ESPN is already promoting the annual rivalry matchup between the Duke Blue Devils and Maryland Terrapins.

“Feb. 19 watch as Steve Blake leads the Terps of Maryland into Cameron Indoor Stadium to face J.J. Redick, the Cameron Crazies and the rest of the Duke Blue Devils,” headlines the ESPN commercial.

Senior Steve Blake is the all-American candidate point guard who helped Maryland win a national championship, and J.J. Redick is one of the leading diaper dandies in the country, but who or what are the Cameron Crazies? Not a new mascot for the Blue Devils borrowed from the mental ward. Not the nickname for a slightly demented player. The Cameron Crazies, one of the largest reasons for Duke’s winning season after winning season, is the nickname for the student cheering section.

One of the more overlooked reasons a team can accumulate a great home winning record, the student section can be the most influential sixth man a team can have. So it’s time to take a closer look into the wild and wacky world of student sections. What makes them great, what makes them not so great, and how does one start ones own student section.

No review of obnoxious and out-of-this-world fans can be complete without the Cameron Crazies. One of the most historic and loudest sections in the country, the Crazies often dominate the minds and ears of players, coaches and fans alike. However, this is not what puts the Crazies over the top. What puts them over the top is, for one, their cruel creativity. When Maryland’s Herman Veal was alleged to have sexually abused a fellow student — he was disciplined, but never formally charged — the Crazies showered him with more than 1,000 pairs of women’s underwear and one student held up a sign that read “Hey, Herm, did you send her flowers?”

Not only do the Crazies come up with great, premeditated pranks, but their on-the-spot comedy puts them in that higher tier.

“I was at a game one time where a guy fouled out,” one loyal Cameron crazy said. “The Crazies did their regular wave cheer, but the guy wouldn’t sit down. Eventually they started chanting ‘He’s got hemorrhoids!’ It was great.”

With Duke setting the golden standard, many schools are starting to learn how to be the sixth man that can help their team win. Some teams are starting to come close to the level of the Crazies.

“We are a football school who is trying to learn how to be a basketball school,” Rob Alexander, a senior at Texas, said of the Texas section the “O Zone.” “The students are finally learning how to heckle the other teams”.

Another smaller school starting to finds its place is the “Dawg Pound” of Boston University.

“In my four years, I’ve seen the student body slowly change from being extreme hockey fans to recently finally selling out a major American East battle against our hated rival Northeastern,” senior Josh Schneider said. “We don’t hold back at all; we even boo their cheerleaders.”

Other schools are just in the beginning stages of forming a ruckus section. In only its first year of existence, the Pittsburgh Panthers’ “Oakland Zoo” has watched its team come from left field into the top five in the country. Coincidence? Yeah, probably, but the fans haven’t gone unnoticed.

“I appreciate their enthusiasm,” Pittsburgh head coach Ben Howland said. “They’re having fun and that’s what college is all about. We’re just glad they’re with us and not against us.”

Another relatively new section that has seen their team move up the ranks to No. 2 in the country is the Louisville “L raisers.”

“It’s crazier then all hell,” Heath Hawkins, freshman at U of L, said of the student section.

But let’s be honest — not all sections can be great. Many student sections need some help. One such student section is “The Wild Side” at Northwestern.

“I think it’s more of the ‘Mild Side,'” said an anonymous freshman at Northwestern of the student section for the Wildcats.

Another problem could be thinking one’s student section is insane compared to the fans around it.

“Historically, we’ve had a pretty rowdy student section that has contrasted with the gentle behavior of many of the older fans that come to our games,” an anonymous student at Vanderbilt said of their student section “The Memorial Maniacs.”

But perhaps there is no student section, and you are looking to start one. The first and most important step is coming up with the nickname. A first possibility is to see what can be done with the coach’s name, like the “Izzone” at Michigan State, the “Gene Pool” at Purdue or “Garyland” at Maryland.

If no answers lie there, the next step is to look at the mascot and see if that sparks something as it has for the “Rowdy Reptiles” of Florida, “The Hawkeye’s Nest” of Iowa and the “Antlers” of Missouri. If still no answer arises, try pawning a name off of the school’s colors, such as “The Sour Citrus Society” of Syracuse, the “Orange Crush” at Illinois and “The Grateful Red” here at Wisconsin. If all else fails, go with something a little less creative but straightforward like the “Super Fan Zone” at Boston College or “The Eruption Zone” at Kentucky.

Student sections are often the key to home-court success and a good name, size and amount of craziness is one of the first steps towards making an impact for the athletes on the court.