Give the students a basic understanding of college football and its importance to the university (as a money-maker and prestige-enhancer), and the importance of the student section & the insane impact it can make. The moment a student section knows it is impacting the game, it is hard to stop.
This can be done in a welcome rally or at some point during move-in.

Find one undergrad, JUST ONE, that knows football and is passionate about it. That's the student section MC. Teach the students how to make noise on defense, teach them what the important downs are. Tell them the visiting team hates them and their family, and that their brains can't function if its too loud behind them....their boys want to beat the hell out of our boys, and we are here to help our boys (that type of stuff). This can be done in 2 minutes before kickoff.
During the game: As the offense is coming on the field for change of downs "Go Ags on 3....." x3
There are so many easy things that can be done. Presently the students don't even know what noise to make on defense ("OOOOOOOH"). Years of college football research/science has proven this is the loudest sound a human can make (j/k just made that up). I feel silly even explaining this.....

Honestly, the community is gonna community......the students and Band(uh) make the experience. The community matches that energy.

Tell them the visiting team hates them and their family, and that their brains can't function if its too loud behind them. — SochorField

I like this a lot.

“ Find one undergrad, JUST ONE, that knows football and is passionate about it. That's the student section MC. ”

This is the formula. So many students come in with zero football knowledge. They need to be coached on when to be loud and when to be quiet.

True Blue
“ I'd like to hear the PA's mic turned up when we get a 1st down, and have their voice roll out like thunder, "And that's ANOTHER..." and the crowd responds "FIRST DOWN AGGIES!" Accompanied by the scoreboard projecting the wording of the response to prompt the crowd.”

EWU does this exact announcement. When i was there several years ago the aggie fans were actually annoyed by it. They were making us uncomfortable. That’s what Plough wants - make the opposing team uncomfortable.

Living in the greater Palouse region,WSU does "And that's another...Cougar first down!" (I think Sac has that variation too). UI does the same but blows a shofar or something twice like what the Vikings do.

Bring back the bonfire.

Oops, wrong thread.

I think almost everyone does that these days. They do it at NC State. Personally I find it sort of annoying after hearing it ad infinitum whether you are a home team fan or not.

Also, noticed that NC State has a tee retrieving dog. I had to tell my daughter and son-in-law that the idea was stolen from Davis that started it circa 15 years? ago.

"And that's ANOTHER..." and the crowd responds "FIRST DOWN AGGIES!" Accompanied by the scoreboard projecting the wording of the response to prompt the crowd. — True Blue Aggie

I was taught as an undergrad that our chant was "U C D FIRST DOWN" and the band technically initiated it. But I would love to hear the PA come over the speaker louder.

While I was at Davis, I tried to get the student section going but we lacked the ability to effectively communicate with the student section. The Aggie Pack leaders were really only allowed to use a small bullhorn instead of any sort of actual mic. The Aggie Pack leaders always told me that we weren't allowed to use a mic because the away team could hear it on their sideline. I'm not really aware of any rule that would prohibit that. Seems to me we should ignore the requests of the away team, otherwise what's the point of putting the student section on top of them.

Find one undergrad, JUST ONE, that knows football and is passionate about it. That's the student section MC. Teach the students how to make noise on defense, teach them what the important downs are. Tell them the visiting team hates them and their family, and that their brains can't function if its too loud behind them....their boys want to beat the hell out of our boys, and we are here to help our boys (that type of stuff). This can be done in 2 minutes before kickoff. — SochorField

Heck, if they can't find anyone, have a couple of the Redshirt players do this 5-10 mins before kickoff. Students would get fired up for it.

Does the university-sanitized band play and sing Aggie fight after all touchdowns? Play/sing hot time after turnovers?

- teach freshman and students some of the traditional

- How about putting the lyrics to Aggie fight in the big screen while band sings it?

-What do soldiers going off to war do? Sing
-What did Welsh coal miners do when going off to the mines do? Sing hymns
-what did the Aggie Band-uh do when parading from band room to Toomey field do? Sing
-what makes a muskrat guard his musk? Oops, wrong metaphor.

As for critical game moments, how about the band playing? When watching the Tennessee-Oklahoma game both bands were engaged. A few bars of the Hussite War hymn, a few bars of Mars (bringer of War) from Holst’s The Planets. Back and forth. It was awesome and I heard no canned music. I guess I am a dinosaur but my point is it gets the band and students/fans to participate rather than having a glorified DJ push buttons. I went to several games at Neyland Stadium in Knoxville (Tennessee) while a grad student and there is nothing like the whole crowd singing Rocky Top while the band plays.

We went to a game at Neyland a few months after we moved out here, sang Rocky Top about 39 times as they put a 60-burger on Mizzou, it was great.

I’m pretty sure the students sang the fight song during the band’s pregame

good. I was thinking pre-game would be a good “teaching” opportunity.

Bossie Cow-Cow, ...

Please no...it may have been cool many years ago when the cheerleaders stood on milk cans at The Toom but it would be a real groaner for today's students...

Tube sock madness
Burrito madness
Steve’s Place Pizza madness
Aggie Pack “characters”
Integration between Aggie Pack, Band, Cheer team, Dance team and the video operator.

Beer at the Toom! Wait, they made that happen

And the chicken man.

My old campus fellowship pastor was a yell leader or whatever it is called during the late Toomey era. He still has a chicken suit costume he brings out.

The chicken man at Toomy was something special. Toomy games were insane.

one Lung antique tractor. The game against Nevada - Reno 1977 or 1978 was the craziest and loudest ever. I think 13,000 SRO crowd. It seems to me that Idaho or Montana State should bring similar enthusiasm but that hasn’t been the case recently.

Bring back Super Pope!

Bringing this thread back now that we are more than halfway through the season.
The Ags are going to need all the help they can get over the final 2 home games.

The students need to literally be told how to make noise at a football game. They don't know what to do. They are also starting to sit in increasing numbers (in the student section).

This can be fixed in about 2 minutes if Darius can grab the mic for a couple mins pre-game and give a pep talk. He'd know what to say, I'm sure.

And for the causeway, the unibuses used to provide students with a ride. We could sure use a crowd for that game.

Absolutely.

Maybe they can all ride horses like the Chancellor.

“ Maybe they can all ride horses like the Chancellor.”

Ha, I don’t call that riding, lol. Maggie the Aggie had to go at a walking pace.

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQOfJKkKcB9Jq6Ru9avyFmO4Gah4bl0rSNLiQ&s

Speaking of football in California.......looks like about 25,000-30,000 at Cal today vs. NC State. Cal is 3-3 and not terrible. Absolutely perfect fall day.

2024 FCS attendance figures per Hero Sports are in.

We are #19, behind the Montanas, Sac State and Idaho. We have the second highest capacity % filled on the list other than Montana State.

Rank Team Avg Attendace %
1 Jackson St. 27,213 68.03
2 Montana 25,845 102.49
3 Montana St. 21,899 123.19
4 Tarleton St. 19,147 79.78
5 Alabama St. 18,868 71.2
6 SDSU 18,504 95.68
7 Southern 18,463 64.78
8 Delaware 17,329 95.86
9 Florida A&M 17,043 86.81
10 NDSU 16,789 89.78
11 Norfolk St. 14,544 48.48
12 Sacramento St. 14,047 66.27
13 SC State 13,962 63.47
14 NC A&T 13,265 61.7
15 Holy Cross 12,084 51.42
16 Idaho 11,500 71.87
17 Alcorn 11,408 50.7
18 Grambling 11,334 57.82
19 UC Davis 11,266 103.84
20 Harvard 11,079 36.54

We are at capacity though according to this. So how can we climb higher without a build?