What's wrong with the Alumni?
This is a not a retort to the "What's wrong with students?" thread . I agree that we are disappointing at times. But I do have some gripes about the Alumni.
First and foremost: the wave. Us students work damn hard to get it going, and it often dies when it gets to the damn Alumni section. Get off your asses and participate in the freaking wave! Most of you (who are reading this) aren't that damn old. Do it. "I did that when I was a student and I don't feel doing it anymore because It doesn't do any good and is uneccessary" Really? Some guy name Tom wrote a piece about 2013 Safety recruit Jayme Thompson who visited on Sunday. In an interview Thompson said
"I've never experienced anything like the wave that took place," he said. "It was up there with Wisconsin's 'Jump around' for me."
Also, make some damn noise. It helps us win.
October 31st, 2011 at 12:28 AM ^
1. I object to being called old.
2. You are saying that the wave is ALREADY impressive enough to make an impact on a 16/17 year old kid? Way to be greedy...
October 31st, 2011 at 8:11 AM ^
October 31st, 2011 at 9:41 AM ^
to a college student today. But I can tell the OP that those damned old alumni were apathetic wave participants in 1983 as well. You just have to keep pushing them, and sooner or later they'll come around.
October 31st, 2011 at 12:30 AM ^
How about you guys show up on time before you tell the rest of the stadium what to do?
And, FWIW, the Wave has been perfectly fine at every game this season. So I'm not sure what your complaint is.
October 31st, 2011 at 12:39 AM ^
"Ok I'll go tell the students to be on time from now on and everything will be good," says Michigan student.
"Ok well then I'll tell the alumni to be more spirited at games and it will be grand," replied Michigan alumni.
And then they did and everyone lived happily ever after.
This is boring. Maybe if we start winning games year in and year out again and go to some rose bowls and beat OSU and MSU people will do what you want them to? No wait you guys are right. Asking a massive group of people to do what you want on a fan website will definitely do the trick.
October 31st, 2011 at 11:27 AM ^
Here's the thread-winner! We can all move on now.
(Then again, maybe it's a good sign that we're arguing about the wave & showing up on time instead of things like the coaches, losing seasons, etc.)
October 31st, 2011 at 12:45 AM ^
Ok, this is getting rediculous!!!! We as a Michigan family have to HAVE TO find something to argue against each other. We got no problem with the coaching and players right now, the least thing we want to see is us arguing this pathetic students should arrive on time or Alumnis should be more active stuff.
Plus, think about what other schools gonna think of us when they see these posts. SAD
October 31st, 2011 at 12:47 AM ^
Calmer'n you are.
October 31st, 2011 at 12:50 AM ^
expect the young people to listen and agree with whatever they say, but as soon as the young people strike back, the world is going to end. /s. Also, would you rather someone bring up the MSU game again?
October 31st, 2011 at 12:59 AM ^
Now we really separated ourselves to students and the rest. Someone please talk about Iowa.
October 31st, 2011 at 1:08 AM ^
corn. Probably some wheat too.
October 31st, 2011 at 1:30 AM ^
the tallest man made structures in iowa are the antenna towers.. i think..
October 31st, 2011 at 8:54 AM ^
Au contraire my friend! Iowa has a ton of wind farms. Those turbines are up there pretty far.
Also hogs! And Dutch people! And the supposed world's largest cheeto!
October 31st, 2011 at 10:49 AM ^
October 31st, 2011 at 9:53 AM ^
you sound like quite the rebel
October 31st, 2011 at 12:52 AM ^
How about you acually show up to more than just football games and you can say anything to someone else about being a fan?
October 31st, 2011 at 12:55 AM ^
Season ticket holder for basketball and hockey here, so yes, I do show up for things other than football games.
Funny how student attendance has been an issue at Yost this season, too. Where are the priorities on campus these days?
October 31st, 2011 at 1:05 AM ^
have classes and, you know, exams to study for.
October 31st, 2011 at 1:07 AM ^
Also banging chicks and tripping on LSD to name a few.
