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Great article! You are a much better writer than your father!
Ok, here's the deal, I'm from Jordan (the country), I attended Michigan from 97 to 01, which means I was there for the National Championship, watched the likes of Griese, Woodson, Tuman and offcourse Brady.I remember watching the Michigan Syracuse game in Ann Arbor, an ugly loss really and not the best game for a wolverine fan, but yet I remember that as a sophomore at the time, I wouldn't leave the stadium, NO WAY, I love the sport, the team, the hardcore fans, but I am frustrated most of the time by the fans and their attitude towards the team. And yes, they are the quietest 100,000 people in the world!!
SO, I live in Jordan now, but I bleed Maize and Blue, I watch the games on live stream online, listen to them on online radio, watch them on ESPN when they're on and make sure to try to come and visit the states to watch a game live year to year, lucky me on my homecoming 2 years ago, I decided to come for the App State game, that was a killer, but I still postponed my trip back to watch another game the next week, guess what that was disappointing too (oregon), but i stayed till the last second ticked off that clock, and lucky me, my picture ended up in a Michigan Daily article regarding that game as a "disgruntled fan", I wasn't really disgruntled as much as i was disappointed about the team giving up. I liked last season's team although they went 3-9 and were the worst of all Michigan teams record wise, but at least they tried and wanted to win, they were just not got, and the players were not recruited for Rich's system. I'm not a big Rich Rod fan, I actually love Lloyd Carr, Bo, whatever Michigan name you can throw my way and when Rich Rod shows that he bleeds Maize and Blue I will love him to death too. And that is what every single fan should do. And as for supporting your team during a game, I used to shout my lungs out, I used to paint my face for each and every game and I never leave without a Michigan shirt on!! So I would love to ask each and every fan to do the same, because it is really frustrating for fans who live on the other side of the world, who cannot make it to the games, to see the crowd sleeping during a Michigan game. so all i can say for now is PLEASE do something people and more importantly GO BLUE...
Sorry -- '83 was the year the Student section pushed to introduce the wave ... the point is the same though -- get them to stand up and cheer!
Go Blue!
Bottom line is this:
We'll have glassed in sideline structures this year that are supposed to reflect noise back into the bowl.
BOTH students and other season ticket holders need to stand up and cheer for our team especially on critical plays.
Moving the band sounds like a good idea ....
Changing the usher policy to allow cheering is a no brainer ...
BUT, just like the students forced the introduction of the wave back in '87 THE STUDENTS need to lead the reintroduction of cheering for our team. (The wave took us a whole season, starting over and over and fizzling on the east side, but we finally got it going and it was so raucous it disrupted the game.)
And on the OSU fan issue -- cheering wildly for your team, does not mean you have to be a jerk to opposing fans. You can be a good sport, and cheer.
As for State, well they did a poll on the Michigan Football Blog, and State came in an anemic way afterthought third for most hated rival - almost lost to Penn State. Keep improving though ... Notre Dame is passable ...
For all of you idiots who are trashing Michigan Alums/Students (whoever) for saying that we are the Harvard of the Midwest. It is a QUOTE from JOHN F KENNEDY when he was campaigning for president. He had a speech on the steps of the Union where he first announced his intention for the Peace Corps. He started the address by saying (AND I QUOTE)
"I want to express my thanks to you, as a graduate of the Michigan of the East, Harvard University."
That's where it came from we're not being pretentious a President who went to Harvard said it.
Furthermore anyone that says we're not an elite school when all of our grad schools are in the top 10 well I have nothing to say to you.
There are still some of us who don't stumble into the student section a few minutes after kickoff. For the 15 home games I've been to as a Michigan student, I'm proud to say that I am always there 2 hours before kickoff and in the front row until the very end.
Students NEED to show up early and be loud nomatter how the team is doing or who we are playing. I remember last year a Michigan state student looks at me 15 minutes before kickoff and says "I don't get it, where is everyone, its State!". You can say this about almost every game except possibly OSU. Whether it is 'first come first serve' seating or something else, once it can become a routine that people show up early, it'll stick. Hopefully the new additions too will help us out with some of the noise.
A 3-9 team will inevitably drive away casual students. So now we'll hopefully have the people who are dedicated to making the Big House a place to fear.
Part of the tardiness is the stadium design. It takes me almost 35-40 minutes just to get inside my section. The line of the section will go all the way out to the gates and begin wrapping back.
No other stadium that I have been to is ever this bad.
But with that said, I love the Big House!
Hopefully the renovations at the stadium will help trap some of the sound made, but that's an aside. I have two basic points.
