At the concession stand under Section 550 of Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, N.C., Converse College athletes have the job of telling the fans beer cannot be sold after the third quarter of Carolina Panthers football games.

"People get really mad about it," said Kariann Hill, a freshman basketball player from Fox Lake, Ill. "They don't believe you. But, they've probably had a few by that point."

For many collegiate athletes around the area, getting funding for their sports often requires a little bit of hard work. While Converse soccer players and cross-country runners are heating up the nacho cheese in Charlotte, Limestone College wrestlers are selling T-shirts and the Spartanburg Methodist College dance team is waiting tables at a local restaurant.

Particularly for athletes at non-Division I programs, reaching the level of collegiate athletics does not guarantee a cushy lifestyle - in fact, it often requires a lot of hard work. All of the area athletic programs have the traditional fundraising sources - alumni giving, homecoming weekends and letter campaigns, for example - but many of the smaller ones, which cannot easily get big sponsorships from corporations, need an extra boost from more creative sources.

"That's a misconception," SMC athletic director and golf coach MarkPerdue said. "We're not all Clemson and South Carolina. We don't have Under Armour sponsoring the whole entire football team, we don't have Nike sponsoring the entire athletic department. Smaller schools will have to do certain types of things to raise extra money."

At Wofford College and the University of South Carolina Upstate, the area's only Division I programs, athletes seldom have to do hands-on fundraising for their own sports. Terri Lewitt, associate athletic director for development at Wofford, said she often takes athlete volunteers to some fundraising events, but there is no requirement. Jules Bryant, the assistant athletic director for development at USC Upstate, said athletes participate in an auction every April, which can raise money for a particular sport, but they don't have to do many hands-on projects to ensure the funding of their programs.

Meanwhile, Converse athletics, which competes in Division II, is one of many nonprofit groups using the Panthers' concession stands as an opportunity to raise money for its programs. At every home game this season, a group of about 30 Converse athletes will descend on concession stand 550, where they prepare the food and then serve it to fans. The Panthers, in return, give Converse a percentage of the sales.

Joy Couch, the school's new athletic director, said that when she came to the school, she was looking for fundraising opportunities and thought of the Panthers' program.

"It's hard work, but it brings everyone together," Couch said. "We feel like it's a good way to build a team atmosphere, and it gives everyone the chance to participate."

At SMC, a private, two-year college with 14 sports teams as well as cheerleading and dance squads, Perdue said that fundraising has to be creative to make the grade. The Pioneers' dance team has been as active and creative as any team, with a car wash raising about $300 in Boiling Springs recently. And there's more money to be raised at Mutt's BBQ next week, where the dancers will work as waitresses and donate their tips to the program.

"Especially in a town like Spartanburg ... you're competing in a pretty small area for dollars," Perdue said. "We still do a lot of fundraising the old-fashioned way - letter-writing campaigns, donors, sponsorships, athletic magazine sponsorships. But we do a lot of other things."

Limestone, a private Division II school, also has athletes helping at Panthers games, working for the team's security department. Others will run a concession stand at a few Charlotte Bobcats basketball games this winter, said Will Goode, the Gaffney school's associate athletics director for marketing and development.

"A school of our size, being private, it's just mandatory," Goode said. "In my three years here, I haven't seen a team not do some kind of fundraising one way or another."

The Limestone wrestling team sponsors a T-shirt sale in which each athlete must sell at least 10 shirts. They sponsor a youth wrestling tournament as well as a summer camp. The wrestlers also serve as valets at donor events and at chamber of commerce meetings, combining their tips to give back to the program.

The wrestling funding problem is acute at Limestone because the team competes in a region that mainly includes teams from Pennsylvania, said Coach Ben Stehura. Stehura, who wrestled collegiately at a Division I school, said such extensive team fundraising, even at the biggest schools, is not particularly rare.

"If you're a non-revenue sport, a lot of times that's the way it works," Stehura said. "I think the guys are used to it. They don't even question it. We want to compete at a tournament, so this is what we've got to do."