October 31st, 2011 at 1:13 AM ^
Don't know of too many classes that convene around noon on a Saturday. Exams are a complete red herring, too. If you're a student at the University of Michigan, you should be able to budget your time to adequately prepare for your classes AND go to a football game.
I'm quite sure a few thousand students didn't even bother to show up for this game because they were busy hitting the books. Or the 50%+ of the student section that didn't even bother to show up until the 2nd was because they lost track of time combing the stacks at the Grad.
If this were a class in Auditorium C at Angell at 12 on a Thursday, you'd be there on time with no questions asked. Why is a football game different?
October 31st, 2011 at 1:20 AM ^
"Where are the priorities on campus these days?" The priority for any student on any college campus should be classwork. Classwork is required, sporting event attendance is not. That's probably the biggest difference.
October 31st, 2011 at 2:05 AM ^
For football games, it is required.
October 31st, 2011 at 10:05 AM ^
The libraries on Friday night and Saturday morning are even emptier than the student section during pregame. And I'm guessing most of those students that ARE in the libraries those times don't even have season tickets.
People are out partying late on Friday night, or just don't give a damn about Michigan football, and you know it.
Besides, your logic is flawed: if exams were the problem, you'd expect the emptiest games to be around midterms in October, instead of the early season games in September.
Furthermore, the student section usually fills up by the second quarter - people aren't skipping the game to study, they just don't care enough (and/or) are too hungover to show up on time.
If you have a ticket, go to the game and be there on time. If the banner is out by the time you get there, you're late. If you can't start walking 15 minutes earlier, sell your ticket to a fan who will.
October 31st, 2011 at 1:26 AM ^
Bottom Line is Students are here at University of Michigan for the EDUCATION. So if a student can't go because of studying, are you blaming him/her for that
Students are not rich as you can buy tickets to all Michigan sporting events, also have that much time to go.
October 31st, 2011 at 1:26 AM ^
You think a student is studying on a Saturday at noon? I mean, there probably are some, but none that have tickets to the game.
October 31st, 2011 at 1:39 AM ^
Yes if there're exams coming up or interviews to prepare. I know we're all are coming from the same direction, but everyboy has a choice to make. most people decide to wake up 5am prepare for the game, that's their choice. some people decide to sleep in because of a late night party or study whatever, that's their choice.
I'm sure it will get better next season when we have a high expectation for the season.
October 31st, 2011 at 7:36 AM ^
It's not so much studying during the game as it is being burned out from studying the other 6 days of the week. If you can only pull off three out of the four of 'go out Friday night', 'go out Saturday night', 'catch up on sleep', and 'get up early on Saturday for football', and you're too busy the rest of the week to go out/catch up on sleep, I'm not going to fault you for picking the first three.
October 31st, 2011 at 7:58 AM ^
Good point. Guess its a good thing the players don't have to study or take tests.
October 31st, 2011 at 11:23 AM ^
You realize that most football players take the lightest possible load during the fall, and make up for it by taking classes in the spring/summer, right?
October 31st, 2011 at 2:01 AM ^
Lol at comparing a football game to class, get your head out of your ass, and for the record I had online math hw due saturday and a research paper due sunday at midnight, and work 12-8 today plus my parents were in town. my priorities are completely out of whack so I still went to the football game but to sit there and try to bash students for prioritizing things that are clearly more important than football is asinine and the sort of reason we make fun of people on rcmb. And congrats on being one of like 5,000 people that regurarly show up for bball games but given 100k show up for football its not really all that impressive for our fanbase as a whole. As an aside where you get all that money yo? season tickets are expensive enough as a student
October 31st, 2011 at 2:30 AM ^
If I could spend 8-9 hours on a football saturday in the MMB, an average student can handle 4 hours on a saturday.
Few things to me are more annoying seeing the games on TV from Cali than the student section having empty seats. I get that tomato can opponents can be tough to sit through, but at least stay until the game is decided.