First, I do realize that a lot of fans outside the student section don't make as much noise as possible. There are many reasons for that, but one reason that grinds a lot of us is this. If you try to stand up and make noise it takes about one full second for a hail of "down in front" statements to come raining down on your head. It usually takes about two minutes for one someone behind you to drag an usher down to your seat who then proceeds to tell you to shut up and sit down or you will be removed from the stadium and perhaps have your tickets revoked. The athletic department needs to decide if they want a loud stadium or what they have now. If they want loud then they need to inform the ushers that so long as people are just standing and screaming to leave them be. If they want what they have now than the grandma's can keep knitting (and yes, I have personally seen people at Michigan football games knitting) and the sound levels will remain muted.
Second point is this. You don't have to go to NASCAR to find out how to find fans of a game that actually make noise. There are no snappy names like the Izzone or Paternoville, just fans of the game who are all in. To witness this all you need to do is head on down to Yost and take in a hockey game. The students definitely drive the crowd, but everybody in that Arena is pretty into the game and knows how to cheer on their team.
Don't be the weakest link!
This is a relevant and needed article for you michigan fans. I worked for ESPN and was at the little house at least 7 times and every time I laughed at how quiet the crowd was, even during the year you won the NC. When we were there for The Game the year woodson ran back the punt for a TD, the night before the game you could hear crickets. There were no blowout parties, hell the OSU fans took over a couple of bars and the DJ was even playing Hang on Sloopy! that is embarrassing.
I know you all fancy yourselves as the elite crowd, but have some pride in your school. If a bunch of michigan fans tried to take over a bar in Columbus and get hail to the victors played by the DJ they would get taken out to the woodshed and stomped. Don't get me wrong I don't want to beat any fans up we leave that to our boys on the gridiron. I was doing shots all day long at the Varsity Club with Walt Downing and Marcus Ray toasting Bo when he died on the eve of the 06 game, and michigan fans are welcome to share our bars and tailgate. Just have enough sense not to try a coup unless you get the victory.
Bo was at my house when I was growing up, my dad coached with him at Miami of Ohio. He is turning in his grave right now knowing the lack of effort the school is getting from the students.
Now back to the elitist attitude that most michigan students have. Before you get on your soapbox and call me a meathead and warmonger remember the money from the football team goes a long way for all the students. When you guys finally get back to form and make a BCS bowl game the 13M pays for a ton of things mostly academic. So please get off you hands during games, they do make these things called gloves. As a Buckeye we want to play a team and fans with a pulse. It is seriously louder at Northwestern than michigan.
Thank you for your input, now go back to Columbus, where opposing fans are harangued and assaulted (been there, had that done to me, and my only provocation was my Michigan sweatshirt). Just because we are polite to our guests and not a bunch of a$$holes, does not make us bad fans. I pray we never turn into the likes of you.
I think there's something to be said that we *don't* take football so seriously.
I found it ironic that he chose NASCAR as the place to draw a "superfan" analogy... It's what I'd call the fan equivalent of Ohio State fans.
It could be because I live in Columbus, but I think Ohio State fans are the most obnoxious fans in the world. And it's mostly because they act like NASCAR fans. And if an OSU fan thinks that I'm just slamming on Ohio State, then replace OSU with "fans at the SEC schools". I see them as the same.
Most people revere that because it's an insane atmosphere... and I'll admit that there are times when even I am awestruck by that. The 1994 UM vs. OSU game in Columbus still remains the loudest I've ever heard a crowd. It was awesome. It made my vision go blurry. But I'm probably the in the minority when I say that I hope our atmosphere never fully turns into what it is at Ohio State. Or any SEC school. Or NASCAR.
And even for the kudos I give to OSU fans for being able to get crazy on a different level - I know that when I go to non premier games (e.g. Ohio U), and the Buckeyes are in a bit of a dog fight, the 'Shoe can get just as quiet as Michigan Stadium.
Michigan fans can get plenty loud. It may not sound as loud as some other venues - and maybe that will change with the renovations - but it can get loud. I will cheer when there is something worth cheering... but I'm never just going to go to a game and scream my fool head off for 3 hours. If that's a pre-requisite for the "new Michigan fan", I guess I better turn in my season tickets now.
Regarding the admissions debate:
Exclusivity does not breed excellence. Has Cornell (19% accepted) produced a President of the United States? Has Dartmouth (13%)? Has Brown (10%)? Nope. Don't even get me started on Fulbright Scholars.
Moreover, there's something moral about going to a state school. I've spent almost all of my life in Michigan. This state is my home. So when I go to college, I will go to the best school my state has to offer. My tuition dollars will not go to fill the coffers of some bloated east coast institution. They'll stay right here, thanks.
