Advantages of the Midwest for fans
If any of you have lived for any amount of time in the south as well as the midwest, maybe you can add some perspective to this. I think growing up a football fan in the midwest has an advantage over growing up in the south. Specifically, the change in weather. I was just telling someone the other day that I think spring in michigan smells like baseball and fall smells like football. When the air starts getting cooler and that fall smell is in the air, I can't help but think of going outside with the neighborhood kids on a football saturday and playing football in a yard fool of leaves. The south has an advantage as a player because you are outside playing year round, but as a fan, I think you appreciate it more because it is gone for a while. If the weather was the same and the college season just started and stopped, I don't think it would mean as much. Just talking about this, I can almost feel a brisk morning in Ann Arbor, walking down Hoover towards the stadium.
I just got an mgoboner. I am leaving work right now to play some tackle football with neighborhood kids as we speak. And then I'm going to research "global cooling" in the hopes that one day football season weather will be every day weather. I wish every morning felt like a fall morning walking to a UM game.
"I just got an mgoboner. I am leaving work right now to play some tackle football with neighborhood kids as we speak."
Hopefully in a flacid state. The Michigan Sex Offenders List is a rash that never goes away.
Good luck on the global cooling research. Can we fund it with mgopoints?
Nothing like mixing Mgoboners and kids.
I feel the same way when the weather gets a little colder and I start wearing my Michigan sweatshirt more and more, but I don't think it makes my appreciation superior than any fan from the South.
I think that it just makes our fandom unique to us- no better and no worse.
correction, we are better.
This is a beautiful post. There is nothing more perfect then fall in Michigan, that smell in the air and the leaves on the ground with the Wolverines playing in the background.
On a personal level, I go to Columbus every year for Thanksgiving. There is nothing like the three hour drive south the week after the Ohio State game. If we win, there's a freshness about it, something beautiful. If we lose, it's cold frozen farmland rolling on for hours on end. It's like visual poetry.
my grandparents lived in Columbus for 30 years, while all 3 of their children and one of the grandchildren (me) went to Michigan. The fondest memories of my life are at that house in the fall. There is something serene about the fall chill and the leaves falling with the house spattered with blue and scarlet clothing - the whole rivalry just kind of became embedded into my family. But I remember the Thanksgivings where Michigan won were always more enjoyable, as avoided endless, yet jovial, taunting by my grandma (an OSU grad).
Sadly, I've never experienced the former, only the latter (1994 & 2006). Someday I'll see Michigan win in the 'Shoe and it will be sweet....assuming I get out alive.
its a valiant way to go.
I agree with everyone on this - I love Michigan Football Saturdays. The cool air, the flocks of michigan fans walking toward the stadium, the drum rapping guy on Hoover, tailgaiting at Pioneer. It's all awesome.
HOWEVA - the one thing I can appreciate about the warmer weather, is seeing the girls in sundresses. There's something to be said about that!
But, at the risk of putting my heterosexuality into question, if I had to choose between seeing beautiful broads in sundresses in Southern football weather, or having what we have at Michigan, I'd choose Michigan football weather.
I live in SW Virginia. It is odd going to games dressed for watching baseball--shorts and a t-shirt. Autumn has always been my favorite season, and it is hard to disconnect it from the beginning of football. The season is two-thirds over, here, before we get a real dose of fall. We're at about 2000' in elevation, or it would be even later.
The payoff, however, comes in "winter." There really isn't one here. From late October through spring is like autumn in Michigan, including the one or two cold snaps and short-lived snowfalls. When we moved here I gave all of my real cold-weather gear to my brothers back in Michigan. So, while it doesn't equate with football, exactly, I get a long autumn for hiking. It all works out.
After growing up in Michigan I've had a hard time adjusting to the weather here in North Carolina. When football rolls around.. it's just really hot. And it stays hot, even once fall/winter hits we don't really get much snow or bad weather. It's not all that appealing to me, sadly.
