Quick, name one BYU football game-day tradition — other than your own.
Maybe you thought of the Cougar Walk. Or maybe you've never heard of it. Tail-gating? Sort of. Ringing the Victory Bell? Sure. How about the marching band's halftime show?
Meh.
The point is, there aren't really any big game-day traditions for BYU football. That's not to say traditions don't exist, or that fans aren't enjoying themselves. And nothing against the band’s halftime show. But Provo seems to lack the kind of college football atmosphere that makes fans treat games as all-day events or fill the stadium to capacity on a regular basis.
You might argue that the game-day atmosphere is suffering for other reasons, including the comfort of watching games on ESPN from one’s couch and the not-so-exciting lineup of home games. Interestingly, however, one KSL poll asked fans directly about the attendance issue. While 52 percent of respondents (about 4,500 in all) chose “lackluster opponents,” only 5 percent said ESPN, and 29 percent (about 2,500) said “other.” My guess is that a good chunk of this “other” category is due to the game-day experience in Provo.
So how does BYU spice up the game-day atmosphere?
The standard response would be to improve tailgating, hype up the Cougar Walk and continue ringing the Victory Bell. All good ideas, but there's not much more to say than what's already been said.
So let's move on to some more interesting ideas.
1. Follow the lead of men's basketball and create an exciting, suspense-building, adrenaline-releasing pregame ritual.
It should motivate people to be in their seats on time — a consistent problem that has been duly noted before. The men's basketball team has had incredible success with their pregame ritual, and there is no reason football can't employ the same strategy.
2. Give the marching band a breather once every season for a halftime show. BYU has connections to several big-name artists that it could somehow convince to grace LaVell Edwards Stadium for 20 minutes. Think Imagine Dragons and Neon Trees. Or even The Strike, whose popular single, "Atom Bomb," was apparently played at a St. Louis Cardinals game. The point is, BYU can definitely put on a show that people would be excited about. It should also leverage its relationship with ESPN to have brief segments of the show appear on the network's halftime program as it segues in and out from commercials.
3. Choose a signature tune to play at a set time during each home game. Something akin to the Red Sox tradition of playing Neil Diamond's "Sweet Caroline." Choose something that everyone will want to sing along with, something that fans will anticipate every game and associate with the one-of-a-kind game-day atmosphere.
4. Invest in student-specific traditions. The ROC may never rival The 12th Man, but there is so much that could be done to improve the presence of students at home games.
Begin with the student seating. Current arrangements place all students at the southeast corner of the stadium, straddling the south end zone and east stands.
Rubbish. Split the students between both end zones, so they can harass opponents at both ends (including during overtime periods). Adopt a 12th Man practice by creating "Yell Leaders" for each section. Something like this already exists (officially or not) for men's basketball, and the ROC environment there is in an entirely different league than the ROC environment at LaVell Edwards Stadium.
To boost student presence at games even more, BYU should provide the ROC with signs like it does at the Marriott Center. While it is true that for safety reasons "there are restrictions on what can be carried into the stadium" (emphasis added), BYU can control what items it gives the ROC inside the stadium.
5. The credit for this last idea goes to Texas Tech, per USA Today: In addition to blackouts and whiteouts, establish an annual "infanity" day centered around fans dressing in the most creative, fan-tastic (see what I did there?) costumes possible and offer prizes to the best-dressed fans. ESPN cameras will love it, too, which is always a plus. Even little tykes could get in on the action with their best Cosmo costumes.
Have other ideas? Share in the comments below.
Dallin McKinnon is a graduate of Brigham Young University and lives with his wife in New York City, where he works at a public school in the Bronx with Teach for America. You can reach him at dallinmckinnon@gmail.com.