A state school that combines academic excellence with alumni who go on to become the most influential people in the world? Some might say...that's the Michigan Difference.
Will only mention a quick blurb on the admissions bit seeing as this article had -nothing- to do with that: the moniker "Harvard of the West" is a reference to a superior academic program existing at the U - it has nothing to do with the elitist admissions programs of most of the Ivy League.
Now back to the main item - Michigan Stadium and it's famed absence of noise. The comment about the stadium's construction is a major contributor to the perceived lack of noise - pre-renovation the sound had a tendency to simply escape. Yes, there were games where I'd literally been astonished how loud it got (97 OSU, 03 MSU, 08 Wisc) but have been to more than a fair share where it's somewhat loud at times and downright silent others, not because the team was losing either.
Yes, the student section is expected to carry a good deal of noise, but I directly call out EVERY one of you attending alumni and supposed fans! The students only make up a subsection of the attendance, but they are the minority. Add in the opposition's fans and there's still a majority who are there to support UM (or why even go?) and while a number can get loud, we have far too many who attend and when the game is on, as the article notes, use their "indoor voices" and start to carry on and on. Sometimes they clap, but they're rarely seen chanting or singing to the fight song, or even just "hail"ing at the right time - of course I do blame part of that on the miserable placement of the band - moving it to it's current location has eliminated the ability of 50% of the stadium to even HEAR them. Move them into the North end zone section and everyone will. Simple fix, keeps the high-priced seats still drawing the money.
Bottom line on all of this is - if you go, cheer and not just some polite clapping - this isn't the opera. Michigan Stadium used to be a more intimidating place to go but it's gotten progressively quieter. The new renovations will help contain the noise (you could hear a bit of it last season as the East and West sidelines became more vertical) but it needs to be -made- to be contained.
I leave with a simple comment about the weather for the NW game - that's a November game in Michigan, period. It's been much worse (anyone remember the 5-0 Purdue game or way back the "Snow Bowl"?) and much better but the bottom line is, it's still Michigan in November - expect the worst hope for the best from the weather.
RE: Academics...
You all need to remember Michigan is still a state school, even though it really doesn't belong one. No matter how good a state school is, it's going to have a relatively high admissions rate vs other prestigious schools. I highly doubt Michigan's undergrad admissions is 50%, but I couldn't say for sure since I attended Michigan for grad school. Still, other state schools that are comparable to Michigan (i.e. Texas, Berkeley, UCLA, UVA, UNC, Wisconsin, Illinois, etc) also accept a lot of students, primarily because of accepting a lot of in-state kids. Regardless, the admissions rate doesn't matter--what matters is anywhere in the nation you go, people respect Michigan for its academics and Michigan is ranked in the top 25 for the majority of their programs, including undergrad, on a regular basis. So, Michigan can accept as many people as they want to, as long as employers remain impressed when they see Michigan on a resume or hear that's where you graduated from (and they do).
Differences are most striking at middle schools and high schools. For instance, at high schools where more than 85 percent of the students live below the poverty line sometimes even in small camping trailers, nearly one in three teachers is not highly qualified and one in five has two or fewer years of experience. In the highest-poverty middle schools, nearly one in three teachers has two years or less of experience.
The same pattern is true for teacher retention and turnover – higher rates of poverty correlate with higher rates of turnover. Again, the differences are most striking in middle schools. Many schools lose 30 to 40 percent of their teachers or more each year.
source: thenotebook.org/summer-2009/091304/new-data-same-staffing-inequities-high-poverty-schools
I still don't know why Michigan followers think all Michigan fans must think the same and agree on everything. I don't think doubting or disliking Rich Rodriguez, or being mad about a 3-9 season largely due to a school like Michigan inexplicably having a GT transfer and a walk-on as their best options at QB, means you're not a real Michigan fan. I will never like RR and questioned the hire as soon as the WVU drama broke out, which was plenty before the 2008 season kicked off. But if he turns out to be successful at Michigan, I will gladly take that. Similarly, if he leaves Michigan some day, I really won't shed any tears, regardless of how successful he is with us.
I also think you have to distinguish people who attend Michigan games from other Michigan fans--you can't just use people who are, more or less, just students as an example of how fairweather Michigan fans are. It just so happens that a pretty good percentage of people who attend Michigan games chose Michigan more for the academics than the football prestige, and they go to some games just because they think that's what students should do at some point. They don't follow college football. They can't rattle off Michigan football history trivia. They can't tell you what Michigan's season records turned out to be each year they spent at Michigan. They are, by and large, not Michigan fans and should not be classified as such. That's not to say real Michigan fans don't attend games, but I have noticed that a lot of people at those games are really, first and foremost, Michigan students.
