If a crowd’s cheers bolster players’ resolve and lead to better performances, that is usually a bonus. Cheers are intended primarily for the fans’ benefit: to make them feel helpful or, failing that, to give them something to do.

But Texas A&M regards cheers differently. Its crowd is considered the 12th Man; the Seattle Seahawks license the trademarked phrase from the university for $5,000 a year. So stubborn is the utilitarian spirit of the Texas A&M cheers that when Aggies fans gather at midnight before a game, the event is referred to as yell practice because the real rally is reserved for the game.

“If we’re not going in, maybe we can affect it,” Kyle Kelly, the student body president and a senior, said of a game’s outcome.

There is another thing, Kelly said: “We don’t have cheers. We have yells.”

(This is not purely semantic; the Aggies do not have cheerleaders.)