SCARFING THEM UP

When at Villanova, do as the Romans do.

That's the philosophy of six students in the university's entrepreneurship program who have turned a classroom project into a promising business.

On a trip to Rome last year, one of the students, Tara Gatto, noticed soccer fans adorned with scarves - not to keep their necks warm, but to use while cheering on their team.

"Everyone had one," she said. "They would hold it up during the game."

So Gatto and her classmates thought scarves would be fitting for fans of Villanova's soaring men's basketball team, too.

Now they hope to expand their business by selling scarves to students and alumni of other colleges and universities.

"It's the right product, right time, right season," Jeffrey Pelesh, a professor in Villanova's three-year-old entrepreneurship minor program, said in explaining the initial success of the students' company, Northeast Rally Gear L.L.C. ...