I grew up in the South and then attended Michigan, and I can safely say that football is appreciated more in the South than in the North. The weather issue is moot; there's nothing going on for me here in Texas right now. Still have to wait like everyone else for fall camp to start in August. Football is obsessed over here in the South. When parents pony up millions of dollars to build stadiums and facilities that rival many mid-major college programs, I'm pretty sure that there is a strong appreciation for football. In the South, it's God, family, and football. Really wasn't the same 3 priorities for people I met at Michigan.
You totally missed the point of this thread.
I grew up in Michigan until I was 16 and have lived in Florida and Georgia since then. That said, nothing rivals playing football on a snow covered field or a frozen lake. I've never met anything to compare to that down south. People in the south have different levels of caring... in Florida, you need to be in Tallahassee or Gainesville where football is life, but you sweat all the alcohol out before you get to your seats. (Sit next to the drunk guy at a Gator game... all you smell is the booze) In Georgia, everybody is a bulldog fan it seems no matter where you go.
I still live in the north... and don't think i'd ever consider playing on a frozen lake. Just the whole idea of well, you know, breaking the ice while getting tackled by 4 of your closest friends and then going for a quick swim while trying to find your way out isn't that appealing for some reason.
was at least a foot thick and we had pile-ons of about 20 people or so when we tackled each other... and its not like we're talking all a bunch of 14 year old kids. We were playing with full grown and a few "oversized" adults too. We played for a couple of hours until we heard a few loud cracking noises.
I was born in Michigan and thats almost all I know. The winter and the roads might stink, but I wouldn't give up fall football mornings for anything. Getting up on a cool Ann Arbor morning and enjoying a beer and hotdog while getting pumped for the game, amazing.
I grew up in northern Ohio and lived there for 23-24 years. I moved to Florida 2 years ago. I miss the change in seasons so much. I love going home in the fall and winter. Just this past winter, it got pretty cold here (dropped below freezing overnight) and I remember commenting to my girlfriend how it smelled like snow/winter. I definitely miss the smells that are each season. Summer isn't very enjoyable down here. When it's 85 and you could cut the humidity with a knife at 9 in the morning, it just plain sucks ass.
teaching 8th grade history and coaching football. I came down here for college and could never really move back to Monroe just because of the economy. With that said....words can't express how bad I miss that drive up US-23 going to AA early Saturday morning. The golf course..the hot chocolate...watching the band come into the stadium. And last but not least, that incredible stadium and game. They do love their football down here, but I have always felt like it was more of a party down here. In Michigan...there is partying, but everything fails in comparison to the game. The game is what matters. Its hard to describe.
I know this, that my fall break this year is during the Delaware State game and I am coming to Michigan for that game. I'm bringing a couple of Tennessee fans who are buddies of mine now. You may laugh at this because its Delaware State, but for me....its perfect.
I agree completely. A couple years ago, I went to an LSU game in Louisiana. It was a night game, so I was expecting a big party atmosphere. It rained in the afternoon, but had mostly dried up by game time. Unfortunately, there were at least 20,000 empty seats in the stadium. I commented to an LSU fan sitting next to me how disappointed I was in the crowd. His response was that the poor showing was due to the opponent (Fresno State) and the weather (rain prior to the game). My response: "In Michigan, we have MUCH worse weather, and sometimes significantly worse opponents, and we still have over 100,000 people at every game!" In Michigan, it's all about the football experience. Down south, it's much more about the party. If it's not going to be a great party, people tend to stay home in large numbers.
Starting the season in August kills some of the fun, too. There is a huge difference between wearing your sweatshirt, hats and gloves to an OSU game and sweating like a pig in the 8" of space you get at the stadium to watch us play eastern.
Grew up in south Louisiana for 16 years. There is nothing like a cool, crisp MI day for tailgating ind football. SEC has smoking hot women, but sitting in a stadium in 100+ degrees is no fun.
Yes, buuuuuuuut, how cool, crisp, and refreshing is it typically for our first 1-3 home games? God, I remember leaving the stadium after those first few games - red as a lobster and even the benjamins in my wallet being soaked with sweat. Not so cool. Later in the season, yes, but it isn't always so idyllic at the beginning.
