I remember like it was yesterday walking out of M&T Bank Stadium right after the Terrapin football team completed a stunning comeback to defeat Navy in the “Crab Bowl” to kick off the 2005 season.

As a suddenly enthused freshman finding out what it really felt like to be a part of Division I college sports, I turned to the friends I went to the game with and said, “Savor it, because that may be the best game we see as students here.”

Luckily, I was wrong. Last year alone, the football team created madness by knocking off Florida State and Miami. In addition, the basketball team put fans in a frenzy by beating Duke and North Carolina in the same month. All of this happened on the campus, within walking distance from any dorm or apartment at school.

And, oh yeah, even the men’s soccer and women’s basketball teams have made themselves fan favorites with captivating national championship victories two years ago. Meanwhile, the field hockey team has won the title in back-to-back years, and both lacrosse squads continue to be perennial powerhouses.

With football coming off a dominant bowl victory and men’s basketball returning to the tournament, there hasn’t been this much excitement and optimism surrounding Terp sports as a whole in a very long time. Unless you are an undergrad taking the Van Wilder approach to college, you have not been a part of a season with this much collective buzz yet.

Terrapin athletics concern more than just the student athletes who work hard on the field and in the classroom in hopes of becoming a successful individuals in life.

Terrapin athletics are about the students there to loyally support the teams each week – those students who “pack the stadium” more than any other school, according to The Princeton Review’s newest college rankings.

They are about the 50,000-plus people who fill Byrd stadium and make a football game a must-see event.

They are about the fans who believe that “pre-gaming” means spending two hours painting their skin red, white, black or gold.

They are about those certain people who worship Gary Williams and view him more as a religious figure than an NCAA basketball coach.

There is no doubt about it; sports drive our school. No other activity, class or student group creates as much excitement on the campus as these teams do when they start winning. For some fans, the Terps take precedence to every other interest in life.

You get dumped by your significant other on Friday; you can forget about it for three hours on Saturday when you are screaming along with 35,000 other fans awaiting kickoff at Byrd. You fail a test in economics; who cares once you’re at Comcast when the Terps are playing a conference rival.

Because the sports I will be writing about are made possible because of the fans, I strongly encourage you to e-mail me if you have something funny, insightful or argumentative to let out regarding Terp sports. I will incorporate your opinions in my following columns if they are interesting, and then you can brag to your friends that your name and thoughts were featured in The Diamondback.

Because popularity keeps growing for some of the smaller sports, so too should the coverage of these sports. I will try to delve into these sports more than columnists in the past have, while still giving ample coverage to the main events you are used to reading about.

Ultimately, though, it’s up to you – the reader. Stir the pot. Tell me what you do and don’t like, and send frequent e-mails with your opinions on Terp sports. There is a reason why it says “Contact columnist Mark Selig at mseligdbk@gmail.com” at the bottom of this column. Take advantage of it.

And also take advantage of the opportunity you have right now, as a student at one of the best athletic schools in the nation. When your four years (or more, Mr. Wilder) are finished, some of the best memories you’ll have of this school will result from the sports you cheered for and became a part of.

So even though I was wrong, and thought my first football game as a college student would be tops, still take the advice I had for my friends that evening in Baltimore. Savor it – because it feels so much better when you do.

Contact columnist Mark Selig at mseligdbk@gmail.com