You asked:

My dorm is really into NCAA March Madness. How can we hype up our spirit before the games?

Without a doubt, March Madness is one of the biggest sports tournaments of the year. Even if you don’t go to a school with a qualifying team, there are many ways to celebrate this great tradition. Here are a few suggestions:

Brackets, brackets, brackets. Host a bracket tournament and offer prizes for the top three scorers. Basically, a tournament bracket is the breakdown of games played in the whole series. Try to guess which teams will win each game, and pick a national champion. There are many free online brackets that keep track of everyone’s scores in your group (e.g., CBSSports.com, ESPN.com and Facebook). Some RAs or residential areas have a small programming budget that could be used to purchase prizes.

Host a party. If your school is in the tournament, throw a party for every game they play! Most dorms have a common TV where everyone in the area could come and watch. If you don’t have a TV, ask about streaming the games live in the basketball stadium or campus theater.

Decorate! Paint faces, T-shirts, fliers, banners, spirit rocks and whatever else you can to show your enthusiasm. (Remember to keep it legal -- no tagging walls or sides of buildings, please.)

Have a National Championship celebration. No matter which teams make the final, host a championship party in a common space where many people can watch the game. Offer a prize for whoever guesses the winning team and final score.

Compete. Consider having a hall-wide decorating contest to see which floor can show the most spirit.

Name: Sarah Arsenoff
School: UNC Wilmington
Year: Senior
Major: Marine Biology
Her Deal: This is Sarah's third year as an R.A. for freshmen and international students. She writes for Periplus, a university newsletter for students who, like her, are in the honors scholars program.

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