Sad Picture at Stadium Just Before Kickoff

Submitted by winterblue75 on

courtesy of @mvictors Twitter

Gulogulo37

September 15th, 2013 at 12:15 AM ^

You're right. They're not sweating it out in Calc 3. They're sweating it out hours and hours every day on the practice field and on Saturdays making millions and millions of dollars for the university. And since Michigan's athletic department runs in the black, some of that actually goes to academics, subsidizing whiny fools like you. They may get it easier in some classes, but overall they work their asses off far more than the average student.

MGoBender

September 15th, 2013 at 1:00 AM ^

Yo, robreid.  I get ya.  I was you 3 years ago.  I put in 40+ (more like 50) hours in class, study, homework, PT jobs (note: plural). 

However, the old guys are right.  Even if you are working 50+ hrs a week, you still have it great.  Because your "job" is still revolved around hanging out around with friends/peers of your like.

I'm putting in 70+ hrs a week for pay that doesn't leave me with much money to have fun with.  And those 70+ I'm around nearly nobody my age and nobody pats me on the back for the extra work I do.

You have it good and we both know that you can spare 4 hours a week.  We (alums) were all there and I don't think I knew anyone who worked so much that they couldn't find a way to carve out 4 hours on Saturday.  If you can't carve out 4 hours, then you need to become better at time management.

M-Wolverine

September 15th, 2013 at 3:18 AM ^

How do you have all the time for that? Isn't football an "extracurricular?" Maybe you need to prioritize those, and if football is so low, you probably shouldn't buy tickets. And it's still not work with a job and mortgage and responsibilities beyond "study and show up."

I like how you get offended at me making assumptions about you, but then go on to do the same thing about players. There are tutors and counselors for regular students. Most don't use them, but there's all kinds of support. You could go 5 years instead of 4. (If you're an engineer that was pretty much the norm when I was in school). And they're waking up for class at 9 am on Monday after feeling like they've been a car accident, whereas you can sleep in and skip class if you aren't feeling great because no one is monitoring and getting you in trouble if you don't go. And you never had to listen to thousands of assholes tell you how much you suck all week while doing it.

Frankly, if one really can't find time to go to 7 4-hour football games a year because they're so busy with school, they probably needed to enroll in an easier school.

bo_lives

September 14th, 2013 at 11:19 PM ^

there are already a lot of students at Michigan who have jobs, responsibilities, real work, and yes sometimes even families - and none of them are drinking themselves silly multiple times a week. I personally know many students who indeed skip games due to their quite legitimately busy schedules (/anecdote).

Section 1

September 14th, 2013 at 11:34 PM ^

That's not a new phenomenon.  I don't begrudge any student who doesn't attend football games.

What gets me are the students who have the wherewithal to buy tickets and then not even go, or who show up with 4:50 remaining in the first quarter.  Whose "busy schedule" has them tied up at 9:30 am on a football Saturday?  

Your hard-working, job-holding, family-responsibility model student cannot explain the phenomenon we saw today.  What explains today is too many student tickets being sold, to a too-casual group for whom the price of a ticket is not worth using, even on a gorgeous fall day.

Jon06

September 15th, 2013 at 12:09 AM ^

Suppose I wanted to take my family to a game. First, I would have to buy tickets outside the student section, because UM no longer sells spousal tickets or other family tickets. Second, I then either have to sell my student ticket, or (since I have a lap-sized child) separate from my family outside the stadium in order to enter at the student gate, and then find them again inside somehow. In the latter case, depending on how long I'm corralled at the student gate, it could be impractical to meet anywhere other than the seats, although there's a solid chance I won't be able to get to wherever they're sitting since I'd be holding a student ticket and they would have to have all of the other tickets in order to enter at another gate. Third, I have to bring hearing protection, diapers, etc., in ziplock bags, in order to adequately care for my child inside the stadium. Fourth, I have to stand in an absurd line in a location that's inconvenient to most seats, or pay 400% markup, in order to get enough water for my child to last through the game without becoming dehydrated.

Suppose I don't want to take my family to a game. Then I have to spend some time around 9:30 am (on a football Saturday!) with them, in order to appease my wife, who is going to be left alone caretaking while I spend 4-6 hours on campus having fun.

Now, that's not what actually explains the poor attendance. What explains at least some of the poor attendance--and I know this to be the case for several students--is that the GA policy has them convinced that they can't get good seats without showing up hours early to a place that will charge them exorbitant prices for mediocre concessions. They also don't want to wait in any line if they're going to get bad seats anyway. So they do the thing that's rational given their preferences: they wait until the lines are acceptably short by showing up late.

We've gone 34-29 in the last 5 years. It's going to take a little sustained success before football becomes a consuming passion for the vast majority of current students. I mean, not only do large numbers of my students not attend games, most of them show no interest in even talking about the games.

