The tennis courts are the place to be at 10 a.m. Saturday mornings of home football games.
The tents are set, the fight song is playing and beer cans are popping.
Tailgating at MSU is in full swing. 72,000 partyers celebrate across campus before games, according to MSU police in 2001.
But the action really starts 12 hours before that.
Just after 9 p.m. the night before a football game, MSU football fans are beginning to line up along Chestnut and down Trowbridge to claim a part of tailgating turf.
"We got here at 10:30, we always get the prime spots," engineering arts senior Roger Koenigsknecht said as he waited in line at 4 a.m. with a group of friends on the curb of Chestnut and Wilson Roads.
For the past three years, Roger, and his brother Tony before him, has brought "The Wheel" to tailgating. The green-and-white wheel is reminiscent of the classic from The Price is Right, but with drinking games marked instead of monetary values.
Roger is decked out as the late Rod Roddy, and his carload of Spartan fans unload the wheel in 10 minutes flat.
They're not the only people preparing. Before things get too busy, traffic people are out, and mostly in good spirits, computer engineering freshman Mike Jones said.
"They don't run over barricades," he said. "But closer it gets to game time, the more aggressive people get."
Several dozen can collectors are aggressive in their own right, arriving at 4 a.m. to bag beer cans and bottles for refunds.
"Some can make 300-400 dollars," Lansing resident Gabriel Rainey said. He snagged about $50 at the Indiana tailgating because he came later.
And security in South Complex is tight. Doors are locked down - no one other than residents is allowed.
But students aren't the only ones involved in the revelry.
The 10 a.m. groupshot and inspirational speech with Spartan alum Andrew Stone of Presque Isle on the tennis courts signals the true start to tailgating for the 800 to 1200 students who drink his green brew.
By now, there are just a few hours left before it's time to move en masse to the Stadium.
Michele Butler of Farmington Hills returned with fellow alumni to tailgate on Munn Field.
"I just come out to see the freaks," she said.
