It’s happened about once every Saturday so far this quarter.

My roommate Carl and I venture to the Study Hall to spend our day staring into empty pitchers of Coors Light and at the myriad of plasma screens available for our college football viewing pleasure.

At some point, I mention that it must be crazy going to a school boasting a major football program in some major conference like the SEC or the Big 10. Upon further review, we are both usually in agreement that spending Saturday afternoons barbecuing on our respective tailgates would be fun, but then again, we’d have to live in the South or the Midwest to do that.

That’s just silly.

However, I was rather intrigued while perusing a recent SI on Campus, where I saw the scene surrounding Purdue – streets overflowing with fans and 30-minute waits to get into the bars at seven in the morning on a game day. No joke.

If a bunch of boilermakers can pack the streets at the buttcrack of dawn to get liquored up and support their team, I sure as hell believe that Isla Vista can wake up a few hours earlier on Saturday for the soccer game to create pandemonium that would rival anything the goddamned Midwest can do.

Those who whine at UCSB’s perceived lack of a “football” team should put away their apathy caps this Saturday and replace them with drinking hats – or Gaucho hats, if booze isn’t your thing. Because, honestly, there are only so many colleges like USC and Texas that are National Championship-bound. Most just like to go watch a good game, fire up the grill and soak in the sun with a few cold ones at their side.

And UCSB does have a legitimate chance at a national championship.

So this Saturday, when the men’s soccer team gets set to take on San Diego State at Harder Stadium, forget Freebirds or sleeping in. You have all year to do that. This may be the only playoff game Santa Barbara hosts. Let’s turn Isla Vista into a scene that rivals the Midwest or the South – minus the crummy weather and general shittiness, of course.

I’ll be the tall kid out there drinking beer out of a soccer cleat.

This Saturday, Daily Nexus Sports Editor Sean Swaby invites Gaucho fans to put on their drinking caps and take off their shirts.

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