For the uninitiated, Last Chance U is a series on Netflix that documents the East Mississippi Community College (EMCC) Lions. The show focuses on the comically dominant football juggernaut that wants to win the National Championship every year … and every year it doesn’t, the entire town of Scooba, Miss., falls apart. There’s not much else holding this place together. You should watch Last Chance U because it’s Friday Night Lights-ish, but it’s real and Julie isn’t in it.

I went to Scooba to take in a game at EMCC, which I now understand is literally the only thing to do in Scooba, Miss. That’s not hyperbole. Only one result shows up on Yelp’s restaurant search tab, and it’s a Subway, in a gas station, with a rating of one star, and precisely one review. That review leads off with, “Employees so unfriendly I wanted to get out of there as soon as possible.” It ends with, “I don’t want to be completely negative. The lettuce was crisp. Skip Scooba if you can.”

This being only the second home game in the small school’s post-Netflix era, I arrived three hours before kickoff. The planner in me was expecting at least a hundred other people who also binged the series and now wanted the real-deal experience. But the campus was empty, and the student union was bare. A couple of people were browsing the bookstore, which is where I worked up the courage to inquire about Last Chance tourists.

“I guess there’s more people who visit campus”, said a bookstore employee. I ask if there’s been a boost in merchandise sales and she’s hesitant to reply. “You’d have to ask a manager.” I reframe my question to sound less serious, but the results are the same — I need to ask the manager if I want to know about any numbers. But the manager is not working today, because she is getting ready for the game. Everyone who lives here is getting ready for the game, because that’s what you do in Scooba (population 697).

A pair of students walking through the bookstore are more receptive to my questions. They tell me they are cool with the tourists and that nobody has ever been annoying. I thank them for their time, because I don’t want to be the first to break that streak. They see me take photos of this warning and we all have a good laugh.

A parking lot attendant tells me about the time he went to Mississippi Comic-Con and met Jeremy London, and when the actor found out he had just met a teacher from EMCC he “freaked out and took a picture with me.” The celebrity ripple effect is in full effect, and it’s easy to be happy for the 15 minutes of fame being divided amongst the faculty, staff, and student body here.

It’s a strange feeling being a fan of a popular show about a tiny school in a tinier town, going to see it in person, and realizing that you’re mostly alone. Is this the coolest thing I’ve ever done as a sports fan, or the lamest thing? Is this the Fenway Park of the Deep South, or just the Georgia Dome? Is this Mississippi’s Madison Square Garden or … just the Georgia Dome? My happiness to be at EMCC is being cut with a slight twinge of embarrassment.