During basketball season, most students root for their schools’ players on the courts, hoping for a victory. Despite the outcome of the game, students crave the rivalry between regional universities.

Students now have a chance to become a player, and fight to win on the basketball courts and campus. The Big Four ACC Canned Food Drive kicked off its season on Wednesday.

The effort is part of an organized competition of N.C. State with nearby University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Duke University and Wake Forest University. In the spirit of competition, the school with the largest net weight of cans will be announced as the winner.

Bobby Mills, director of the food drive, encourages all students and members of the community to place cans in designated barrels at upcoming men and women’s basketball games, donate online and through strategic spots on campus.

“Get involved,” Mills said. “Take a look down Hillsborough Street or anywhere downtown and tell me people don’t have a greater need than you.”

For NCSU students, a larger incentive is offered. For every 25 cans placed in the Student Government office by an individual, the student’s name will be placed in a drawing for the chance to win one of two home season football game tickets.

Michelle Montren, a freshman in criminology, said she plans to donate cans to the cause.

“The canned food drive is a great idea and a perfect way to give back to the community,” Montren said. Each school will give all cans to local food banks in the region.

Richard Cox, Student Government chief of staff and director of the food drive at WFU, said there has never been such a “collective” connection of the ACC schools.

For future years, Cox said he feels “confident that the drive will flourish,” and begin to open lines of communication between the schools for more events to occur. Cox said he also hopes the drive will act as an example for outside schools to be inspired to do similar programs.

Along with bonding the universities, he said the drive has brought a chance for organizations throughout campus to distribute work to help the community.

At NCSU, various groups have also felt the need to join the cause.

Andrew Treece, a junior in polymer and color chemistry, has decided to lead the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity to help with the canned food drive.

“Alpha Tau Omega fraternity takes pride and emphasizes community service,” Treece said. “[The drive] is a way to give back.”

Service extends even after the canned food drive. Students from each of the corresponding schools will help to provide service work at Second Harvest Food Bank in Winston-Salem. According to Cox, the extension of the food drive is one of the ways to attract a larger audience to understand what goes on at food banks.

Mills stressed the importance of the positive community influence and the opportunity of “finding means, not ends” for those less fortunate.

“If all students give a few cans each, then it would make a big difference,” Treece said. “If we get one can or 1,000 cans, all of it helps.”