Utah Valley University’s basketball team led New Mexico State by four points at halftime and the UCCU Center security staff started thinking ahead. Troy Hulse walked over to the student section and cautioned, “Win or lose, you can’t go on the court. You know that, right?”
In my continuing study of the sports fan experience in Utah, it hit me: I’d never watched a college basketball game from the student section. I graduated from Utah State without even knowing the words to any school songs.
While attending a game at each of northern Utah’s five Division I schools in February, observing the students’ behavior, I went further by blending into UVU’s Den and Weber State’s Destruction Zone.