Tailgating before football games has been a tradition for years, and now students are attempting to bring the tradition alive before basketball games next semester.

Three main student organizers who are promoting the new tradition include Drew Wall, a junior in history, Ted Cotter, a junior in business management, and Andrew Bradley, a junior in technology education.

“Me and my friends have always enjoyed the tailgating before football games and not many colleges tailgate before basketball games,” Wall said. “So we thought it would be a good tradition here at N.C State because our school is starving for tradition and people just love to have a good time.”

Cotter said the celebration before the game will bring support to the basketball team, just as it does with the football team.

“We are really excited about the upcoming basketball season and want to get the hype at an even higher level than it is right now,” he said. “We turn [football games] into an all-day celebration of the game and school, and we feel that basketball is worth that same celebration for sure.”

According to Wall, the three organizers are planning to start the tradition with the opening of the ACC basketball season next semester. The first tailgate is scheduled for the Miami game Saturday, Jan. 19.

The organizers are planning for the tailgates to take place in the student parking lot between the RBC Center and Carter-Finley Stadium, which is free parking for students with an ID, and to start the tailgates three or four hours before tip-off.

“We’re mainly focusing on [tailgating at] the Saturday games, which there are three of,” Wall said. “Also for the North Carolina game, which is a Wednesday night, we expect to have a huge turnout.”

Cotter said though there are only three Saturday games, they are still hoping to bring the tailgating experience to every home game.

“This is a big year for N.C. State basketball with Sidney Lowe being in his second year and a couple of good new freshmen,” Bradley said. “They deserve as much of a tailgate atmosphere before the game as the football team does.”

The organizers created a Facebook group, “N.C. State Students Tailgating at Basketball Games,” to promote and spread the idea to other students. Wall said they are expecting a good turnout of students, and they hope to create and distribute pamphlets later on this semester to further encourage the new tradition.

“Right now, we have 130 members [of the group] and we’re spreading the word to different organizations and Greek Life to get their groups out there to tailgate just like they do for football games,” he said. “People love to tailgate at football games and it’s just an excuse to enjoy the times with your friends and four years of college.”

Wall said they brought the idea to Student Government and Student Body President Bobby Mills as well.

“There is no rule against tailgating for basketball that I’m aware of,” Mills said. “It’s always been an idea and I think that it would be a viable option if you have enough students behind it,” Mills, a junior in political science and economics, said.

Mills said he supported the idea because it promotes school spirit.

“I know the Student Wolfpack Club promoted it in the past and it had somewhat success, but the more and more students, the better,” he said.

Capt. Jon Barnwell of Campus Police said though the Campus Police department doesn’t participate with basketball season, officers would assist the Raleigh Police Department in the tailgating areas.

“We would patrol in the parking lots, if needed, to assist Raleigh [Police Department] if there was an issue where people were spending more time in the parking lot,” he said. “We would probably have additional staffing to assist out there.”

According to Cotter, they are also organizing “Sid’s Suits,” which is promoting a student section to all wear red blazers to the games. He said they created the Facebook group, which has 326 members, a couple of weeks before they started to promote the tailgating tradition.

“If we’re going to be on national TV as a national event team, wouldn’t that be fun if we could get a nationally-recognized student section, like the Cameron crazies at Duke?” Cotter said. “That’s our goal: to become the most wildest, heartfelt student section in NCAA basketball, and the wearing blazers out to the game and celebrating beforehand and afterward are all compliments to that goal.”

Cotter said he and the other organizers are open for any students who want to help out and for any student ideas towards these new traditions.

“There’s no reason that student can’t be members of both groups,” Cotter said. “We should work together to try to get people wearing blazers to the game and celebrating before the game.”