When I was accepted to Syracuse, I anticipated huge crowds and rabid fans in the Carrier Dome for both football and basketball. While there have been some big attendance figures, I’ve been disappointed with the spectators-especially the student section.

There is a dedicated fan base and a lot of students do indeed show up. Otto’s Army has done a good job organizing the section. But as a heckler and a loud, rude and intense fan, I see a lot of room for improvement.

With a top-10 Louisville team visiting the Dome on Saturday, and basketball season fast approaching, here are my top five ways to improve the student section-besides relocating it.

1. New chants. The cheerleaders have been valiantly trying this for the past few years, but few of their proposed cheers are widely accepted by the crowd. The current chants are repetitive and as predictable as a Kansas City Royals losing season. It’s driven me to the point of insanity at basketball games when every two minutes, everyone yells ‘Let’s Go Orange.’

Don’t get me wrong, I love the effort, but please switch it up. I remember trying to start a chant of C-U-S-E on my roommate’s shoulders (like Fireman Ed at Jets games screaming J-E-T-S Jets! Jets! Jets!). After five straight near ejections it still didn’t catch on. Other schools have tons of chants and songs they shuffle through. It’s time Syracuse caught up. If there were more material like the ‘Hey Song,’ the student section would be vastly improved.

2. More heckling. This is an art form that everyone seems to ignore at Syracuse. Maybe people are too nice. But being polite isn’t going to help your home team. Heckling might not be for everyone, but I’d like to see more of it. If an opposing player can’t tackle well, tell him your grandmother hits harder than he does. If some shooting guard has a receding hairline, scream, ‘Dad is that you?!’ If one player looks extremely old, crack some Viagra jokes.

It would also help if fans were given a cheatsheet-as many other sections do-which gives away a few players’ dark pasts. This may seem out of line … forgive me. But these players are getting free rides to college. Some will go on to have luxurious careers and better lives than the rest of us. So for 40 or 60 minutes, you can take some shots at them. My dad always says, ‘Patrick, how would you feel if you were on the court and someone said those things to you?’ I always answer that it might throw me off my game, and I’d understand the crowd is part of the game and its job is to distract me. Just keep it in fairly good taste.

3. Creatively arguing calls. Is it just me, or does every call against Syracuse set off a ‘Bullsh**’ chant? You must realize that some calls are fair and will go against the Orange. Repeatedly yelling ‘Bullsh**’ will make it less useful when there actually is a bad call. Also, there are more creative ways to argue calls. One of my personal favorites is to go right after the referee.

Address him or her as zebra (because of their uniform), and voice your displeasure. Don’t stop there. Pile on more and more criticism as the minutes go by. Duke basketball gets a boatload of good calls at home. This might be because everyone loves Duke-or it could be because their students don’t cut the ref any slack after a bad call. With enough pressure, on the next close play the ref might think twice about making the call against the Orange.

4. Make noise. This one is pretty football specific, but it can apply to basketball as well. You need to make noise on first and second downs. Third down will be the loudest, but there’s no point in staying quiet on the first two downs. If the fans can cause the other team to jump offside, a first-, second- or third-and-15 can be very hard to crawl from.

Now, on third down, go ahead, jingle your keys. It doesn’t really make any noise but it looks cool. That being said, it’s completely useless unless you yell. Too many people just stand there and jingle as if they are searching for the right key to unlock a door. On big plays, try banging your hands on the seatback in front of you-one positive about having a stadium full of tin is that it’s a great noisemaker. For basketball the same applies: on defense, be loud all the time.

5. Show up and wear orange. All the above points would be completely useless if fans don’t show up. The student section needs to be filled every game, whether it be football or basketball. I remember last year, for Gerry McNamara’s last game, the entire Dome was packed except for the upper deck of the student section. Even though the game was at noon, it was embarrassing. So attend the games, and wear orange.

With these five easy and painless steps, the Syracuse student section could become one of the nation’s elite. The Dome already has one of the most recognizable home court advantages in the country. It’s time the fans started using it to its full potential.