North Dakota football fans cheer in the Green and White in a home game at the Alerus Center. Photo by Keisuke Yoshimura.

Collegiate football is a hallowed institution in which many traditions of the gridiron have been preserved over many decades.

On your typical college campus, the tradition of school spirit is embodied in essence every Saturday and the occasional Thursday or Friday in the fall at the football stadium — but UND is lacking.

From the first fire-up of the grill, to the first crack of a can of beer — for those of age, of course — from the opening kickoff, to the closing seconds of the fourth quarter, the entire college is awash in school colors, bright banners and disorderly behavior.

Many college football teams and their traditions are well known across the entire country and are even considered a sacred ritual in some instances (don’t mess with Southern football).

From Ohio State’s players singing “Carmen Ohio” in front of 100,000 fans, to Nebraska’s “Sea of red” at every home game, to Alabama’s “Walk of champions” and Oklahoma’s “Boomer Sooner” chant, these traditions have been carried on proudly by players, coaches and fans alike.

If you were a college football fan visiting Grand Forks on game day and took a walk through the Alerus Center parking lot in the hours before kick-off, you would be convinced that you were in a typical college football environment.

The savory smell of grilled meats, the almost musical sound of beer cans being popped open and the abundance of green pride and memorabilia is exactly that of any tailgate city Saturday afternoon.

However, as you continued on to kick-off, the similarities of college football and tradition would begin to end. Open seats are in abundance all over the stadium, and by halftime, the vast majority of those die-hard “fans” in attendance lose interest and leave the game, regardless of the game’s proceedings.

North Dakota’s football team could play in one of the most narrowly contested football games in the history of collegiate football, and only about one third third of the crowd in attendance would remain in to see the game’s exciting finish. In UND’s home opener against Valparaiso, when North Dakota’s offense exploded to win 69-10, you could count the number of fans that remained through the fourth quarter on one hand.

Although North Dakota has traditionally been known as a hockey school, it is our duty as American college students to uphold the sanctity of the institution of college football. UND football will never develop to its full potential as a Division I program if it doesn’t have the full support of the fan base.

Next Saturday, do your duty.

David Butz is a staff writer for The Dakota Student. He can be reached at david.butz@my.und.edu.