UM fan attendance at MSU

Submitted by michfan84 on
I'm going to try and make it to the MSU game this year. It would be my first UM-MSU game at Spartan Stadium, and I was wondering, how many UM fans do you expect to be in the house? Let's assume we're 7-0 and they're 6-1. Spartan Stadium holds about 75,000. What would you guess? 10,000 Michigan fans? 20,000?

Mercury Hayes

September 26th, 2016 at 8:36 PM ^

I thought this was a thread about UM fans who graduated from MSU. There are a lot of us. Knew about a dozen when I was there. Many were in the sports journalism program. Some even cover the football team now. Of course, that changed a bit over the past few years. I imagine it will pick up again with Harbaugh.

evenyoubrutus

September 26th, 2016 at 9:23 PM ^

That is interesting. When my wife was in grad school at MSU, most of her classmates couldn't care less about sports. My brother was concurrently at the UM Law school, and I was chatting with some of his classmates at a tailgate who did not go to UM for undergrad, and they told me that "99% of law students are huge Michigan football fans." Just an interesting anecdotal comparison of the two fan bases.

Obviously neither account was a scientific survey, but I still found the contrasting perspectives to be enlightening.

socrking

September 26th, 2016 at 9:56 PM ^

I grew up an m fan. I went to law school at MSU. It probably varies from class to class but there were about 1/3 m fans, 1/3 MSU fans, and 1/3 other.

I went to a lot of MSU games and started to root for them when they weren't playing m. The year after I graduated, I took my little brother to his first m game. It was the year of the trash bowl in east lansing. The game, how their players taunted m players after the game, and how we were treated by their fans changed my perception of them and sealed my interminable hatred for all things Spartan athletics.




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Oregon Wolverine

September 26th, 2016 at 10:13 PM ^

I'm M Law '91. Several of the best Law Profs were huge football fans.

JJ White (god of the UCC) reveled in mocking students who wore the sweatshirt of opposing teams. Especially Iowa he loved it when we put a hurt on Iowa.

Word is when Duke Law rolled up with the dump truck of money, Yale Kamisar (the father of Miranda rights) finally got two tickets on the 50 yard line from the Dean to stay.

But as for my classmates, certainly there were some that cared, I'd say 25% tops. The rest couldn't be bothered.




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Oregon Wolverine

September 27th, 2016 at 1:24 AM ^

JJ was a nut in the very best of ways. Hard core, class begins at 8, ends at 9, five days a week, you can be late for your next class, you'll need those extra five w/me if you want to survive...

Get on the squash court w/him a the man could play, almost always got an Amherst or Princeton team member into the law program so he'd have good competition. And whiz balls past your ears...




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bcnihao

September 27th, 2016 at 10:28 AM ^

JJ White's Commercial Transactions class was always at 8:00 AM.  When I took the course, it featured two 2-hour quizzes and a five-hour final exam.  He was previously a fighter pilot, and he donated a plane ride to the Student Funded Fellowships auction each year.  Still one of my favorite profs, 20 years later.  (My browser froze; I hope this doesn't result in redundant posts.)

MGoGrad11

September 27th, 2016 at 10:10 AM ^

I went to UGA for law school. It was pretty much set in stone that for those who were football fans, they felt a stronger allegiance to their undergrad schools than UGA. The only people who supported UGA over their undergrad teams were those who attended schools with no football teams or bottom of the barrel FBS/FCS D-II, etc. Everyone who liked football came out for the tailgates and games, but if it came down to UGA v. your undergrad, 95% of people stuck with their initial allegiance.

DonAZ

September 26th, 2016 at 9:53 PM ^

I thought this was a thread about UM fans who graduated from MSU. There are a lot of us.

I'm one of 'em ... lifelong Michigan football fan, but went to MSU simply because I couldn't afford the difference in tuition back then.  People then -- and now -- could not understand why I didn't switch allegiances.  My answer: Meeeeechigan!

I went to many a football game in Spartan Stadium ... because I was one of the guys in the orange vests doing traffic control.  I eventually worked my way up to student supervisor of the whole 110-person crew.  Officers put a lot of trust in me ... one time even giving me the keys to a police cruiser to go across campus and retrieve something for him.  There I was -- 20 year old -- driving a Crown Vic police cruiser with a shotgun locked to the dash! :-)

One memorable game I was given the assignment to be in one of the four upper-deck corners with binoculars and a police radio, keeping watch on the parking lots below.  Cold, raw, miserable day ... and I was standing up in the teeth of the gale way up there.  Saw a few suspicious things going on in the parking lot below, but nothing that warranted a call in on the radio.

I don't give a rat's ass what college name is printed on my degree from 35 years ago ... when it comes to college football there is Michigan, and then there's the rest.  Period.

gholt6633

September 27th, 2016 at 10:34 AM ^

I will never root for Sparty in anything, but I have to say I enjoyed watching the way they played Hockey in the mid-Ron Mason years.  The games between us were some of the most spirited hockey I have seen, and I respected Mason's accomplishments as a coach.

I Love Lamp

September 27th, 2016 at 8:36 AM ^

Michigan football was my first love as a youth, and my goal was to go to Michigan. However, I was young and dumb and decided to chase my high school sweetheart to East Lansing. After about two weeks, we were both like, yeah, we should see other people. So I was like, damn, guess I'm here, may as well finish school here. Good news was I met the love of my life there and have two wonderful kids. Bad news, we never left.

As a youth, I hated everything Ohio State and only hated MSU on game days. I knew early on I couldn't kick my love for Michigan to the curb, but I was going to try to accept MSU into my sports rooting interests. But when I saw those fans, how rude and vulgar they were, how unbelievably obsessed they were with Michigan, how fair-weathered they were, I knew I couldn't pull for them in anything. And being here surrounded by these idiots during our dark period, and their rise to national relevance, it's been really difficult to deal with.

I'm on here bashing Spartan athletics on the regular. I've grown to despise them more than Ohio State. There are some good people around here, and there are things I do like about the community, but never ever will I pull for them in athletics. I don't care if its field hockey, their athletics can fall into a sinkhole and never return.

Hopefully when my youngest gets into school, I can go to Michigan and obtain a graduate degree for the next adventure in my working career. It helps my current employer will pay for half the degree :). A Michigan degree would complete my personal achievements.

ThadMattasagoblin

September 26th, 2016 at 8:47 PM ^

If they lose to Indiana or BYU it could be quite bad for them. Also, consider that this is the first time Michigan has really been good since 2006 and they removed the Michigan game from the season ticket package. Probably 20,000 I'd say.