Michigan vs Colorado in Sportsnation Entrance Tradition Poll
in this article: http://espn.go.com/blog/bigten/post/_/id/27947/better-tradition-colorad… espn debates which is a better tradition - our players coming down the tunnel and jumping to the GO BLUE banner or something w/ a mascot named ralphie. i am an avid college football fan, have been for more than 25 years, and have never heard of colorado's mascot's name. anyway, vote and crush them.
Mod Edit: Fixed the title to make it more informative.
If our Michigan tradition involved running a potentially dangerous animal weighing more than 1,000 lbs out onto the field and Colorado's involved jumping up and touching a banner, the vast majority of UM fans would be mocking Colorado's tradition as no big deal.
While it is very special to the members of this board, in the grand scheme of traditions in College Football the players running and jumping to touch an M Club banner is not all that spectacular.
I know the mob mentality of the board will disagree, but running a LIVE F'ING BUFFALO onto the field is pretty spectacular to a fan who doesn't have any emotional tie to the Maize and Blue.
Lastly, I'm sure a lot of the members of this board aren't old enough or just don't remember but CU was VERY good in the early 90's (like MNC good) and even came into the big house and beat us on a last second hail mary from Kordell Stewart. Which I will personally never forget as I was sitting on the 30 that he was just behind when he through the pass.
The flipside is that it's arguably Michigan's favorite/best tradition and Michigan is extremely relevant in NCAAFB history. Put into context with FSU/ND/OSU/Texas/ect. and their traditions, the banner itself isn't the most flashy or wild, but it is spectacular in the sense that even casual fans in Colorado or California or North Carolina or Texas all can associate that image with M football and what its done in the past century(+).
Well, at one point someone wanted to make it a tradition to have a dangerous animal weighing about 30 pounds come out on the field. Unfortunately, it didn't work too well. And that animal could take a buffalo.
I've been to games at Colorado, and I have to admit, the live buffalo is pretty cool. I'm biased towards Michigan, but its still pretty awesome.
I wish Colorado returned to being good. The college game is better when UC is a power.
I hope to God that Hoke ditches that lame, contrived "Circle of Death" pregame thing. Out of all the new stuff brought by RR to Ann Arbor (aside from terrible defenses), that was the one thing that really grated on me. If we win four conference championships in a row, play in a NC, and beat USC in a Rose Bowl, maybe we can have a "Circle of Death" that actually indicates "death" is coming to our opponents. Not until then, if at all.
Before we run out to touch the banner...let the band drums play!
ESPN also had us lose the helmet contest to Texas... smh Colorado ranked 6th.
I love my MICH, but running a live buffalo on the field is much cooler than touching a banner. I'm jus sayin.
Where are the neg bombs when we need them?
Because I don't think that everything Michigan does is perfect? Do Brady Hoke's shits smell like freshly baked brownies?
Know it smells like gold. (Does gold have a smell...?)
But it's more than touching the banner though.
I bleed maize and blue but there is no denying that Ralphie is awesome! After moving to Colorado I went to one of their games just to see her. I felt bad when they hauled her all the way out to Georgia just to lose in classic ass whooping fashion.
he's actually a girl. Male buffaloes are too big, nasty, and unpredictable to safely deal with, so the smaller and less ornery females are used in Folsom Stadium.
Interesting how one of the Wistert brothers made an appearance in there...
Posted the video of Brock Mealer walking to and touching the banner. Watch that and tell me that the banner can't be special.
What happens if we win? Will ESPN promise to provide halfway informative content to the winning school?
I thought Ralphie was the kid who was warned about shooting his eye out with a BB gun?
"Ralphie" is female.
to jump on the GO BLUE banner?
That said, the buffalo is pretty sweet.
Watching the other entrances, it seems like the pattern for most schools is:
1: Players touch inanimate object somewhere out of view of the stadium.
2: Players run out on field, accompanied by people carrying school flag.
I much prefer the banner, where the players look like a gigantic wave of awesome going by, to the players fondling a sign somewhere.
Uga, Ralphie, Mike the Tiger, the Volunteer that appears to be a a dashund... etc.
Another thing I notcied: thanks to a quirk of the game programing every team seems to start the game with the quarterback rasing his fist in a black-power salute.
Of the 52 states Michigan is only carrying 18 of them and is still up 12 percentage points.
54% to 46% currently.
I would love to see a live genetically alterted wolverine weighing close to 500 pounds and Denard and Co. running out behind it, with 100,000+ fans screaming.
Any genetics majors looking for extra credit?
and found these states listed below are punking the rest of the country (and the international vote I might add) and it's very entertaining to see the demographic after the vote. I will say, 9% of Michigan voted for Colorado. I guess only 9% of Michigan lives in East Lansing.
Michigan
Ohio
New York
New Hampshire
Maine
DC
Indiana
Illinois
Iowa
Alaska
I love being Blue. Here's to the next round!