The two said they weren't worried about driving home after Saturday's Carolina game because the stop-and-go traffic is so slow, no one's likely to have an accident.

"When I leave here, I don't feel they're going to pull me," Ancone added, "because it's an unspoken rule that everybody's going to be drinking at the game."

Ancone of Columbia, and Chewning, of Charleston are both old enough to drink legally. But they said underage drinking isn't a problem at Williams-Brice Stadium. Games are fun community events, they said, and everybody usually behaves themselves.

A police team, put together during football season last year, concentrates on catching those who are under 21, drinking and causing trouble, said coordinator Kevin Grindstaff with the Lexington-Richland Alcohol and Drug Abuse Council.

Depending on their age — and their behavior — they might be ticketed, sent home with their parents or arrested, said Lt. Chris Cowan, a spokesman for the Richland County Sheriff's Department.

A lot of underage drinking goes on at tailgate parties before USC football games, said Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott, whose officers are part of a heavy police presence.

With community attention focused in recent weeks on the dangers of underage drinking, Laura Hudson said it might be time to examine this "rite of passage" for local college students. Clearly, the laws aren't being enforced, said Hudson, director of the S.C. Victim Assistance Network.

Yet game-time parties put young people who don't have much driving experience out on the road after being in an emotionally charged atmosphere. "Law enforcement can't do everything. It has to begin in the home with parents, (with) school officials, even a policy of what's going to be tolerated and not tolerated," she said.

People in the Midlands got a heartbreaking jolt last month when three young men — 16, 17 and 20 years old — were killed in two separate wrecks blamed on alcohol.

As for college students, Columbia police swept through Five Points during the opening week of the semester, charging 130 people with DUI, open-container violations and public drunkenness.

Police enforcement has a place, he said, but the university concentrates much of its efforts on educating students about how to make good decisions when it comes to a host of "high-risk behaviors," from smoking cigarettes to taking drugs.

"We're making good progress and we're providing students with the information that they need to make good decisions. Whether they're making good decisions — some are and some aren't."

Snow, a freshman attending her first Carolina game, was tailgating in a parking lot decked out with live music, a tent sheltering food and a big-screen TV encircled by folding chairs.

But friends Linda Cook and Alta Mosley were shocked by the sheer volume of beer — not in six-packs, Mosley noted, but 24-packs — they saw students toting past them on the street. "It's real open," Cook said. "It's apparent that it's OK."

McCants, with the Columbia Police Department, said fans who try to drive drunk are not "a big problem" after games — but that officers are always on the lookout.

But at football games, officers say the presence of police, including those directing traffic, inspires many to appoint a "designated driver" who doesn't drink.

Sgt. Kelley Hughes, with the S.C. Highway Patrol, said that as cars pull out of the parking lot, oftentimes it's clear that "everybody in the back seat and passenger seat is intoxicated, but the driver is sober."

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