Tator Salad

September 15th, 2013 at 4:41 PM ^

why are you taking a lap-sized child to a michigan game in the first place??? They get nothing out of it! my son went to his first game saturday at 5.5 years old and he barely got anything out of it.  I understand that the alternative is that you don't go to the game (which is why I wont be back until Ohio) but this is all the reason why you shouldn't be getting student tickets. Someone without small children who actually can go to the games should be getting a ticket instead.

Jon06

September 15th, 2013 at 7:55 PM ^

I took him to the CMU game to get a picture of him in the stadium as a baby. He actually liked it--not because of the football, but because of all the people smiling at him. I won't be taking him after he becomes mobile until he's old enough to have the patience to sit through a whole game.

I'm pretty sure I attend more games than you do, anyway, so I don't know what the last sentence has to do with anything.

HAIL-YEA

September 15th, 2013 at 2:00 AM ^

Almost no job that you can work while also putting in 40+ hours of class and study is "real work." All we're saying is if you can't go to the game, don't buy the tickets. If this was a bigger game, somehow people would manage those busy schedules so that they would show up and on time.  I can't believe I have become this guy but I have to say it..You kids think you know everything. Get off my lawn!

bo_lives

September 14th, 2013 at 11:34 PM ^

but I can assure you that there are plenty of students here currently who are not living a "joke" lifestyle. Apparently you haven't been introduced to any of the engineers taking EECS 427 or 470 and almost literally living in the Dude. There are students who skip games due to their busy schedules.

M Wolve

September 15th, 2013 at 9:59 AM ^

was also pre-med at UM, and I have to say undergrad was no where near a joke.  I think this is dependent on how busy you were outside of class (I dedicated 35+hrs/wk outside of the classroom on various activities), which meant I was busy as hell.  Remove all of those hours and then the stress of med school to undergrad is not comparable, but undergrad is more about the entire experience than solely class and I wouldn't change any aspect of mine.

JamieH

September 15th, 2013 at 1:29 AM ^

I majored in EE at Michigan.  I went to every home football, basketball and hockey game that happened while I was on campus and even went to the big road football games   And I was a good student.   (I MAY have missed a basketball game or two but I really don't remember missing any). 

Football games were easy--they took way less time out of the schedule than basketball or hockey.  The idea that school was ever so busy that I would have had to skip a football game seems almost ridiculous to me.  I can see skipping out on basketball or hockey games, but geez, there are only 7 football games all season.  You can't show up for 7 saturday football games in one fall semester?

JamieH

September 16th, 2013 at 1:21 PM ^

We were really good in all 3 sports at the time, so I got to see some great teams.

I understand studying is important and I'm not suggesting that everyone go to every major sporting event on campus like I did.  But geez, 7 home football games is easy. 

bklein09

September 14th, 2013 at 11:35 PM ^

I currently live in Eugene, OR and what they do at UofO is sell / give out student tickets on a weekly basis. 

This is importlant because it allows them to reduce the size of the student section week-to-week. For really bad games the student section is smaller and those tickets are sold to the general public. For big games, the student section is huge. For the Civil War Game (vs OSU, but ntOSU) they give priority to students who have made it to every other game. 

I think this may be a good solution to some of the problems Michigan (and a lot of other schools) experiences. 

Bando Calrissian

September 15th, 2013 at 12:32 AM ^

If you think the current GA system is bad, just wait until DB introduces "Dynamic Student Ticketing" with a system like you're describing. These guys have a way of making simple ticketing into an intricate, marketing-laced bonanza that will annoy or inconvenience everyone and please none. 

Let's just go back to the old system, shrink the section, schedule better teams, and let the winning take care of the rest. If the students don't show up, that's a choice they're making, and it seems it's a choice they're going to keep making no matter what.

samdrussBLUE

September 14th, 2013 at 9:58 PM ^

I am in that top right area of the pic. Was there doing my best to be loud and encourage. I felt like even when the student section got "full" they were still quiet way too often. Really disgraceful indeed. I knew it would look bad when I was sitting there, but actually seeing it is much worse than I thought.

rob6reid

September 14th, 2013 at 10:06 PM ^

Not as disgusting as the teams performance. This is what happens when you schedule cupcakes. Students can and will show up in force (see: UTL2) if its a high profile game. For this game, I literally saw dozens of students giving away free tickets. No takers. Many students went home this weekend. Some skipped the game to work on essays and projects. I really dont see the problem here. It was nearly full most of the game.

rob6reid

September 14th, 2013 at 10:33 PM ^

Well, there's about 50 ushers at each gate, all quadruple checking your ticket to make sure you're in the right section. Which totally defeats the purpose of GA. And then students get to "their" seats, and there are other people in them. Gotta love general admission.

robpollard

September 14th, 2013 at 10:06 PM ^

The band is on the field and the team is running out to touch the banner.

A sad display.

It's going to be a ticket-apocalypse with next year's schedule. Tix will be had for most games for $25 or less, and unless a section is cut (again) from the students, more displays like this will be in the offing.