Alabama fans, as is common, often create a complex justification for their loyalty. Tide priders accuse class and tradition—’Bama has 12 national titles—for triggering their obsession, when in fact most sports allegiances are tied to family and friends.

“Once you realize that,” St. John said, “you’ve achieved Step One to healthy fandom.”

So what else creates healthy fandom? What actually makes sporting events worthwhile and fun?

“Sports,” St. John told me, “are social functions. People are fans not because they want 11 guys to win. They’re fans because they want 11 guys to win with other people around them.”

The tailgate, then, is an outward manifestation of this social construction. Harvard-Yale is fun because of the competition between teams; it’s also fun because of the camaraderie at the kegs and at the barbeque outside the stadium.

In an Ivy League game that so stringently regulates itself—with no athletic scholarships or playoffs, a Harvard national championship is simply not possible—schools might be better served to reward their fans’ dedication.

“I didn’t mind any of those restrictions that tried to keep [football] honest,” St. John said of his days as a Columbia undergrad. “At the same time, the best way to make up for that is to compensate socially.”

Though he said he personally enjoys watching Ivy League football—he attended Princeton’s overtime victory over Columbia this past weekend—St. John acknowledged the Ivies’ somewhat diminished scale compared to Division I-A and the NFL.

“A savvy administrator would want to foster a social atmosphere,” he said. “That adds to the game on the field.”

Subtracting from the game on the field would be an overbearing police presence at Harvard-Yale this year, the rumored registration requirement and limitation on alcoholic beverages, and the possibility that Harvard could someday limit movement in and out of the stadium at The Game—an increasingly popular check on student tailgates around the country.

This is one particular situation in which Harvard would do well to take a tip from the Alabamas of the world.

In any case, what would Tide fans do if Alabama put restrictions on tailgating?

“I can’t imagine that happening,” St. John said. “They would riot.”

—Staff writer Alex McPhillips can be reached at rmcphill@fas.harvard.edu. His column appears on alternate Wednesdays.