OT- Iowa fans boo Stanford Band's show mocking Iowa

They had every right to

MMB, the Ohio State Marching Band spend countless hours getting as good as they are. They should not be compared to Stanford's band by anybody. It was kind of stupid and disrespectful but.....so what. They are just a bunch of undisciplined band members who want to have fun. It's their shtick and it once led to a loss with 4 seconds on the clock against Cal.

First, Iowa makes this fair game by putting an "ANF" ("American Needs Farmers") sticker on their helmet.  I guess the height of offensiveness of that show was the fact that the cow was tipped at the end of the halftime show.  Ha, ha.  Not funny, not offensive.

Also... Stanford did a halftime show about the potato famine during halftime of a game at Notre Dame once (the announcer started off the show "Why do the Irish fight?").  Now that was both funny and offensive.  Good for them.

When their band was in Michigan Stadium in 1973, they gave a Nazi salute while Michigan's band was doing their high step onto the field.  Kind of funny, extremely offensive.

This band show yesterday doesn't hit the top 100 in the "most offensive things the Stanford Band has done."

Stanford's marching band does not consider it a complete performance unless the opposing fans have booed.  They go with that as a mission when they create, organize and practice their halftime shows. 

Their reputation has always been fascinating.  Stanford is the type of school you'd expect their marching band to be very traditional and professional and not dressed like hipsters and hobos doing programs to intentionally piss off their opponents.  One of the members of their drum line was banging a skateboard. 

What I find hilarious based on my Facebook feed full of Hawkeyes is not that they are complaining about it being an insult, but that they are all complaining about the execution of the insult. Apparently the band didn't do a good enough job insulting them.

I expected to see something much worse. It's just a goofy-looking cow.

Somewhat hypocritical of Iowa to be offended by a halftime show when they offended the entirety of the American people with their pitiful performance yesterday.

It's a none issue if the football team didn't get their doors blow off!!

If prominent Stanford alum Herbert Hoover were still alive, he would take those kids behind the woodshed and teach them a lesson for sassing the great state of Iowa.

FYI, Stanford's campus is still known as "The Farm" because of its historic roots. From Stanford Historical Society:

Less than a mile from the fast-paced, high-tech atmosphere for which Stanford University has become famous, there is another world. It is home to dozens of horses. It is rural, peaceful, and totally unexpected. It is history preserved. It is the reason the University is still affectionately called "The Farm." The activity there is centered in a magnificent Victorian barn--known as the Red Barn--built by Leland Stanford more than a century ago as the training stable for his Palo Alto Stock Farm. Restored in 1984, it is the most significant remnant of a grandiose experiment in scientific breeding and training of horses that took place between 1876 and 1903 on what is now the University campus.

I'm surprised at denouncement of Stanford's antics in this thread when the general sentiment on this blog tends to be anti-PC. Why is making fun of Iowa's agricultural heritage enough to solicit a response?

OK, now I'm curious about what Stanford's band did when they played Sparty two years ago at the Rose Bowl. Did they burn couches?

lol good lord people. people crying about a cow! lol babies

I was at the game and saw the whole thing. They had a guy and girl on the microphone doing a little skit to set up the songs. They initially started off talking about Farmersonly.com and some of the Iowa fans caught it and took offense. Then they had two girls walking around with a cow costume and it kept falling over and needed help up. I couldn't really tell if it was on purpose or not as people were sort of laughing about that. Then the guy/girl kept making "corny" farming puns when they set up each new song and that's when the boo birds kept coming out.

I see both sides of it. But it certainly didn't help that Iowa fans were frustrated as hell at that point in the game. I guess I could see them feeling like Stanford was essentially calling them small town hillbillies or something to that effect. But honestly it sort of turned into a mob mentality situation, nothing that was said was egregious. Seemed more like poking fun than flat out egregious classlessness. I don't think this is a story if it's 14-14 at the half.

once Stanford alum Carly Fiorina announced she was rooting for them

A band trying to get in the heads of the opponent? Say it ain't so!

Iowans (and Wisconsinites and people from here in SW Michigan) get tired of the mockery of people who earn their living in agriculture. I've heard it way too much over the years: "rubes, bumpkins, hillbillies, dumb farmers," almost always from Chicago suburbanites. We smile, seethe, and keep producing food to nourish the ingrates in hopes they'll learn some manners.

Any school that has a pine tree as a mascot shouldn't be taken seriously

Imagine if Stanford was playing Penn State.

I love the band and I think people shouldn't be offended any more because their history is so clear, you need to expect it.  

That said, what I never understand is who pays for it? In most departments, it's the athletic department and the costs add up. Just getting hotel rooms for that many near the Rose Bowl is a big deal. If the Stanford AD pays for it, I'm surprised other Pac 10 teams haven't told the Stanford AD they're sick of being mocked. 

Stanford's band exists to be offensive. If they came to Michigan I'd be offended if they didn't mock something (call us their safety school, the internal combustion engine or whatever). They had a 1/2 time show against Army called "A Salute to Communism" so it's not like anyone should be surprised

Where they don't put up with any of that homeless bullshit.

Oh come on, it was a really cute cow!

portion of the performance but I'm sure I'd side with the band. People need to get over themselves, laugh at themselves a little. That said the reason I logged to to comment is that I am appalled at those condemning Stanford and their students. What a bunch of bad kids, all they did was absolutely slay it in high school and do everything right to get into possibly the best school in the country. For shame. Use of words like "elite" and referring to them as "rich kids" is absolutely shameful and frankly completely embarrassing if coming from Michigan grads. Nothing worse than envy. I have no connection to Stanford whatsoever but if somehow someway any one of my kids are able to go there when they get older I would be absolutely thrilled.

My wife was all up in arms about it, so I couldn't weigh in with my perspective that people need to get over themselves and take the joke for what it is. A joke, maybe a little heavy handed, but a joke. Not everything is indicative of some moral crisis.

I don't think its being PC - its a matter of having taste and class.  If this was a home game, fine, Stanford can do this.  But, it's at the Rose Bowl.  Iowa fans have waited 25 years to go and don't need to be straight up insulted by a bunch of spoiled brat rich kids.  I mean yeah, you can tease or make a joke here and there but that was a little obnoxious.  Shouldn't expect less from Stanford...