Thank you USC fans!!

[GoAUpher]

My group also had a great time and great interactions with USC fans. We got to campus later than intended thanks to some oversleeping and wonderful Sat traffic on the 5 coming up from San Diego. So we were hurrying to enjoy as much of the AA tailgate as possible but still see a little of campus. I asked some older USC fans (alums too) the best way to Tommy Trojan from where we were and they took the time to lead us there themselves. They took us through the center of one of quads which was primarily a student tailgate area. We had the joy of being boo'd by hundreds of students. It was awesome! And I'm being serious. No one swore at us, no one threw anything, no one got in our face or was disrespectful in any way (can't say the same for the times I've had to walk by students in WI). Just hundreds of drunk students boo'ing. I just smiled, gave my best beauty padgent winner wave, and laughingly thanked our new USC "tour guides" for helping us make an entrance.

All the other USC fans/staff we met were also great. It made a great day even better.

More than once we heard from fans who had come to MPLS for last years game and thanked us for our hospitality - we even talked to some people who had simply heard of fellow USC fans who enjoyed themselves at the U last year.

Yep, I was surprised how many of the fans I met had actually travelled up.

As was said earlier, I hope the people in charge at the U took notes on the USC tailgating atmosphere. Loosen the tailgating rules, for the love of God. Let us set up a tent and a grill on any green space. Let yourselves let us party! It isn't the old USC fans that made it a phenomenal atmosphere: it was all of the students. If you let every game become a party, it won't quite matter so much if we aren't going to Rose Bowls every year. If you let Gopher football become an campus-wide event, the tickets, student tickets, and parking spaces will sell ten times easier.

This +100000. I intend to send President Kahler a short e-mail on the subject. Hopefully he spent some time on campus and can see that there are many options beyond what currently exists in MN.