Matthew Hazlett/ The Towerlight

Besides cheering on the defending-Colonial Athletic Association champion football team, or cheering on some close friends, students will now have another reason to attend games.

With the help of two fan development interns, Kyle Beyer and Sean Phelan, and multiple student focus groups, Assistant Director of Athletics and Fan Development Mike Hollis and other members of the Fan Development department created a new incentive program for students called “The Roar” that offers a large variety of prizes.

The program, which can be found at roartoscore.com, incorporates social media to draw students and outside fans to games. The program also has sponsorships from corporations such as XSell Promotions, Papa John’s, Aaron’s and Retro Fitness.

Students earn points simply by showing up to a game and swiping their OneCard swiped. Tweeting about Towson Athletics, posting or commenting on photos on Facebook, and checking in at Johnny Unitas Stadium on foursquare also earns points. Outside users can gain points this way.

“Attendance at Towson Athletics events is the main focus and the site reflects that as it offers the most points for people going to these games,” Hollis said. “We feel as though this is yet another opportunity to further improve the interaction between Towson Athletics and our fans.”

Three grand prizes will be awarded to students and three more grand prizes will be awarded to fans and alumni. The top prize for students is free Papa John’s pizza for a year as well as four sideline passes to a 2013-14 home Towson game of their choice. The second top prize is a 35” flat screen TV and lunch with a Towson coach of your choice. The third prize is an autographed item of your choice.

The top three prizewinners will be selected at random from the top 50 spots in the student leader board, which can be found on the website.

“The points system is setup so you can either hold onto your points to go after one of the three grand prizes or you can cash them in through the points store,” Hollis said. “The points store offers various coupons, merchandise and accessories and will be updated throughout the year.”

“The Roar” is not a program that will be around for only one year, Hollis said.

“It is our hope that we have created something that is sustainable for the future,” Hollis said. “The current student incentive program is powered by the students with a board who monitors the progression of the program. By keeping the board in place and continuing to activate students we feel as though this program is setup to stay for the long haul.”

The contests for this year will start in August 2012 and end in May 2013.