October 31st, 2011 at 2:38 AM ^
How about the alumni actually wear maize to the you know..... the "maize out game" It seems like every single maize out game the entire student section is wearing maize while the the alumni tries to offset it with blue. PSU can get their entire stadium to wear white save the opposing teams, why can't we? I've been embarrassed that we even call it a maize out game because the majority of the stadium refuses to wear maize. It's like the students are trying to pull the alumni's teeth. Totally embarassing
October 31st, 2011 at 9:50 AM ^
October 31st, 2011 at 12:53 PM ^
seats.
October 31st, 2011 at 1:36 AM ^
Students showing up late is a combo of lots of things, studying being one of them. I don't think that's the primary reason though. I know a few people that have missed a game to study, but that's far fewer than the amount of people that miss basketball or hockey to study for an exam.
I think most of it has to do with drinking. My friend gets drunk every Friday night and always rolls in late, still a little hungover sometimes. I'm sure others do the same. Lots of people pre-game, and they don't leave those early enough to get to the game. Lines get huge and it takes a while to get in.
Part of it is the noon start time, part of it that we haven't played really good teams yet.
I just don't buy studying being the number one reason.
October 31st, 2011 at 8:42 AM ^
I had it easy back in the 90's when there were no such things as classes and exams.
October 31st, 2011 at 12:55 PM ^
When there was more than enough time for this thread and everyone commenting on it to respond multiple time after midnight on a Sunday.
Maybe manage your internet surfing time and use it for going to football games time.
October 31st, 2011 at 1:18 AM ^
It's hard to say the wave has been fine at every game when they've screwed up the order in both of the games I've been to.
October 31st, 2011 at 12:59 PM ^
I like once they've followed the script, they're lost. How about some multiple waves in the same direction, after you've done the crossing waves? (You know, like...waves). or one fast and one slow at the same time. In really bad games they used to mix it up and keep it going. Now it's regular, fast, slow, crisscross, done. Heck, they've even had one after another after another...you were basically standing up and sitting down over and over till the next big play. Anything...mix it up.
October 31st, 2011 at 1:36 PM ^
I'd be on board with that, but they can't even get through the script.
October 31st, 2011 at 12:30 AM ^
Get off my lawn
/s
Valid points I thought the same thing a couple of years ago.
October 31st, 2011 at 12:32 AM ^
your morally ambiguous guts. Unless your an imposter. Then I still hate the real Les Miles, I'm thrown off at your choice of such an evil name, and I agree with your points. I remember at UTL, the ladies in front of us moved away because we were cheering too loudly. Seriously? It's a football game, not a polo match.
October 31st, 2011 at 12:41 AM ^
Maybe you smelled like poop.
October 31st, 2011 at 12:52 AM ^
I don't think that the chocolate that guy gave me was really chocolate....
October 31st, 2011 at 12:32 AM ^
the problem with getting the wave going is that the sections right next to the student section aren't looking at the student section because they're, you know, actually watching the game. (incidentally, i've been in the student section most of the time for the past 9 years, and the last couple of years have been noteworthy in that the students are watching the game a much smaller percentage of the time than students did several years ago.) one way to get the wave started faster would be to start it going in the other direction, since much more of the student section is in the peripheral vision of the people in the north endzone.
also, since somebody will probably bring it up, students have taken to yelling "I" for the sections next to them. for some reason they haven't figured out that the sections next to them are so hard to hear because they're pointed away from them while they yell, not because they're actually that quiet. they're easily audible from across the field (which i know because, when i'm not in the student section, i'm in section 2).
October 31st, 2011 at 12:43 AM ^
For the life of me I can't think of a single reason why the students wouldn't be as interested in the games the last few years.....
October 31st, 2011 at 12:54 AM ^
instead of watching the games in a state that would allow you to remember what happened later :-)
October 31st, 2011 at 1:05 AM ^
For what I pay in tuition, I reserve the right to get drunk, text, and knock up anybody i want at Michigan stadium.
EDIT: Also, if we win out our conference games, Hoke will have exceeded RR's total for conference wins. Maybe those three years had something to do with it?
October 31st, 2011 at 12:48 AM ^
my issue with the wave was the timing. The first couple attempts to start it were early in the 3rd quarter, when the game was actually going on. Way too early.