Unverified Voracity Is Experienced

about hockey. Thanks Brian!

He comes streaking down field from the bottom of the screen to lay a block on someone -- pretty cool

"And now for something no one cares about except me!"

we exist, man. we exist.

the realignment seems logical in the short term, but not so in the long term. something has to happen with the CHA teams. independence is not preferable to anyone, save ND football. in all likelihood, no realignment == short term contraction of these small teams, but potential expansion of PSU/Ill/Syracuse, in a decade +.

it's either a result of short sightedness or a realization/conviction that big time expansion of college hockey is a pipe dream. and really... is PSU ever going to go DI? Cuse? Ill? the northern PAC10? the potential inclusion of Canadian college teams will not significantly add to the interest in the sport south of the border. TV markets will be minimally increased, save UTor. and even there, Canadian hockey snobs thumb their noses at DI college play.

summary: big time US schools do not want to make the jump, thus expansion is not a concern right now.

paragraphs?

I went to grad school at UT and stayed in Austin after that... and went to a lot of games. Sorry, Brian, but it's silly to claim UT fans are apathetic. The stadium is REALLY loud, far louder than The Big House, and don't even get me started on a comparison of the basketball arenas. Baylor is the annual beat-down. I'm not shocked some people didn't show up. I've never seen it like that, but, really, how many Baylor games can you go see in a lifetime before you just give up?

I went to UM for undergrad and UT for grad school. Having attended about 6 home games during the Vince Young era, I wouldn't call their fans apathetic. It wasn't as crazy as I had hoped but I thought the fans were enthusiastic and engaged throughout. It was never CRAZY LOUD, but it was never pin-drop quiet like Michigan Stadium gets.

The tailgating was definitely much smaller in scale, but I sort of assumed it was pushed off to the frats or some other parking lot I wasn't aware of. They aren't that far from the stadium.

I thought the drinking was more intense than at UofM but maybe thats because I was a grad student and less likely to be drunk myself in Austin than in AA.

Personally I liked the lack of a dedicated student section and perhaps it helps explain why my perception was of a more uniform and consistent interest level.

My personal opinion is that their fan base is also more supportive and generally positive, but again, I was there during Vince Young's tenure.

Also, DKR stadium was almost always pretty full when I went.

Having lived in western Pennslyvania during much of RR's tenure at WVU and having seen a lot of those games, the linked WBGV article confirms what I've thought all season long: WVU's performance this year says a hell of a lot more about RR's coaching ability than Michigan's performance this year. RR has taken players that he didn't recruit and that were recruited to play a different system and has (as the season has progressed) made them into a more competent offensive unit than the WVU team that he left has become without him. Although the Michigan offense has not (and this is an understatement) been a thing of beauty, having watched the majority of the WVU games this year, Michigan's offense is at least tolerable to watch because, as opposed to WVU's offense, it is at least improving from week to week. Really, viewed in the big picture, the fact that Stewart (predictably) ruined WVU in one season with virtually the same skill players available to RR says an awful lot about what RR actually accomplished at WVU. To me, that portends great things for the future at Michigan given the vastly improved recruiting situation.

I've lived in Austin for 10 years and have witnessed the re-birth of the Texas Longhorn football program first-hand. I have attended several games during this time, and walked away each and every time feeling disappointed. Even though the football is not as good, I would much rather attend a Texas A&M Aggie game because the fans are better.

One of the reasons the stadium looks so empty is the Texas tradition for fans to leave the stadium and head to the alumni club (outside the stadium) for beers during the game. During blowouts, they tend to watch the rest of the game on TV.

Way back in the 60's, M stadium was often 25% (or more) empty.

Then Don Canham figured out that to fill the stadium, M needed to attract lots of people who actually would care very little about football.

He, in fact, targeted the head of the household (MOM!!) to attend M football games because it was fun!

So, we can either have a stadium only 50% full but with RABID Meeeeeechigan fans. Or, 110,000 fans, with 50% fully engaged and 50% somewhat engaged.

BTW in Section 4, this year has been spectacular! We've spent most games on our feet and no one EVER says "down in front".

heard it from Fr. Hespburgh's own mouth during a recent trip to ND for a game..."it's about time to find out if Charlie can coach"

Most schools compute the attendance figures well before game day. This may (or may not) account for the 97,000 figure. Michigan does this, in case you're wondering.

