One of the great benefits to attending the University of Texas–whether for undergrad or grad school–is the sports program. At 18 years old, I placed equal importance on academics and athletics. This might be why my list of college applications looked an awful lot like the 2005 BCS standings. But only Texas had the great school-to-great sports ratio for which I was looking.

This past weekend, I attended my fourth Texas-OU game as a UT student. Being a fourth year student certainly has its perks–for one, a fantastic 25-yard line seat on the 10th row of the upper deck. (FYI- graduate students receive second priority for season tickets to football games.) Texas home games are tons of fun, but there is nothing like the annual Red River Shootout. Take the fun of a regular game and multiply it by five. Everything that happens in the game elicits an emotion. You’re either jumping up and down hugging strangers or you’re disgusted by 50,000 cheering Sooners as if they offended you, personally.

Sitting with my boyfriend and friends, waiting for the game to start.

Then there is the whole State Fair aspect to this game. Think of it as a giant tailgate with all the delicious fried food you could ever dream of (and a lot you probably couldn’t dream of–think fried butter, fried snickers, and chicken fried bacon). My state fair menu consisted of: a corn dog for breakfast, funnel cake for mid-morning snack, chicken strips for halftime snack, shredded chicken stuffed jalapenos after the game. Yummy.

Deep-fried butter. A heart attack waiting to happen, huh?

It cost me a bright red sunburn and probably 6,000 calories, but by 3 p.m. the Longhorns pulled off a victory over those Oklahoma Sooners. 16-13! Rose Bowl here we come…

Texas football and its traditions like this rivalry game in Dallas are definitely a perk of being a UT student, and if you haven’t attended a Texas-OU game yet, you should at some point…preferably as a student, so you can buy a ticket for $95 face value rather than $250 on eBay.

P.S. Even on a weekend that I designated as an “absolutely no thoughts about school” weekend, I found myself thinking about accounting. As my boyfriend and I stood in a 20-minute line for tickets so that we could buy food/ride rides/etc., we wondered why this whole ticket thing was necessary. Why couldn’t we just pay cash to the vendors? But then I quickly remembered audit class and the need for controls. As a result, my poor boyfriend got a lengthy accountant’s explanation as to why the tickets were, in fact, needed.