What's the hottest game you've ever sat through? The 1998 Syracuse game sticks out in my mind as hot, humid and the end result was none too pleasant either. I was also in attendance for the 2000 UCLA game, which was unbearably hot, but that doesn't really count since it was on the road.
I don't know about hottest, but I was at that purdue 5-3 debacle in 95. I am not enough of a meteorologist to explain it, but I am positive it was 0 degrees and raining. I was a freshman and stayed until the end. Thought I was going to die.
You HAD to stay until the end because Michigan couldn't put the game #*@!ing game away by scoring a TD. MISERABLE day. I was convinced I would never experience another game so cold, but last season's Northwestern game came VERY close.
Hold on. If you were there, you should've remembered the score - it was 5-0.
Sorry for the mistake on the score. My brain must haven frozen. Thank God you were here to point out my mistake and remind me of your status as master of all things Michigan. I one day hope to be such a fan so that I too can peruse blogs and point out the errors in their messages.
The Washington game in 2002 was OUTRAGEOUS in temperature. No clouds anywhere to shield the sun, but luckily Phil Brabbs lifted the collective misery out of the air at the very end.
That day was ridiculously hot. I think that was as sunburned as I've ever been after a football game.
But you're right, the crazy-ass ending to that game made it well worth it. I feel like this game isn't talked about as much as it should be -- everyone remembers the Penn State game from that year (which was great too), but the ending to that Washington game (Brabbs missing a chip shot with a couple minutes to go, everyone leaving, us getting the ball back, Tyrese Butler's "fumble" recovery, the too-many-men on the field penalty on UW putting us in range, then Brabbs nailing the winner only to never be heard from again) was a ridiculous series of events
That was my first Michigan game ever. And man, I'll never forget it! I think the same year we had that home game against Iowa, that weather was pretty brutal...cold and raining and we got spanked.
The hottest game I ever sat through would be the comeback game against Virginia. The guy on the radio noted that it was over 100 degrees on the field.
As hot as it can get for the early September games in Ann Arbor, it's even worse down south - and considerably more humid. And the uncomfortably hot/humid weather goes on for several more weeks.
The memory that endures for me is the sound of leaves crunching under my feet as I walk to the stadium. There is no place in the world better than Ann Arbor on a crisp autumn Saturday.
I lived in Michigan for my first 21 years. It was very strange when I moved down to NC and never felt as if it were football season. I went to a game here in November and it was fricking 85 degrees out. Fall is football. I love making it up to Michigan for a game every year and coming back and missing it even more.
As much as I look forward to seeing the Wolverines on the field in the Fall, I certainly don't want Summer to end too quickly. Fall certainly smells like football, I just don't want that smell to come too soon!
who smelled the changing seasons and had different feelings about different sports. I wouldn't trade the experience of living in Michigan's seasons for anything.
I grew up down South and I am a UM sophomore. I went to the Wake Forest-Nebraska football game in the fall of 2007. The temperature was 101 degrees with a heat index of 110. The stadium ran out of ice and water by halftime. Football should take place in the fall. Down South the fall doesn't start until November. The fan experience is better in the Midwest where you aren't drenched is sweat as a spectator.
I could not agree more. Moved to SoCal 1.5 years ago and last fall just did not seem like it was football season. I miss that crispness in the air, smells like football season. It is kinda cool though to wake up in the morning on a saturday and watch the MSU game at 9:00 a.m. first thing. I'm out at the beach while TiVo'ing USC beating up on whatever team they are playing that week. God I hate USC, which makes me hate OSU more for getting their teeth kicked in every time they pplay them and me having to listen to the "Pac 10 is so much better than the Big Ten's boring brand of football" arguement every monday at work.
Add me to the pile of those who like the changing seasons. The South is just too damn hot and humid in the summer, and by summer I mean basically March 1-November 1. I happen to like cold winters and crisp autumns.
Personal experience for sharing: the UVA-Penn State game in 2001. 70 degrees. Gorgeous warm day, a little sun but it wasn't overpowering and it got pleasantly cool by late afternoon. You couldn't ask for better September weather. Except, it was December.