Michigan State game days begin long before tipoff, puck drop, or the opening whistle. Outside of the Breslin Center and Munn Ice Arena, lines form early, and conversations settle into a shared expectation of what will happen once the doors open: chants that rise without warning, signs that cut through crowds of color and movement, and traditions that repeat so often they become muscle memory.
What happens inside is not improvised as much as it is learned, repeated, and passed down from one generation of fans to the next. It begins with a few voices or a small movement. quickly expanding into something larger, shaped by repetition, timing, and the understanding that participation is expected rather than optional.
Across sports, the details change, but the structure stays the same.
“I think MSU students are truly so involved and dedicated to supporting whatever team they can get tickets to,” senior Izzone section leader Allie Kochanny said. “We have a passion that other schools don’t. We have the passion to go to a campout, to stand in the lines. It makes it a different culture.”
That culture becomes visible before games even start, when traditions begin operating on their own rhythm. One of the Izzone’s most recognizable moments comes when newspapers rise across the lower bowl in a coordinated motion, signaling the start of another basketball game - a routine that has been repeated for years.
“The pregame ritual of holding up the newspapers and yelling, ‘Who cares? You suck,’ is something that has been going on for so long,” Kochanny said. “It’s really cool to think about.”
The moment is structured but still loud, a shared action that transforms individuals into a section reacting in sync. It is not new, but its consistency is part of what gives it weight, as the same motion reappears game after game without needing to be rebuilt. Even before the opening tip, the tone of participation is already set, and the crowd shifts into something collective without needing direction.
That same sense of shared rhythm carries into how reactions unfold once games are underway. Small ideas can move through thousands of people in seconds, turning isolated comments or movements into something that fills an entire arena, not because they are organized in advance, but because enough people recognize and repeat them in real time.
“The students come up with more creative things than I could ever imagine coming up with,” Kochanny said. “It’s very funny that three guys can be like, ‘Hey, let’s do this funny thing,’ and it can get 3,500 people joining in with them.”
At Munn, that same pattern exists in a different structure, shaped by the flow of hockey and the way sound and reaction follow play as it develops. Chants continue through stoppages and spill into breaks, then pick back up as soon as the puck drops again, creating a steady presence of participation that tracks the game itself rather than waiting for pauses to begin.
“For the Munnsters, there’s the dance that happens in between the second and third period,” senior and Munnster Olivia Jenney said. “Everyone stands up and does it and everyone gets really into it.”
The energy inside both arenas is shaped by the same willingness to participate, even as the details shift from sport to sport. Signs, chants and coordinated reactions move quickly once they start, and the line between organized tradition and spontaneous creation often comes down to how many people are willing to join in. That same immediacy shows up in how moments spread across arenas, where a few voices can quickly turn into thousands reacting at once, sometimes within seconds of something catching on.
“We have to be careful that whatever people are chanting isn’t going to get the school fined by the Big Ten or NCAA,” Kochanny said.
Even with that responsibility, the expectation remains consistent across venues that student sections are not passive observers but active participants in shaping how games feel in real time. The reaction in the stands often becomes part of the rhythm of competition itself, rising and falling with momentum shifts on the court or ice, sometimes matching runs, sometimes fueling them.
Senior Izzone section leader Josie Cayen said that connection becomes most noticeable in close games, when the energy in the building and the performance on the floor begin to reflect each other in real time.
“I think it makes a difference, especially in those close games where the team needs a little bit of extra help,” Cayen said. “They kind of feed off that energy.”
Those moments reinforce how tightly the crowd and the game are linked, especially when outcomes begin to swing and the noise inside the arena shifts with them. What happens in the stands is not separate from what happens on the field of play, but part of the same unfolding sequence.
“I think that if the student section is behind them, they feel better,” Kochanny said. “And if they feel better, they’ll play better.”
Senior Izzone section leader Quinn Dahl described that connection as something that extends beyond any single game or sport, shaping the identity of MSU's student sections as a whole. The differences between arenas matter less than the shared behavior that appears in each one.
“I would say that it’s a family,” Dahl said. “Everybody is with each other. They’re all in one, supporting one thing.”