“Jump Around” is a dynamite classic. The anthem has transcended time far longer than most could imagine. More than a decade after its creation, it still gets the party started like nothing else. Everyone knows the words and probably will never forget them. It’s been played without fail between the third and fourth quarter of every Badger football game in my tenure at this university (and for the past thirteen years). It’s a fan favorite and no football Saturday in Madison would be complete without jumping up and down like a buffoon with the rest of the student body. It is a tradition that, like the song, will never get old.

But two days after the athletic department decided not to play the anthem during Saturday’s football game, the resonance since created on this campus is bordering on the absurd. Both campus papers have made the supposed faux pas their number one issue on the docket. Here at the Badger Herald, it will be the source for much, if not all, of the editorial content for the week. It was a news story yesterday, and now it has found its way to the sports page.

We all want to know why the tradition has been halted, and as far as we know the decision was made because of the expressed “uneasiness” of the fans sitting in the west side of the stadium in the upper deck and press box, caused by the student section jumping around and shaking that part of the stadium. Having myself experienced the shaking in the press box a couple of times last season, it is safe to say that the vibrations create a small tremor that is noticeable, but far from alarming.

With the overhaul Camp Randall is currently undergoing, the shaking might harm the construction process in some way. But the almost century-old stadium has withstood the wear and tear of House of Pain for thirteen years. If the jumping is creating problems for the new fixtures, maybe the athletic department should have invested in better construction materials.

It is absurd that the department decided to stop playing the song, but the ridiculousness was furthered by the students’ reactions. In a key stretch of Saturday’s game when Charlie Frye and the Akron Zips were in the midst of reeling off 28 uncontested points, the entire student section just sat down. It was probably the finest showing of student protest on this campus in more than 30 years, but the Badgers needed support in that key stretch of the game and, believe it or not, the student section provides a lot of uplift for the Badger football players.

“We really appreciate our crowd, and no one appreciates it more than me; the louder, the better,” Barry Alvarez said Monday. “I wear headsets and my headsets really cut out a lot of that, so a lot of things that go on in the stands I am really not that aware of. But I have heard rumblings [about not playing the song]. We want our fans and, in particular, our students, into the game, I’ll tell you that … because we appreciate them.”

The fanfare is a big part of the draw of football games. Students who don’t know a damn thing about football love the game day atmosphere at Camp Randall, making what is otherwise a boring game for some people highly enjoyable.

But turning your back on the team is not excusable from the standpoint of a football fan. The fanfare is fine and all, but when it comes down to the meat and potatoes, it’s about the football.

It took an unfathomable goal line stand and the longest play in Big Ten history to get the fans back on their feet. While Anthony Davis and Lee Evans slowly creep up the Heisman polls early this season, the student section is more concerned about a song. I’d gladly accept the suspension of the song if the Badgers could win more than one conference home game every year.

It’ll take a student movement like nothing I’ve seen to reinstate the song. The sad truth is that the uninspired student body has little impact on this campus. Despite the uproar, no formal statement has been made by the athletic department on the matter. So write your e-mails to the athletic department and we’ll see how far it takes us.

If you continue to “get out your seats and jump around,” maybe they’ll have no choice but to put the song on. In the meantime, I’ll just get down for some football.