Meetings used to be held on Wednesdays (as late as 2004) and all of the folks responsible for game day operations were in attendance. The attendance figure's determined at that meeting, and in painstaking fashion to be as accurate as possible. In addition to tickets sold, numbers are computed to include vendors, police, EMT's, ushers, band, visiting band, color guard, Yost's seat, etc.

So there you go.

Texas has no student section? Wow, that sucks. In my freshman year (1998) they screwed it up and some freshmen had to sit with the alums, and it was awful for all involved.

In his nearly four years at Notre Dame, Charlie Weis has one (1) win over a BCS-conference team that finished the year with fewer than five losses: 9-4 Penn State in 2006.

He parlayed that into a ten-year extension and two BCS bowl appearances. This may suggest that there is something to the "super genius" reputation. Not in terms of doing anything on the field, mind you, but in terms of getting money and bowl spots despite what happened on the field.

Over the same span, Rich Rodriguez has six:
2005: 9-3 Louisville, 10-3 Georgia
2006: 11-2 Rutgers
2007: 10-3 Cincinnati, 9-4 Connecticut, 11-3 Oklahoma

RR doesn't have a qualifying win this year at Michigan, but they still have a shot at Ohio State. Notre Dame hasn't had one in two years and their only shot this year is beating Southern Cal.

Actually, Weis got the huge extension after a game he LOST (USC 2005) in his first season. ND was so thrilled with that moral victory that they threw a ton of money at him in the middle of the season.

You can add me to that list of lazy UT fans.... I have a reserved student ticket about 10 rows up in the endzone and I decided to skip the game this weekend, as Michigan was on. I did travel to Lubbock vs Tech last week at least.

I would say though the right endzone and 1/3 of the sideline not shown in that picture is probably 95% students. I don't know what the classification is for "dedicated student zone", but I would consider it a student zone personally.

Tailgating is pretty lame at UT, as the places to tailgate are scattered all over. I would say the tailgating would be good if it was all brought together somehow, but there just isn't room.

Spot on UT analysis. I was on the UT sideline that game for TV coverage. I remember telling my crew, "I'm appalled at how empty your stadium is." It was really pathetic. There were empty seats everywhere.

Noise levels were meh, but it's not a stretch to say Michigan can get louder. One fan kept screaming at Baylor about how they should "quit begging" (??). Lot of idiots in the crowd. Then they sing "I've been working on the railroad" and try to pass it off as a UT song.

Also, Bevo, their cow mascot is a fucking idiot. He/She could not follow simple directions. "Get out of the way" does not mean "stop moving".

So chin up, Michigan fans. UT does not have a clue about REAL FOOTBALL TRADITION. We are better educated fanbase that truly supports our team. We DO tailgate harder as well.

Finally, to add more fuel to the fire of hatred, consider this: There are an uncomfortably excessive number of photographs of their Rose Bowl victory against us inside DKR memorial stadium.

also, the box score was an obvious farce. they probably meant 97,000 fans watching the football game on television in the Austin area.

everybody was bitchin' about the 11:00 am kickoff time. what pussies.

I'm a UM alum and a current UT grad student, and my parents were in this weekend. All three of us went to the game together, and it was pathetic. Michigan fans at least fill up the stadium and go bat-shit-crazy for the first half when we're playing someone like Eastern. If I had to guess, there were at least 15,000 no-shows (in a 95,000-ish capacity stadium), and there couldn't have been more than 60,000 there by the time we left early in the 4th quarter -- I've NEVER left a Michigan game early, and I would prefer not to here, but the fans were so miserable it wasn't worth staying.

Seriously? I actually phoned my brother and told him "the entire crowd made our alumni section look rowdy."

The observation about students was right, too. The entire bleacher section at the south end of the field is filled with students (probably 1/3 of whom didn't show on Saturday), but then the rest of students are peppered everywhere along the entire eastern side of the stadium. My seats are in the northeast corner. I'm probably surrounded by more non-students than students. It's a pretty nonsensical system.

I also care about hockey. You know better than that! :-p