Have you ever had one of those ideas?

You know, one of those ideas that you’re immediately juiced up about but don’t know exactly how sustainable the enthusiasm might be?

That’s the kind of idea that stopped me in my tracks after visiting with a few of the Auburn students who had been camped outside the back of Auburn’s Neville Arena for more than 24 hours as they eagerly awaited tipoff between Auburn and Alabama in a ranked-vs.-ranked version of the Iron Bowl of Basketball on Feb. 7.

The idea? To campout with members of Auburn’s student section – affectionately known as The Jungle – as they waited outside of Neville Arena on the eve of No. 13 Auburn’s dance with the 22nd-ranked Kentucky Wildcats on Feb. 17.

Here’s the thing: I’m 25 years old and graduated from the University of Florida in 2020. I say this just to add a bit of context and emphasize a few points:

1. I’m not that far removed from college

2. Going to Florida – a fellow SEC institution – means I’ve been to a proper college tailgate or two

And because of those two things, there was a part of me that (briefly) thought I could go all out and actually spend the night in a tent, sleeping on the ground and be spry as ever the next morning.

But eventually, reality crept in and I remembered that in true Floridian fashion, I get cold in temperatures below 75 degrees, recovering from a night of sleeping on the ground takes longer than it once did and that I’ve got a pup back home who wouldn’t appreciate a night by herself.

So instead, I settled for a night of going back and forth between my apartment and “Pearlville,” as the students call it. I first visited at 5 p.m. for about an hour, then a two-hour visit from about 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. and one final quick visit at around midnight.

My first order of business upon arrival at 5 p.m. was to scope out some of the most “luxurious” accommodations.

Fortunately, I stumbled upon a handful of gracious hosts who welcomed me into their humble abodes and allowed me to document it all in an MTV Cribs-like video.

A few observations:

• A lot of the tents lined up outside Neville Arena looked relatively new and eerily similar. I’d venture to say if you’re in the Auburn/Opelika area and in the market for a tent, you might be out of luck for a bit.
• Air mattresses are great and all, but they come at the expense of taking up floor space, which would mean there’s less room for people inside the tent. Choose wisely.
• There are advantages to being farther back in the line — a big one being access to electrical outlets, which paved the way for campers to bring televisions, video game consoles, you name it.
• Enforce a “no shoes rule” in the tent. No one wants to deal with sand.

As the sun started to set and the first pitch of Auburn’s first baseball game of the season approached, many campers took to Plainsman Park, which freed me up to grab a bite to eat before returning at the conclusion of the baseball game.

By the time I returned, the big television screens provided by Auburn were no longer hosting a Mario Kart tournament, but instead televising No. 12 Auburn gymnastics’ road meet against No. 3 LSU.

Meanwhile, around the corner and down the concourse that runs perpendicular with Wire Road, a group of students stood around a propane grill and assembled hotdogs and hamburgers before putting them on paper plates.

Behind the grill operation was Blake Ellyson, a sophomore finance major who bought an $80 portable propane grill from Buc-ee’s the day prior.

“We saw people doing it last year when we were camping out for the Alabama game and were like, ‘We should grill out this year,’” Ellyson said between bites of a bun-less hotdog he had just pulled off the grill. “We had free hotdogs from one of my other friends, he just had 50 free hotdogs, so we had 50 hotdogs and 40 frozen burger patties.”

Anyone who passed by was welcome to grab a plate in what Ellyson called “general camaraderie.”

“I think it builds the camaraderie and obviously builds anticipation for the game,” Ellyson added.

Back towards the front of the line, something was causing a ruckus. And that something was Auburn’s beloved mascot, Aubie the Tiger, who made his grand entrance standing on the tailgate of a golf cart at about 9:15 p.m.

Between taking pictures, Aubie spent some time sitting at a table where he joined Auburn basketball senior Dylan Cardwell and a group of Auburn students in a friendly game of Blackjack, followed by some time spent dunking on a portable basketball hoop that was held upright by a single cinderblock.

Then came over former Auburn guard Zep Jasper, who delivered a batch of Krispy Kreme donuts to The Jungle — just as he promised he’d do on social media earlier in the day.

“It’s great just seeing a lot of fans and a lot of students out here ready for the Kentucky game,” said Jasper, who drove from Charleston, S.C. to catch Saturday’s game. “It means a lot. Two years ago I was out here playing against Kentucky at Neville Arena. It just feels good to be here knowing the Auburn Family is a strong tradition and I’m just excited to be out here.”

And it was at that point — with Ellyson and his crew continuing to hand out burgers and hotdogs, Aubie throwing his arms around the necks of students who were “swag surfing” and Jasper walking around the thicket of tents handing out donuts — that I started to realize I was covering more than just a tailgate.

As we’ve watched the college athletics landscape evolve in the past, say, three to five years, many of us have maybe become jaded to it all after initially being resistant to the changing nature of the college sports world we once fell in love with.

Between NIL, the transfer portal and conference realignment, sometimes it really does feel like college athletics is on the cusp of becoming no different than professional sports. At least that’s certainly how I feel at times.

And that’s not to say these changes are good or bad or right or wrong.

That’s just to say the current state of college sports sometimes feels so far removed from what I grew up watching 15-20 years ago — let alone the college sports world my parents and grandparents got to experience decades ago.

Then you have nights like the one I experienced Friday night and you’re quickly reminded that no matter how politics and legislation might change college athletics, the world of college sports will always be able to set itself apart from the rest of the sports industry.

Now, I know there are some really passionate fanbases of professional sports teams in this country and that camping out before a big game is not new or unique.

But where — other than college campuses — will you find anything that remotely mirrors the atmosphere that was created on the backside of Neville Arena on Friday night? I’m afraid that answer doesn’t exist.

For hours, I watched college students — some friends, some strangers — come together to play Spades and Poker, while others played cornhole and video games. All the while, others cooked, played guitars and even gave each other haircuts (yes, that really happened).

And they’ll do all that before voluntarily spending the night in tents, hammocks or on cots.

Then come Saturday morning, those same kids will have to get up early (assuming they ever slept) and pack up camp before 6 a.m. if they want to make inside in time for ESPN’s College Gameday segment in Neville Arena.

And they’ll do it all in hopes of getting good seats to watch a couple of college-aged guys shoot some hoops.

Well, okay, it might be a bit more than a couple of college-aged guys shooting some hoops, but you get the gist.