What's wrong with the students?
Am I delusional or have the students been a real dissapointment this this year? I've been attending games since the 80s and I don't recall the students consistently showing up late / leaving early like they have been. Noon games were the norm when I was a student so that should be no excuse. Heard someone state "students who show up late or don't attend are missing life". True words.
October 30th, 2011 at 5:21 PM ^
One thing to consider is that a lot of students did not grow up fans of Michigan like most of us. They become fans when they are on campus.
Fair or not, prior to this season the seniors have never even seen a good football team. That's the hangover effect of the last 3 years.
October 30th, 2011 at 5:24 PM ^
So what you're saying is that a furry sideline mascot that markets the brand to children would end up filling the student section before kickoff in fifteen years?
October 30th, 2011 at 5:29 PM ^
This. Also to improve the off-field experience we need more piped-in music, especially "In the Big House" so the students know where to go
October 30th, 2011 at 5:38 PM ^
I think the only way that would be effective is if it could be piped in all over Ann Arbor for about an hour before kickoff. Pop Evil needs to play at the 50 yard line while the players come out of the tunnel, obviously, but you could get Zingermans, Campus Corner, Ashley's, the Jug and other popular pregame spots to simulcast using giant Emmy the M inspired speakers.
October 30th, 2011 at 10:23 PM ^
of your proposed mechanism of dissemination of the music to the pregaming public at large. Perhaps we could get some artisians to create some sixy-foot granite statues of Sir Charles, Desmond, and Bo, and install them on top of City Hall?
October 30th, 2011 at 10:35 PM ^
I just went to Wikipedia and learned that OSU has 78 consensus All-Americans. Think 78 is enough to make a Harry Potter-esq throne sculpture with Desmond, Woodson and Denard in the throne?
October 30th, 2011 at 10:42 PM ^
"Our champions outweigh your champions, your false gods. Come, join our side, ye indecisive ones. The words of the bowtied one and his minions are venom."
October 30th, 2011 at 6:11 PM ^
why does everyone always talk down to the fans who didn't go to Michigan?
October 30th, 2011 at 9:16 PM ^
I don't think people talk down to people who didn't go to Michigan. The only ones who make a big deal about it are MSU fans.
October 30th, 2011 at 9:34 PM ^
because just yesterday, I had a discussion with one of my friends who is a Michigan State fan. He, by the way, goes to Oakland.
October 30th, 2011 at 9:53 PM ^
I know this is flogging a dead horse...but I hate this meme. I don't understand why people care about alumni status making someone a fan. Just as being an alumnus doesn't make one a fan, not being an alumnus should have no bearing on one's "fan quality."
tl;dr lets lose the alumni make the best fans meme
October 30th, 2011 at 10:03 PM ^
MSU fans making a big deal out of something Michigan fans do? Blasphemy!
October 30th, 2011 at 10:23 PM ^
Sounds like a good reason to me to accept less applications for Jersey.
October 30th, 2011 at 5:21 PM ^
They expanded the student section this year. Not only are they showing up late, some don't even show up at all.
October 30th, 2011 at 6:08 PM ^
I can say thats not true.
Yes, I know a few friends who don't show up to the occaisional games, and for good reasons (generally upcoming tests that must take precedence for them). But the vast majority do show up, albeit occaisionally late. This last game was difficult, as there was a HUGE back up that formed 30 minutes before the game at the North East entrance (the one generally used by students coming from campus). Several friends of mine waited 20 minutes in line to get into the stadium, hence the lack of students in the student section.
Another reason the students tend to get to the game a little later than everyone else (usually right as the game is starting) is that a lot of the students pregame parties and such are located farther away than the (mostly) non-student tailgates and it takes them a little while.
Honestly, this topic really annoys me. Yes, the students do show up later (but I maintain not by much, and the vast majority rarely miss the kickoff). But despite our 'tardiness' we still bring an important aspect of the stadium experience. You don't see me starting a thread saying whats wrong with Section 1 (NTS1). Why aren't they standing, or cheering loudly to distract the opposing offense, or hell even participating in the wave when we're up by 40+ points against the Golden Gophers.
October 30th, 2011 at 6:13 PM ^
1 filled with old people? I might not remember correctly, but if it is, that might explain the lack of noise.
October 30th, 2011 at 6:17 PM ^
And it probably was unfair to choose that section in particular. But the point remains that the student section is the one that is standing for the whole game, and the one that is the loudest for the duration. And to call us out for being late, when we do what a lot of the sections will not, is unfair IMO.
