Maybe you didn’t come to Oregon for the football. Maybe you think the sport is stupid and brutal and unnecessary. Maybe you never plan to attend a game. Maybe you think the program is a huge waste of money.

I hate to break it to you, but that doesn’t matter. Like it or not, the football team is going to make a huge impact on your time here.

For the past four years, the class of 2013 has been spoiled with the best years the football program has ever known. Four-straight BCS bowl appearances, two of them wins, a national championship appearance and the school’s first-ever No. 1 ranking all happened during my short time here. It’s almost absurd how successful we’ve been on the field, and that success has translated into a more prestigious reputation for the University as a whole.

Don’t believe me? Your class is the smartest and most diverse ever to be accepted by the University of Oregon. You come from all over the country and you set a record for most Advanced Placement classes taken in high school. But it’s no accident that you ended up in Eugene. The football team’s flashy uniforms and even flashier wins brought tons of attention to our campus from all over the country. Between spring term 2009 to spring term 2011, the University added almost 2,000 new students to campus. The fact that those years happen to coincide with some of our best and most public football years is no coincidence.

What’s even more telling is that during that same two-year span, the University added 1,964 more out-of-state students, and the resident-to-non-resident ratio is now 53:47, the highest it’s ever been. In just a few short years, Oregon went from an Oregonian-filled hippie mecca to an innovative, tradition-spurning hype machine, and the football team has led that transformation.

As I contemplate my first football-free fall, I’m beginning to realize just how many of my best college memories are somehow connected to the Ducks. The freshman year walk from the dorms to Autzen across the bridge through Alton Baker Park is one of life’s true joys — I know you’ve probably heard that from everyone, but the river of Duck fans decked out in yellow T-shirts or, conversely, bundled into enormous waterproof jackets (welcome to Eugene weather) will give even the most sports-averse a little heart flutter.

Then there was that magical run to the BCS National Championship during my sophomore year, an excitement I sincerely hope you experience sometime during your four (or five, or six) years in Eugene. The Ducks were not only the talk of the town, we were the talk of the country, and when the clock wound down in Corvallis and the Ducks’ Civil War win punched their ticket to Glendale, the city erupted in joy and alcohol-induced mayhem. At the time I lived in an apartment complex across from the Barnhart residence hall, and the occupants of my building engaged in a spirited “Go! Ducks!” chant with the freshman across the street. That doesn’t happen every day, and it’s one of my most cherished memories of Duck fanhood.

This year I was in Chicago for one of the season’s biggest games: the Nov. 3 showdown with the hated USC Trojans. My group and I went to a bar by Wrigley Field that completely decks itself out in Duck gear every game day. The dulcet tones of “I Love My Ducks” greeted me when I entered (memorize those lyrics, by the way) and green and yellow banners bedecked the walls. I was 2,100 miles from Autzen Stadium, but in a strange city I found a bar full of kindred spirits, and I felt right at home.

As the class of 2013 hands over the keys to the student section to you, the class of 2017, we do so with the Oregon football team at the absolute top of their game. Who knows what heights the Ducks will reach during your time in Eugene? Is a national championship in your future? Or will there be a few tough seasons, perhaps with as many as three losses? (How spoiled we’ve become!)

Whatever happens, know that there is a huge community of alumni and fans all over the country, celebrating and commiserating with you at every play. One day you’ll join us, but for now you are still allowed inside the hallowed ground of the Autzen student section. Treasure that, because, as I’m now learning, it only lasts a few short years.

DuckLife is the Emerald’s magazine for incoming freshmen, made available during IntroDucktion. This story has been reprinted from the magazine in its original form.