To my fellow Buckeyes:

For any of you who'll be in Columbus this weekend, I'd like to ask you a favor. It's nothing extraordinary, and may not be challenging or even anything different from normal for some of you, but it may be a radically different way of approaching game day for others. I challenge you to do it just the same.

I challenge you to offer our guests the Nebraska Treatment.

Maybe you immediately came up with some double entendre for that phrase (I'd love to hear it), or maybe you thought of those obnoxious signs at Nebraska's Memorial Stadium pronouncing themselves the "greatest fans in college football." I'm referring more to the signs. As annoying as they are, here's the thing: in my experience, they're true. Last October 7, four roommates and piled into a sedan at 3:00 AM and drove fourteen hours from Columbus to Lincoln and had a great weekend, including possibly the best gameday experience of our lives (let's forget the second half of the game).

We got into town Friday night, and while walking around the stadium, we were approached by two beautiful college girls who immediately knew we were out-of-towners (something about the Buckeyes necklaces we were wearing) and not only gave us their names and numbers, but told us exactly where we could find a party "with lots of hot girls who'll be good to you." Saturday morning, we hit a bar that had been recommended to us that was filled with ~300 people by noon, all singing Nebraska songs (and Oklahoma-Texas hate songs) at the top of their lungs. They gave us shit with smiles on their faces, but soon offered an olive branch by calling us up on stage and having us sing the fight song, Hang on Sloopy, and Don't Give a Damn, to which the entire bar sang along. The best part: each of us was completely trashed on beer and liquor that was purchased for us by the patrons of the bar. The entire weekend, the only time we were greeted with anything other than "Welcome to Lincoln! Good luck today!" was one trashed sorority chick who shouted "Ohio State sucks!" and was promptly shushed by her friends. She probably didn't even like football anyways.

My point? The way I was treated in Lincoln changed my outlook on how to treat visiting fans in Columbus. Instead of jeering them or ignoring them, I challenge you to give them a "Welcome to Columbus," or better yet, buy them enough beer that they're plastered five hours before kickoff, like they did to us. I'm not asking you to be any less passionate for the Buckeyes, but just to make the visitors feel truly welcome. The overarching attitude from Nebraska fans was that they were simply happy to share college football with other people who obviously loved college football as much as they did, and I don't see any reason why we can't treat our guests the same way.

I challenge you to give them the Nebraska Treatment.