.

– Nathan Chiaravalloti is a junior in journalism and mass communication from Davenport.