The Rowdy Reptiles have cheered their way to a Final Four competition for fans — the Loud And Proud Student Section of the Year.
Organized by the National Collegiate Student Section Association (NCSSA), the competition pitted student sections from universities across the country against each other in a Twitter battle for votes.
The winner, to be announced at halftime of the NCAA men’s basketball championship game, will win a trophy and bragging rights for their student section, said Jonathan Arnholz, vice president of the Men’s Basketball Rowdies.
“It actually gives you quite a bit of credibility,” the 21-year-old public relations junior said. “It’s something you can put on your social media pages.”
The Men’s Basketball Rowdies, the student-run group within the Rowdy Reptiles, was formed three years ago. Co-founder Lucas Dolengowski, now president of the group, wanted to unite the student section at basketball games.
“One of our main goals, especially this year, was really making the in-game experience something memorable, something exciting,” Dolengowski said.
To cast a vote, anyone can tweet #LoudAndProud and #NCSSAUFGators to rally the Rowdy Reptiles past other groups in the contest.
The contest began March 1, and after two weeks of voting, the top 16 schools were chosen. On March 23, the top 8 were announced, then the Final Four were set Monday.
The Final Four includes the Rowdy Reptiles, the ZonaZoo at the University of Arizona, X-treme Fans at Xavier University and the Red Scare at the University of Dayton, Arnholz wrote in an email.
Arnholz estimates 2,900 tweets have been sent out in support of the Rowdy Reptiles. He warns, however, that retweets do not count, and that only one tweet per account each day is tallied.
Dolengowski said he appreciates the acknowledgement and credits the success of the Rowdies to Student Body support for the basketball team, even through a lackluster season.
“That shows how great The Gator Nation is and how supportive they are of what we do,” Dolengowski said.
The top two teams will be announced after the NCAA Men’s Basketball Final Four games are completed.
[A version of this story ran on page 9 on 4/1/2015 under the headline “UF Rowdy Reptiles make Final Four of fandom competition”]
