I remember going to football games during my freshman year with 25,000-plus screaming fans at just about every game.

The energy, excitement and noise of those games can’t even be described with words.

When football season came to a close I was disappointed to say goodbye to Huskie Stadium for the year, but looked forward to the basketball season starting.

I couldn’t wait for a “Convo Nation” to fill the Convocation Center to the brim with all the energy and excitement of a football game.

Imagine the deafening noise of even a third of those 25,000 people inside a confined space with a roof – that’s intimidation.

To my surprise though, the Convo was less of a nation and more of small rural town.

I thought I had just picked an off day to attend a game, but to my surprise, I never saw that same passion and energy in the stands at the Convo that was so prevalent at Huskie Stadium.

The spring wasn’t any better than winter. At baseball and softball games, even the small set of bleachers could not be filled by a school with over 20,000 students.

So I began to wonder, what makes football attendance shatter other NIU sports?

It’s not like baseball and basketball are unpopular sports in our country – I wouldn’t expect to find 10,000 people to be cheering at a curling match.

So what makes football so special? We can’t say it’s our nation’s pastime. We can’t say it keeps us in a comfort-controlled environment. What does stick out, however, is the success of the program.

Football games were not always the hippest place to be on a Saturday afternoon. In 2001, the Huskies averaged 14,604 fans per game.

Even that is more than wrestling and men’s or women’s soccer attract in an entire season.

During the successful 2002 season, when NIU went 8-4 overall and 7-1 in the conference to share the MAC West title with Toledo, the attendance rose to an average of 20,952 per game.

In 2003, when NIU beat the odds and went 10-2 and beat such teams as Maryland, Alabama and Iowa State, the average home attendance rose to 23,575.

After the 2003 campaign, when NIU was robbed of a bowl game, Huskie Stadium soared to the top of the MAC with an average attendance of 27,052 fans per game.

So what’s the point? Isn’t it obvious that if a team is doing well there will be more fans at the game?

I agree, this is an obvious fact, but what might not be so clear is that the more fans attend a game, the more support a team gets and the more it can win.

Look at the football teams who had poor records last year, for example.

Western Michigan finished the season with a 1-10 record. Its average home attendance was 15,997. Buffalo went 2-9 in its 2004 campaign and hosted an average 12,185 fans per game.

While fans may not directly make their players play better, there is a reason a team wants a home game versus a road game.

True, it’s nice to sleep in your own bed, to play on your own field or court, but it’s also nice to have a crowd of supporters behind you cheering you on.

Huskie fans have done a good job this year of cheering on their teams – let’s hope it continues into the upcoming seasons.