A trip to the Final Four is not cheap, as students at Texas Tech are finding out.

But the Tech men's basketball team only makes its first trip to the Final Four once, and the students who have been leading chants and picking themes at home games all year at United Supermarkets Arena are hoping to bring that home-court advantage to Minneapolis Saturday for Tech's game against Michigan State. They're tying to get organized, and asking for a little support from Tech alumni.

Michael Di-Benedetto and Wes Law, members of the student group Raider Riot, encouraged students having a hard time either finding a ride or finding a place to stay to contact them through Raider Riot's Twitter page. Law and Di-Benedetto said students shouldn't go by themselves, and they're hoping the 600 or so students who bought tickets can take the 19-hour road trip in as few vehicles as possible.

"It's really hectic right now, but we need students there," said Law. "We want to show everyone we belong. We want to make sure everyone is out there and it's not 300 students in a 600-seat section, so we've been trying to help students."

And if any Tech fans or alumni have places for students to sleep in Minneapolis, Di-Benedetto and Law asked they get in contact with them as well, because they said lots of students are looking for places to stay.

It's an expensive trip, and Raider Riot is accepting donations to help support students' travel. Di-Benedetto and Law created a Venmo account called RaiderRiot, and contributions will go toward lodging, gas money and food money for students.

"You have our guarantee these funds will be distributed fairly to students who need them," Raider Riot wrote on Twitter. "We want to make sure students are going to have a place to stay when they get there. That’s the biggest hurdle for students and we would like to address that primarily."

Their main message is for students to not let tickets go to waste. Tickets for the student section went on sale for students not longer after Tech punched its ticket to the Final Four last Saturday in the Red Raiders' win over Gonzaga in the Elite 8. The $40 tickets sold out fast, and they're non-refundable and non-transferable to non students. So if anyone is having second thoughts, Di-Benedetto said plenty of other students are wanting to have that ticket.

Law said Raider Riot can also help students sell a ticket to another student.

"We want to make sure everyone has a plan, everyone knows where they're staying and who they're riding with," said Di-Benedetto. "Figure out if you can make it or not, and if you can't, and I can't stress this enough, hit us up. We'll find someone to take it and you'll get your money back. We need everyone there."

Raider Riot began this year as a student-run group cheering on the basketball team. In hindsight, it couldn't have started at a better time.

"We're going through a cultural change," Di-Benedetto said. "This is only our first year and it's only going to grow. We're really turning into a school that embraces basketball. It's really cool Tech basketball is able to do this — everything just seemed to fall into place for this to become a special program."