The band is playing, the cheerleaders are flying, the coach is screaming and the fans are going buck wild.

This is the atmosphere that presents itself at a college sporting event, and it is an atmosphere like no other.

Sure, you can go and have some fun at a Sacramento Kings game, but chances are that you will be sitting next to Joe Stiff who owns www.ihavemoremoneythanyou.com.

Stiff will be there with his trophy wife, gently sipping on the house’s finest brew, while (with a golf clap) he acknowledges a Chris Webber basket.

Meanwhile, on the other side of town, 1,000 Hornet fans go into a frenzy as Joel Jones takes an alley-oop pass from Joe Dawson and slams it home.

The opposing coach, disgruntled with his team’s inability to keep up with the fast paced Hornets, calls a time out. Cue the band, cue the Xtreme dance team, cue the flying T-shirts and, if it’s the holiday season, cue turkey bowling, because Hornet Gym is about to go berserk for the next two minutes.

The Kings might have a halftime show consisting of David Copperfield or the Siamese midget trapeze team. But not us. Our halftime show consists of two youth basketball teams traveling down the court and throwing up air balls.

The entire crowd chants for the shortest kid on the team to make a shot, let alone get the ball passed his way. The crowd erupts when “shorty” sinks a two handed, underhand basket.

I’ll take 1,000 college fans over 20,000 NBA yuppies any day.

Is it just a coincidence that every single Sac State football and basketball victory came at home this year? I think not.

And now, with baseball season upon us, we are just getting our first taste of the “Parking Lot Posse.”

This group of Hornet faithful park their cars on the top floor of the parking structure, crack open some ice cold, foaming “beverages”, and watch the game from possibly the best ledge in the house.

These are the type of fans that give stadiums, fields and arenas a unique feel of their own. When you think of Cameron Indoor Stadium, home of Duke University basketball, you think of the “Cameron Crazies.” When you think of Stanford University’s Maples Pavilion, you think of the “Sixth Man.”

So next time you watch a game on television or attend a game in person, take a look around you and appreciate that what you are experiencing can’t be found at a damn Kings game.

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