I go to basketball games. Like...a lot. I haven't missed a conference home game this season. Every game, I've sat in a different part of the student section. And every game, I've been disappointed by the energy [or lack thereof].

At the South Carolina game, I was right near the band. People stood up and cheered a little, but it didn't seem like anyone cared, and there were a lot of empty seats. For the Kentucky game, it still seemed a little flat, but it was full, so I felt better. For the LSU game I stood in the student [Crimson Chaos] risers. I had a blast, but the girls behind me spent the entire game talking about Coach Grant's butt [It's nice, I will admit, but ladies - there was a *basketball game* going on!!].

Today, I was a few rows above the drum set for the pep band. And a few minutes into the first half, the cop monitoring the section came up to me and asked me to sit down so the people behind me could see. The part of the student section across the aisle from us [behind the band] was standing the entire game. The band was standing the entire game, so I couldn't see anything inside the 3-pt line sitting down. I told the cop I couldn't see sitting down, and he just glared at me and told me to sit down. When I stood back up with about 1:15 on the clock in the 2nd half, the girl behind me just sighed.

Is there some unwritten rule against standing in the student section? Am I missing something? I've accepted that if I go to women's games, I'm sitting with my band friends and the Coliseum will be nearly empty otherwise. I've accepted that, if the team starts losing, the Coliseum will once again empty out for men's games. I've even accepted that even though we're currently atop the SEC, some of my friends will assume that we're bad, "just because it's Alabama basketball." Not being allowed to scream and yell and see at games, though, is something I have a harder time accepting.

*Steps off soapbox*