Fail Gate: Tailgating Gone Horribly, Horribly Wrong ⋆ College Magazine

Rosemary Dorsett>Senior>Journalism>University of Maryland

Are you ready for some football? Or maybe more appropriately, long tailgates that turn into an early bar outing, losing that precious student ticket, or a quick nap-turned-deep slumber. The art of tailgating is an epic thing to master throughout four years of college. Waking up early to celebrate your team’s hopeful victory in parking lots and backyards across campuses sounds like perfection, but it could easily turn into a big loss off the field for the loyal collegiate.

The Eager Freshman

Calling it an early night at a lame house party is one thing, but missing your team’s big win and field rush induces major anxiety among all die-hard sports fans. Rachel Green*, a senior business major at The University of Colorado-Boulder, experienced a severe case of FOMO her freshman year. An ’80s party kept her out dancing until the early hours of the morning. “I woke up the next morning in a leopard jumpsuit, hungover, scraped up and with my camera lost,” Green said. “I was too hungover and shamed to go to the game.” The game she missed ended up being an “epic win,” 27-24, against the Oklahoma Sooners, a team the Colorado Buffaloes hadn’t beaten in six years. Even her family on the East Coast wanted a piece of the victory. “[They] kept calling and asking how it was and if I rushed the field. I told them I did even though I was really sleeping in my room the whole day,” she said. Now, she calls it an early night before home games in order to attend every tailgate until graduation.

Do you want fries with that?

Kate Ball*, a senior at Lehigh University, experienced a violent case of the munchies. “It was when I was still at Rutgers, and we found these french fries on the ground,” the transfer student said. “For whatever reason, maybe I was mad about the game, I thought it was appropriate to throw them, everywhere.” Several landed on a nearby parked car and, to her surprise, a police officer appeared to scold her. “He yelled and told me to clean it up,” she said, “so I picked them all up—one at a time.”

The Ultimate Fail

Police have been beefing up security and issuing citations at universities across the nation over the past few years. Corley Bell, a Bucknell anthropology major, isn’t allowed to tailgate at her school. According to Bucknell’s Events Management office, “Bucknell Public Safety shall designate permissible tailgating areas/parking spaces . . . on a first-come, first-served basis.” The regulations further outline specifications for the use of small weighted tents and prohibit “kegs, party balls, pooling and mass purchases of alcohol.” Central Michigan University also enforced new tailgating rules last football season, limiting alcohol consumption to six beers or one plastic pint of alcohol per person. The regulations also prohibit speaker systems and confine students to one parking lot that holds up to 400 vehicles. With an enrollment of more than 27,000 students, this makes competition fierce for game day parking passes for Lot 63.

*Name has been changed