By: Jared Shafran, News Staff

Since I’ve been here at Northeastern (I started back in September of 2007), a lot has changed in the Athletics Department. Our fans, in particular are becoming a lot more knowledgeable.

Before I got here, if someone asked me what teams were in the Colonial Athletic Association I would’ve been able to name George Mason, VCU, Old Dominion and maybe, if I got lucky, Delaware.

Now there is an initiative to inform new students of how we do things here at Northeastern. For example, I’m sure most freshmen have walked on campus this fall knowing that they’ll have to stand on a line to get a ticket when Boston University comes to Matthews this year. But if you’ve stopped by the N-Zone table at the activities fair,  you’ve been told to start learning who Blaine Taylor is, and why we need to yell “get off the court!” at him during basketball games.

When I got here, the No. 1 NCAA hockey team in the country, which at that time was North Dakota, made the trip and Matthews was half-empty. I guarantee if something like that were to happen next year, there wouldn’t be an empty seat in the place.

In order to get that exposure and inform people on campus about what’s going on, Northeastern athletics received the publicity it needed by getting teams to participate in big events that garner attention all over the country.

In the past three seasons we’ve seen both women’s soccer and men’s hockey in their respective NCAA tournaments, men’s basketball all over the ESPN family of networks in various games across the country, baseball playing it’s annual game against the Red Sox, and even women’s hockey playing it’s version of the Winter Classic against then-No. 4 University of New Hampishire Jan. 8, outdoors in Fenway Park on NESN. The Huskies lost 5-3.

Every year, one of those big events is the Beanpot tournament, played at the TD Garden. Fans know the tournament is played every year on the first two Mondays in February (a heads up to you lovebirds out there, this year’s final will be on Valentine’s Day). It’s an event where the Northeastern name is put out on the forefront for thousands of people.

This year I was thrilled to learn (through a UMass press release) that men’s hockey wouldn’t be the only team to compete on top of North Station.

Men’s basketball will also be there to kick off their CAA schedule against Drexel Dec. 4. The game will serve as half of a doubleheader as the other game will be Boston College and UMass.

There should be television coverage of the game which will be announced sometime in the future will act as a another instance for this team to showcase their talents on a major network.

But most importantly, I think this is yet another chance for Northeastern students to show their passion for their school and to turn out in massive numbers. The N-Zone, the student fan section for basketball, keeps growing and I expect them to bring a substantial amount of support downtown.

That stadium is going to be packed with people who will have their faces painted, their voices raised, and most of all, knowledge about their team. Those of you who have been to the Beanpot know that NU students pride themselves on being loud and proud when going to these big events, and this year is another chance to advance that good Northeastern name.