Student Section needs to be reduced

and go into the dorms at 11am, choose students at random, dressed or not, and march them to the stadium at gunpoint. If they resist, shoot them in the kneecaps and then rifle-butt them in the chops.

It's definitely time to reduce the student area by at least one full section. I fully support students getting blackout wasted and getting all kinds of strange ass before/during the games, but still those empty seats should go to people who actually want them.

For a lot of students, getting to the game on time is not a priority. Just because you diagree with their choices does not mean they are wrong. If anything, blame the athletic department. Give the students a compelling reason to show up early, and more probably will. I would start with general admission--if you show up early, you can sit wherever you want. That might encourage earlier seating. Second, come up with a more exciting pregame routine. The tradition of the band is unfortunately lost on the students, and nothing else that is going on is providing enough of a wow experience to get people there early. Flyovers and Jetpack guy last year were both really cool, but they need to get the word out about them better (nobody reads the stupid emails they send out on Thursday night about the game). Giveaways might help too, but it has to be more than throwaway value. A hat or $20 gift card for the first 10,000 students into the student section might me enough to convince people to come early. In general, I believe the culture needs to be changed. This is my fifth season as a student, and it does appear to have gotten worse every year. Maybe the Rodriguez years hurt enthusiasm, maybe college students are more apathetic in general. Whatever the reason, it's true that students are not showing up on time, and don't really care. Part of the problem with the culture is that the slow people--girlfriends, friends from other schools, students who aren't die-hard football fans--keep the friends who actually want to go early back, since they have to wait for one last drink, or to meet at another party, or just because they walk down Hoover slowly. And once it's okay for some people to show up late, it becomes okay for everyone. If there can be some more momentum for showing up on time, I think it will snowball as students see others on their way toward the stadium early. Making it culturally unacceptable to show up late will help start to solve the problem. By the way, there will always be out of state students, people that really don't care about football that much, and hard partiers who will never sacrifice drinking to watch the pregame and kickoff. The key is to get the Median 50% in sooner than they are arriving now.

STUDENTS: If you don't want to go to the games, give your tickets to MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

All I am reading is bitch bitch bitch and whine whine whine. Who gives a shit. Jeebus first world problems.

I can't even imagine being late for a game ever. That's almost as bad as missing a game.

My crazy ass went in at 10am today. That's what I usually do for Noon starts to stand by the tunnel for warmups.

First one in, last one out. Want to spend all the time I can in the greatest place on earth.

The one thing that really irked me as a current student was the numerous times that students in the endzone tried to start the wave. When we were losing. Come on guys, use your heads and focus on the game.

But during the early and mid 80s there were always late students. Me and my friends would do morning tail gating. Nothing like drinking at 800 AM for a noon game, especially when you were out getting hammered on Friday Night!  We always wanted to see the player touch the banner running out onto the field!

I first had access to student tickets in 2003, when I was issued top row (98 or 99, I forget) tickets.  I could lean against the top wall and watch the game from the nosebleeds.  I never missed a kickoff.  In fact during the entire Lloyd Carr era I walked into one game late, a EMU blowout and I only missed half the first (and have a good excuse).

I graduated before the RR began, but thanks to a grad student friend who was happy to buy season tickets and sell them at face, I had a steady stream of tickets.  I actually still have unused tickets for that era, as in I didn't go and I was too disinterested to even scalp them.  After sitting through 2008, it just killed them.  

So first give the student body time to cycle in a new generation whose souls weren't crushed by the crap offense of 2008 and the crap defense of the rest of the RR tenture.  Going to games is like voting, it is a habit you need to get into.  With RR you pretty much had to stay at the tailgate drinking until midway through the second.  You didn't want to be capable of feeling pain come the end of the game.  

The other thing is the stadium atmosphere has steadily gone downhill.  In 2003 you could bring in an unopened water bottle and the gate workers tended to look the other way on snack food.  I remember cruising in fifteen to twenty minutes before the game, settling down, having some water, hitting the flask, and eating the snack I'd smuggled in.  

Now gate security is a lot tougher.  During the cold games you can smuggle in stuff under bulky jackets, but during the early months the options you can bring through security are limited.  So I can see why most students would stay at the tailgate for one last hotdog as opposed to entering early and paying through the nose for a stadium one.  They are broke ass college kids after all.  

Finally pregame has always been blue hair time.  All these weird cheers and stuff that I has a student had no interest in.  I remember sitting there with this cute blonde girl, sharing pulls off my flask and mocking our rich musical hertigage of songs from the 1920s.  Also how the old people all showed up an hour early.  

If we're going to do anything, I'd say go back to the circa 2003 rules for bringing stuff into the stadium.  I know the bottled water ban pissed a lot of people out and it just one symptom of the degrading stadium atmosphere.  We have a lot of cops on patrol than we used to and the ushers are much bitcher than they were in the past/

Secondly if you want the kids in early, throw them some bones in the pregame.  Varsity is not that great of a song and there isn't that much else going on.  

(The other issue I think that is overlooked is the AAPD is really cracking down hard on State Street and those environs.  These days it much harder to stage yourself at a party near the stadium around say 11 am.  They're pushing people back and increasing transit time of the drunks from their house party to the student section.  It used to be you could start walking at 11, hit six other parties, and then roll into the stadium about 11:45 or so.)

Those jackwagons were trying to start it when we were down 24-21 in the 3rd quarter. You do the wave when we are winning by 14+ (generally)! Not when the team requires you to pay attention and yell.

And I'm not some crotchity old guy. I graduated 2 years ago and it used to be understood when the wave was done. Fortunately, all attempts died cruel deaths today