Allen Fieldhouse has one of the richest basketball traditions in the country.

So why does that tradition take a break between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m.?

Camping at the fieldhouse should happen 24 hours a day. You know, actual camping.

Jeff Bollig, co-author of “Beware of the Phog: 50 Years of Allen Fieldhouse,” said that camping was done sporadically for both Wilt Chamberlain’s and Danny Manning’s teams, but the first large-scale camping efforts happened after the 1988 NCAA Championship season.

At the start students pitched tents on the lawn outside the fieldhouse. Campers had to hold their ground all day and all night.

Curtis Marsh, who was a freshman in 1987, said the conditions helped keep camping groups to a minimum.

“You really paid the price if you wanted those seats,” he said.

But it wasn’t all electric blankets and 3 a.m. roll calls. Players came down from Jayhawker Towers to hang out, and televisions were hooked up to extension cords that came from the fieldhouse.

“On occasion, the pizza places would stop by with the extra pizzas they had from the night,” Marsh said.

If this brings to mind images of Duke and Krzyzewskiville, Duke’s camping village, it should. Except the Jayhawk version would blow Duke away.

Looking beyond the obvious (Duke students get told how to cheer before the game), remember that they only get to camp out for two games a year.

Twenty-four-hour camping would be a party, a celebration of everything we’ve come to love about Jayhawk basketball combined with the student body’s insatiable appetite for air mattresses.

Jim Marchiony, associate director of athletics, said that the current staff was not around when the change was made and has never discussed the issue. He said he supported the system in place.

“It makes for a more normal student life while keeping the tradition of camping alive,” he said.

Brad Nachtigal, assistant athletics director, emphasized that the students would have to make the first move.

“Camping is a student-run organization,” he said. “If they approached us, it would be something we would talk about internally.”

Bollig said the students’ well-being had to be considered before such a system was approved.

“It is an issue of safety and security,” he said.

Keep in mind this is the Athletics Department that keeps tabs on the priority points system. Extra fieldhouse security would be easy for the department to figure out.

Allen Fieldhouse is one of the most recognizable images on the campus. It would be even better if the yard in front was dotted with tents full of students. Bollig and Marsh both agreed that campers have it better now, especially since the addition of wireless Internet to the fieldhouse.

“They could put in a kitchen and start renting out lofts in the fieldhouse,” Bollig joked.

What’s happening right now isn’t camping. It reminds me of the detention room from back in middle school. Roll call, no carpet and everybody is half looking around, half doing homework.

By moving camping outside, camping would change from three hours of solitary confinement to a social event. Non-campers would come down just to join in the fun.

“The allure of camping is just one of the great fieldhouse traditions,” Bollig said.

It is a tradition that not many people outside the University of Kansas know about. Every year campers try unsuccessfully to explain to their parents exactly what it is they are waiting for.

By moving camping outside, the fans would get some much deserved national publicity for their efforts. They could also call it camping with a straight face.

Jenna Tomlin, Brownsville, Texas, freshman, said 24-hour camping would be a good idea if the security concerns could be worked out.

“Everybody would think our fans were crazy if we camped all night,” she said.

Exactly.