While the football players are psyching themselves up on game day, the campus turns orange and blue. Much of this campus-wide pride is represented by the University’s Greek system.

Football block is a way for the fraternities and sororities on campus to come together and cheer on the Fighting Illini, said Danielle Davis, junior in Business and president of Alpha Phi. Many sororities and fraternities pair up, and members purchase football tickets together. Several chapters also participate in activities preceding the game.

Some chapters have been doing football block for a long time, and others do not do it at all. For Psi Upsilon, this is their first year participating in block in several years, said Daniel Amador, sophomore in LAS and social chair of Psi Upsilon.

“Recently, our house has been going through a period of change,” Amador said. “We now have around 80 guys, whereas we had 20 a few years ago. The fact that we have new members has encouraged us to do more on campus.”

The fraternity has done exchanges with sororities in the past, and chose their block partners according to who they had a good time with and who supported them through the year with philanthropy events, Amador said.

For most chapters, picking block partners is a mutual choice between the members, as it is with Alpha Phi, Davis said.

“Picking a house is almost like finding a date,” Davis said. “You vote as a house, and then the social chair talks to (the fraternity’s) social chair and says something like ‘hey, do you want to have block together?’”

The Panhellenic Council gives the sororities a date at which point they are allowed to start organizing block, said Lauren Nevoral, junior in AHS and social chair of Alpha Phi. Once the sorority has taken a poll on which chapter they would like to do block with, they are allowed to ask that chapter.

“We try to pick a different house every year in order to bond with new guys each time,” Nevoral said.

Participating in football block may include a variety of activities. For Alpha Phi, one of the activities includes going to a bar.

“We all meet at a bar in the morning or right before the game wearing our block letters and we party it up with the fraternity,” Davis said. “Then we all walk over to the game together and sit near each other.”

This year, Psi Upsilon plans to do some tailgating and barbecues at their house before the game, or maybe meeting up at a bar, Amador said.

“I am looking forward to hanging out with the same group of people who like to go to games, and establishing closer connections with people in the house and in the sorority,” Amador said.

Nevoral said she enjoys the fact that all the pledge classes are at block together, which means bonding with every age of the members of the sorority.

“Football block is like a one semester-long exchange because we are able to get really close with the guys in the house, and are then able to hang out with them on different occasions,” Nevoral said.

For those chapters that choose to participate in football block, it is a convenient way to get to know others in the greek system on campus.

“I love the camaraderie of everyone getting together for our sports team, and I love all of us wearing our orange and blue to cheer on the fighting Illini,” Davis said.