Poll: Some schools are synonymous with a mascot or its cheerleaders. "Dot the I" helps make Saturdays at The Horseshoe special. SportingNews.com ranks traditions from Nos. 1 to 10. What's your No. 1?
Golf legend and Ohio State alum Jack Nicklaus - standing between the 37- and 38-yard lines - "dotted the I" at an Ohio State home game in 2006.Bands, tailgating, student body cheers. Some things are common across college football.
Some schools, though, are identified with a signature tradition that make their Saturdays - or other days and nights based on the whims of ESPN - unique.
Dave Curtis and Matt Hayes each pick their top 10 "game-day traditions in college football" for SportingNews.com.
Both include the school that plays its home games in The Horseshoe off I-71. Neither mentions that school "up north."
Curtis writes, in part:
4. Yell Leaders, Texas A&M: I don't understand what they're saying or doing. I don't know where they get their energy. And they're certainly not stereotypical cheerleaders. But if I need energy in a stadium, I'm calling my guys in College Station.
5. Dotting the "I", Ohio State: Anything that prompts a sousaphone player to want to attend a specific school gets automatic entry into the top five. Bonus: For postseason games, fourth- and fifth-year OSU band members compete in a "dot-off" to see who draws the assignment.
And, writes Hayes:
3. Colorado's stampede: It's all about Ralphie. It takes all of 45 seconds or so for the big girl to thunder through Folsom Field and back into her cage. But it's an unforgettable, see-it-before-you-die moment . If you're lucky, it's dusk and your backdrop is the sun still barely creeping over the gorgeous Flatirons.
4. Ohio State's band: I challenge any true college football fan to go to Ohio Stadium, watch the spectacle that is TBDBITL, see Script Ohio and not get utterly jacked. End of story.