When people hear "Penn State," they immediately ask about our football team, and our eyes light up every time just from hearing the word. Penn State football season is the best part of each year because other than the people on the field, nothing else matters. Whether you're a Greek or a GDI, in Schreyer's or in DUS, a gym rat or a couch potato, everyone is together for the same reason. Here's why every PSU student, regardless of identity, loves football season:
1. Waking up at 7 a.m. It's the only time you'll do it in the summer.
2. Learning to cut t-shirts in a variety of ways.
3. Making hair bows acceptable in public again.
4. Tailgates.
5. Family visits.
6. Learning the Alma Mater by the fourth game your freshman year.
7. How to properly and rhythmically hit a cow bell so that all 107,000 people are singing the same chant.
8. "Sweet Caroline."
9. Blowing up your Instagram with game day photos.
10. Bringing back white converse.
11. Losing your voice.
12. Getting lifted after PSU touchdowns.
13. Wearing white after Labor Day.
14. Cheerleaders and the dance team.
15. Making the football players celebrities.
16. Uniting 107,000 people for one reason.
17. Chicken baskets.
18. Making the gym close early.
19. Bowl Games.
20. 409 forever.
21. No cell phone service.
22. Seeing Penn State families and wanting to be them.
23. Having your newly alumni best friends come back.
24. Hearing the WE ARE chant well before 9 a.m. on a Saturday morning.
25. The one day of the week where no one does homework.
26. Bringing back "We Dem Boyz."
27. Learning how to do the wave fast and slow, but at the perfect time.
28. Standing for three hours in the blistering hot or the ungodly cold.
29.The awful body odor smell after standing for three hours.
30. Face tattoos.
31. Making Timberlands and Chubbies an acceptable combination.
32. Bucket hats for everyone.
33. Homecoming.
34. Nittanyville.
35. The greatest student section in the country.
36. Loyal fans who never faltered despite everything that has happened.
37. Going to the Creamery after a long, sweltering game.
38. The ability to wear Lion ears without judgment.
39. Coach Franklin.
40. Blue and White weekend.
41. It's not a team, it's a family.
42. Pom Poms.
43. The S zone.
44. The Blue Band.
45. Traffic from Thursday to Sunday.
46. Girls wearing the same makeup from Friday to Saturday night.
47. The White Out game.
48. Nittany Lion dances.
49. Body paint.
50. Making the Order Up wait time over an hour long.
51. Tradition.
52. Beaver Stadium.
53. Never forgetting the Class of 2015 football players who stayed.
54. Rival games.
55. An excuse for evening naps after the games.
56. Bleeding blue and white.
57. Blue Out.
58. Watching your secret football crush on the field (probably the closest you'll ever be to him again).
59. Watching the future Penn Staters at the games in awe.
60. The longest and most cherished walk: Fratland to Beaver Stadium.
61. The only time it's acceptable to have Canyon Pizza before midnight.
62. A sense of belonging to something much larger than yourself.
63. Hackenburg.
64. Hearing the Nittany Lion roar every 10 seconds and pretending it sounds ferocious.
65. Watching State College become the third-most-populated city in PA on game day.
66. The excitement you feel as you hear we are going into overtime.... and double overtime with OSU.
67. Watching as Maryland refused to shake our hands, and not knowing how to feel.
68. Hearing the excitement as Sam Ficken comes out for a kick.
69. Watching the perfect spiral caught by the receiver as the crowd erupts with joy.
70. Seeing your classmates take the field and knowing one day some of them will wear an NFL jersey.
71. Becoming best friends with the people around you.
72. As the season goes on and the campus becomes frigid, the stadium's atmosphere becomes hotter than ever.
73. Loving your awful post-game tan lines.
74. Hating your post-game frostbite, but not regretting a single moment of the game.
75. Free coffee Monday's after a win (at Dunkin').
76. Watching the sun set over the field during a night game.
77. The only time you will ever stay till the last second of a football game.
78. The Saturday that no one counts calories or beers.
79. The fact that no one cares who you are or what you do for the school, as long as you cheer for PSU.
80. The only time you can be tone deaf, sing, and still be proud.
81. Not being able to get into the bars because they are so crowded.
82. Win or lose, everyone walks out of Beaver Stadium happy to be a Nittany Lion.
83. When we get a touchdown, our ruckus can be measured on the Richter Scale.
84. We don't protest, we hold vigils.
85. Rivalry games.
86. Joe Paterno.
87. Remembering that it isn't a team, it's a family.
88. Making your friends at other schools feel invested in PSU football.
89. ... so much that they think to transfer.
90. Making PSU Sports your most used app on your phone.
91. Keeping track of the top recruits, and wondering why they would pick any other school.
92. Home-cooked meals from the parents because they wouldn't miss a football game.
93. Waking up early and standing in the cold just to get tickets to a bowl game.
94. ... and no matter where you were over winter break, you were watching that bowl game.
95. Being personally invested in how the football team does.
96. Everyone has a friend that went to Ireland one time to watch us play against UCF.
97. Finally, girls know statistics as well as boys.
98. Always remaining optimistic about how the game will turn out.
99. Loving every single second, and being thankful for every single thing PSU football has to offer its fans and its team.
100. A picture is worth 1,000 words: take yours at Beaver Stadium.
