So in case you haven’t heard, dear Old State plays Ohio State this weekend in a huge rivalry matchup. As is customary, the diehards of the student section are participating in Paternoville this week. The Ohio State game marks the last week-long Paternoville, as the university doesn’t deem Indiana to be important enough to warrant dealing with the Paternoville crowds for a whole week. To ensure that the final week-long Paternoville is a success, several groups camped out for the camp-out. Paternoville officially starts on Tuesday morning at midnight, but there were 42 groups who were out at the Beav as early as midnight Monday morning to ensure they got front row seats for the second biggest game of the season. We stopped by last night to see what all the hubbub was about.

According to John Tecce (Sophomore – DUS), the Paternoville Vice President, there were over 80 groups registered at the start of Paternoville at midnight. Tecce mentioned that the “atmosphere is more intense, more focused” than the season’s previous Paternovilles, something he attributes to “the being a lot more going on than just the game” for the Iowa Paternoville. He cited ESPN’s College Gameday and Iowa being the first real opponent the Nittany Lion had played as reasons for that.

A couple of other notes:

• Jake Harr (Freshman – Political Science) is camping out for the whole week, which wouldn’t really be noteworthy except for the fact that he goes to the Altoona campus. Saying “I wanted to make my first Ohio State game memorable, so I figured I’d stay in a tent.” I applaud your dedication to the football team, not allowing something as silly as academics to get in your way.
• As is customary at the start of Paternoville, there are numerous songs sung, involving garbage cans being “drummed on.” These songs were being led by a gentleman who some referred to as “the village idiot” and it seemed to be a fitting description. His attempts to “teach” the crowd the alternative lyrics to the Ohio State and Michigan fight songs were well intended, if poorly executed. It would have been better had he spent time teaching the crowd the lyrics to our own fight songs, as some members of the crowd looked rather lost during The Nittany Lion. But they’ve got a week to figure it out.