I never attended Michigan games when I was there. I don't want to be around a bunch of noisy, drunk kids, and I feel the best view you can get is right in front of the TV (not to mention you can see other football scores scroll across the bottom of the screen). But I would consider myself an avid Michigan fan. Sorry if not liking RR and not attending every single game, regardless of the fact that I now live back in the South now, doesn't make me a real Michigan fan by yet another person's made-up criteria. I think getting up every single Saturday in 2008, knowing full-well Michigan was going to lose...but still putting on Michigan gear, getting right in front of a wide screen TV and enduring every painful second of Michigan's football games, then going out in the middle of SEC country still proudly sporting my Michigan gear while hearing how much "superior" the SEC is to the Big Ten/Michigan at every turn does make me a real fan.
Re our admission, I said it when I was at Michigan, and have continued to say it ever since: It's a joke. A school simply cannot consider itself an elite institution of learning with a 50% admission rate.
That said, I still love my alma mater, and still donate to it regularly (albeit modestly). Michigan's reputation is built almost entirely on our world-class GRADUATE PROGRAMS; not, sadly, our undergrad program.
Michigan undergrad needs to become much more selective for Michigan to become an elite university.
GO BLUE!!!
Michigan Stadium is unconscionably quiet. For clarification, though, it isn't qualitatively quiet; instead, it is quantitatively (relatively) quiet. And--to be sure--there is a difference. That is to say, in comparisons with other elitely large college football stadiums (Beaver, Horseshoe, Neyland), Michigan Stadium has less intimidating noise levels. However, to state "the bowl is bereft of loudness" is an unfair statement and an illogical corollary of the previous sentence.
No, instead I think it's best to explain Michigan Stadium's sub-elite and sub-iconic but hopefully reconcilable "intimidation factor" with a multi-factorial explanation. For instance:
(1) We're spoiled; our team has been historically great; [insert a pompous "All-time this and winningest that record holding" aphorism (the trusted leaning post of any good, living-in-the-past-gloriously Michigan fan)]. And that spoiling has conditioned us to expect that our team will be successful despite our curmudgeonly "Down in front!" alumni and our regularly-mid-second-quarter-arriving undergraduate drunkards.
(2) We're shallow; well, our stadium is at least. Unlike the small-yet-steep-and-therefore-deafening Autzen Stadium, Michigan Stadium does not well insulate its noise. The stadium's perimeter is gargantuanly without compare; however, its depth (measured from field to rim) is mediocre. And without pressure wave reverberation (the type afforded by deeper stadiums with smaller footprints), all loudness is effectively deafened or at least made transient.
Fortunately:
(1) We got 'kicked in the A' last year. This is significant--especially if my "conditioned to expect..." assertion is correct. Using Penn State's debacles of the early-2000s and Beaver Stadium's newfound loudness (it wasn't always that raucous) as a precedent, it could be fairly mused that Michigan fans might find themselves more impassioned, raucous, and APPRECIATIVE OF SUCCESS after such a horrid season. To be sure, that could go a long way toward improving fan involvement.
(2) We gotz newz structurez, yo! Seriously, though: The Michigan Stadium Renovations will unquestionably disrupt/deepen the bowl and reverberate its crowd noise--thereby ceasing some of the consequences of its shallowness.
--------------------------------------
Hopefully, then, we find a way to fix this embarrassing largest crowd/average intimidation paradox we've thrust upon the Big House. It's a shame--a shame that demands reconciliation.
I'll cheer like a wildman when I have something to cheer about. In the meantime, the "U" can make due with the $400 bucks I had to shell out for my each of my four tickets.
I hope and pray we'll break .500 today.
PS to the jackass who spent $50k too much on his education "Out East" - how did that pay off for you?
You are far from superior to the rest of the big ten in everything. Your fans are a joke. Harvard of the West?!?! A 50% acceptance is hardly Ivy league. Get real, you're a good public, but you are far from being anywhere near as good as the top private schools.
With all due respect, I attended all of the U of M against Northwestern game and that was absolutely miserable, I wouldn't expect too many people to sit through those conditions. The rain and sleet from the 1st and 2nd quarter froze to me by the time the snow came in the third. I wore probably six layers and was still frozen.
But other than that I completely agree. The Big House needs to live up to its name and become ROWDY this year. Opposing teams need to fear entering...
This has got to be the stupidest column ever in the Michigan Daily. And that's saying something.
"In the NASCAR world, unlike Ann Arbor, fans don't limit their tailgates to the day of the event. Some came as early as Wednesday afternoon to start the preparations for Sunday afternoon’s race."
Yep, and then there are the rest of us that have jobs.
Un-Frackin-Real.
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