Fall means football on college campuses across the country, and there's nothing like game day. Whether it's the first home game, homecoming or simply a matchup with a bitter rival, game day is special.

The fans come from all corners of the state or even the entire region, flying their flags and toting supplies for the tailgating feasts.

The campus is electric with excitement as visitors fill up parking lots and parents get their first look at the inside of their offspring's dorm room.

Each school has its own traditions and its own unique flavor, but college football everywhere brings with it a special experience unlike anything else.

What is it about the sport of football that makes those fall Saturdays so special? Perhaps it's the pull of history. Most schools have had football for longer than even the most aged alums have been alive.

At the University of Notre Dame, for example, the Irish launched their 114th season this year. And while the university and even the world has changed quite a bit over the last 114 years, a football home game is still a place for the university community to gather.

For obvious logistical reasons it was possible for NCAA News staff, located in Indianapolis, to attend a Notre Dame game easier than one at the University of Miami (Florida), for example. But the traditions, the pageantry and the unity of the game-day experience are practically universal. Even smaller schools take game day seriously (see story, page A4).

One indicator of how unique the game of football is in our society is just how many people watch it, play it and consider it among their favorite sports.

A national public opinion survey conducted by The Gallup Organization in 1989-90 at the request of the College Football Association showed that nearly four out of every 10 Americans considered themselves college football fans. That statistic calculates to nearly 100 million fans in this country alone.

When it comes to television, plenty of people are watching, as well. According to Nielson Media Research, Notre Dame's early-season matchup against the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, was seen in more than five million households. Perhaps an even more impressive statistic: 9 percent of all the televisions in use in the nation at that time were tuned to that game. At press time that was the highest-rated regular-season game, but if history is any indication, the bowl games will draw an even larger crowd.

In perhaps another indication of the game's popularity, participation in football at the NCAA collegiate level leads all other sports. In 1999-00, the most recent year tabulated for NCAA participation statistics, 57,593 student-athletes played football in all three NCAA divisions, compared to 25,938 for baseball, the sport with the next-highest number of participants.

And according to the National Federation of State High School Associations, more than a million boys and nearly 700 girls played interscholastic football in 1999-00. Perhaps those who play the sport continue to watch it long after their playing days are over.

Getting a ticket to see a game in person at one of the many NCAA institutions where football commands a crowd can be a serious problem. At places like Notre Dame and Nebraska, season tickets are cherished valuables to be passed down to children and fought over in divorces.

Notre Dame's ticket office conducts a computerized lottery for the games in which contributing alumni applications for football tickets exceed the approximately 32,000 seats allocated to donors.

It's not easy being the visiting team, either. More than 28,000 Nebraska fans sought tickets for the 2000 matchup between the Cornhuskers and the Irish, held in South Bend. Unfortunately for the Nebraska fans, they only had an allotment of 4,000 tickets for that game.

When it comes to attendance records during the regular season, the University of Michigan wins that contest with the nation's largest stadium. The school averaged 110,822 fans per game in 2000, and it set the 2000 record with 111,514 in the seats to see the Wolverines' victory over Michigan State University October 21.

Pennsylvania State University, ranked fourth in the nation in football attendance in 2000 (behind Michigan; the University of Tennessee, Knoxville; and Ohio State University) hopes to move up with its new $93 million stadium renovation. Just completed this summer, Beaver Stadium will now hold 106,537, the second-largest capacity of any football stadium in the country.

While NCAA officials have estimated that fewer than 50 NCAA member institutions (in all divisions combined) actually make a profit on the sport of football in their athletics program, game day can certainly impact a community.

According to Penn State officials, fans attending the home football games there pump more than $40 million into the Centre County economy, comparable to the impact of a 600-employee corporation locating in Penn State's community of State College, Pennsylvania.

There's a similar story across the country.

When the capacity of Notre Dame Stadium was increased in 1997 from 59,075 to 80,232, the economic impact was felt almost immediately.

So, there is some tangible benefit to all of that fun, all of that pageantry of a football weekend and the game-day experience after all.

And, considering all the country's been through lately, game day also is just a good time to remember that we all have more in common than we think, even if we line up against our rivals for the big game.