A united university through sports is often a rarity. College football can be one of the most intense experience in college sports. The passion and energy is nearly impossible to encapsulate into a single feeling. Sports teams and their fans share a bond that cannot be recon with. The colleges with prestigious athletic backgrounds have a numerous alumni who carry pride into every game day. A lot of fans equal a lot of fun, but attending an school with diehard fans is best part of college sports. College football has gained the reputation for becoming the most celebrated sport. The best way to celebrate a college football game is tailgating. Tailgating and college football have become such a tradition that it is hard to see one happening without the other. Tailgating is a legendary activity that I could not wait to participate in. Surprisingly enough, I was able to find my way onto the tailgating scene for the University of Georgia football game. They were facing University of Tennessee which was a big rivalry in the south. Both of these teams compete in the South Eastern conference, also known as the SEC. The rivalry brought a lot of excitement around campus which meant heavy tailgating. I was brought up to speed on the tailgating by a Georgia alumnus. Thomas was the perfect person to give me the ultimate tailgating experience. Having no previous knowledge on the topic of tailgating, it was surprising to me that tailgating is a detailed process that started days before the event itself. I started my research on the first step of tailgating labeled the “pre-game”. The pre-game step for us started on a Thursday afternoon. We made on who was participating, where we were tailgating at, and what vehicles were being taken. For us, we would bring two four door trucks that could seat eight people total. There were seven total people in this group including me. Tailgating usually takes place within the same group of people every weekend. For experienced tailgating groups such as diehard fans, students of the university, and alumni, the pre-gaming step becomes nothing short of a ritual. Since I was included last minute, the pre-gaming for our group needed to be planned out. The next step was to buy the food and supplies for what was going to be eaten and used on game day. Our groups buy one day in advance for the simple fact that every other tailgater in the nation will have already bought every tailgating necessity. The necessities that we bought for this game included spatulas, bottle openers, tongs, can openers, toothpicks, wooden skewers, basting brush, mini flashlights, trash bags, paper towels, wet wipes, hand sanitizer, sunscreen, ponchos, plastic zip bags, sharpies, masking tape, and all of our favorite condiments, spices, and seasonings. These are considered essential tailgating utensils. At the store we also bought food that we planned on eating at the game including kebabs, burger patties, hot dogs, buns for hotdogs and hamburgers, chips of all flavors, fruit and vegetable arrangements, last but not least condiments and toppings for hamburgers and hotdogs. These supplies were just the beginning of what was needed to have a successful tailgating experience. The payment of these items was split between every participant evenly. If a member was not able to pay you was not able to participate. Luckily for me, I was able to get away without having to pay since I was a newbie. I could already sense that tailgating involved much detail and I loved every second of it. The next step included preparing the food at a members house. My tailgating group called this step the dirty work. I could already tell that this was this step included a lot of work. We sorted and prepared the food as a team. Each of us took a job to help prepare the food as quick as possible. I was in charge of shaping up the burger patties between sheets of wax paper. This wasn’t a difficult job but it was time consuming. The other tailgaters were in charge of tasks like skewering and marinating the kebabs, slicing and packing up the burger toppings into containers, and labeling coolers as drinks were put into them. As a group we took the containers and coolers that had already been bought and loaded the tailgating essentials into them. A neat trick that my group did was always kept a toolbox packed with tailgate essentials in the trunk of their car. This provided easy access to any of the essentials tailgaters need. These containers would be loaded into the two trucks, one truck was designated for the cooking and food, the other for drinks. The drinks that we brought were mainly sodas and water. The tailgaters brought frozen water bottles and placed them in the coolers so we would have cold water to drink after the ice melted. Traditionally tailgaters bring alcoholic beverages. My group doesn’t drink so we avoided anything involving alcohol. This gave my group an overall better tailgating experience. After both of the steps, pre-game and dirty work are completed, we relaxed until game day. This step was the step that we worked toward over the past two days and we were excited to get started. Tailgating can become an all-day event. We followed the traditional rule of leaving 4 hours before game time. Tailgaters follow this rule. We loaded our all of our coolers and containers. We also loaded a grill to cook our meat, enough chairs for everyone to sit, and a tent to keep cool. Everything was organized and sorted perfectly, and now it was time for the game. We stopped by a local Chick-Fil-a on the way to the stadium for breakfast. The drive was about forty minutes from the house where we met. With the game at noon, we left the house at 7:20 a.m. and arrived at the Georgia dome ready to start tailgating. My tailgating group grabbed a beautiful spot right in the middle of all the action. We set up our tent and chairs between both of the trucks. Next we set up the grill, set out the coolers and began to cook our meat. It was a perfect temperature outside with the sun shining bright. There were rows of cars as far as you could see. People flocked from tent to tent decked out in Georgia bulldog apparel. We could smell the burgers on the grill cooking. The smell of grill fumigated the tent. We all talked and told stories under the tent as we ate our freshly cooked hamburgers, hotdogs and kebab. Our tent drew a lot of attention and brought a lot of people around. We ate until our stomach were about to burst, then we ate more. Local tailgaters came by to get a bite of what food we had left. I stayed under our tent until it was game time. The big rivalry between Georgia and Tennessee brought tension in the air. We packed up our things thirty minutes before kickoff. This step was known as post-game. The post-game step included cleaning up trash and packing things away. As a team we dis assembled the tent, folded the chairs, and put away the food into the back of the trucks. Then we parted ways with our tailgating team. Four of our members went into the dome to watch the game. The other half went on our way back home after a successful day of tailgating. This experience was informational and gave me a new look into collegiate sports. The power of this tradition was moving. Tailgating gives new meaning to college football. Tailgating happens all over the united states in various styles and traditions. A weekend of successful tailgating will bring joy to the rest of your weekend. I hope to participate in tailgating again in the future. A weekend without tailgating or college football is a weekend wasted.