October 30th, 2011 at 6:38 PM ^
Man up.
October 30th, 2011 at 6:45 PM ^
And I am man-ing up by defending my fellow students. Maybe you should man up and get the rest of the stadium to man up as well and have them get into the games, rather than just complaining about us for tardiness.
October 30th, 2011 at 9:24 PM ^
I remember not liking how quiet the rest of the stadium was when I was a student too (2008 alum) but the truth is the student section wasn't impressive then either and it isn't now. You can defend it if you want but I don't know why you would. The "you suck" chant still is horrible. I think the students should always take it upon themselves to bring the energy to these games and get the crowd going.
October 31st, 2011 at 1:12 AM ^
As a young alumni, I would, but random older gentlemen keep telling me to sit down.
The point is, students will always show up later, that's what happens when tickets are $25 apiece and students tailgate. The rest of the stadium shows up on time because their tickets are 3x that amount, and will always refuse to stand up the majority of the game. This will not change for the forseeable future.
October 30th, 2011 at 6:18 PM ^
Students have always had exams to prepare for and always have lived further from the stadium than tailgating locations. We never used those as excuses not to show up on time, or show up at all. Frankly, it's weak. Man up and get your classmates to do what those of us who preceded you were always able to do.
October 30th, 2011 at 6:25 PM ^
Our students are too different then the ones from the previous years. I have an uncle who was a student during '97, and as a diehard fan he still sold his ticket to the Ohio State game. So students were still doing things like that. Back in my dads day he the drinking age was 18 and they could bring a Keg to the stadium, which eliminated the need for having a preparty outside the big house (if they had that I'm sure tardiness for students would likely decrease). It's not just a new revelation that's 'something wrong with this generation of fans'. I honestly think the people here who say there is something wrong with our student are seeing things through rose tinted glasses.
October 30th, 2011 at 6:33 PM ^
October 30th, 2011 at 6:41 PM ^
To make 500 dollars off a ticket, it makes sense. That's a ton of money for a person who is only eating ramen for dinner 5 days a week.
And I'll let myself be the judge of his fandom, not you. And as a person who bleeds maize and blue, I can safely say he does as well, maybe even more than myself—which for the people, with the exception of the MGoBloggers here (although he is an avid user of this site) is saying something.
October 30th, 2011 at 6:48 PM ^
October 31st, 2011 at 9:38 AM ^
man, i hate it when people say that about eating ramen 5 nights a week. he did not eat ramen 5 nights a week, neither do you or any of your friends. In fact i honestly doubt any college student is so poor they have to eat $.20 dinners. i get it, some college students are poor, but not that poor.
October 30th, 2011 at 10:02 PM ^
I think students now are not the same with the previous generations, they or their family were not a fan growing up, and many became a fan after got on campus. So I think we cannot expect what happend 10,15 years ago to happen now, it's just different generations and everything changes. One day we might not be the most wins team in the CFB, we just have to deal with it. Nevertheless, we know we all love Michigan Football, we're there when they needed the most and will always be there.
October 30th, 2011 at 6:27 PM ^
I'm not trying to say the students aren't important. In fact, I wish more of the stadium acted the way the students do. But the student section used to look filled up in the past years and now it doesn't. Unless it's a weird view from my seat, the student section just doesn't look as filled up as the rest of the stadium.
October 30th, 2011 at 6:30 PM ^
But it's almost always full by 5 minutes or so into the fourth quarter (with the rare exception of games like Eastern, where a few of the people who are more or less apathetic don't show up). That comment wasn't really directed at you in particular, but at the thread as a whole.
October 30th, 2011 at 9:30 PM ^
5 minutes or so into the fourth quarter? That is an odd time to be filling up
October 30th, 2011 at 9:54 PM ^
First quarter First quarter First quarter First quarter First quarter First quarter First quarter First quarter First quarter First quarter First quarter First quarter
Fourth quarter.
dammit. I screwed up that one...
October 31st, 2011 at 10:24 AM ^
np, got it, just having fun
October 30th, 2011 at 10:39 PM ^
October 30th, 2011 at 10:47 PM ^
and the North entrance. Both have much shorter lines. I never once used the Northeast entrance.
October 31st, 2011 at 1:18 AM ^
i call BS. back in my day the student section went from the mid endozone around the corner to near the 50; nearly 25% of the seats. nowadays, it seams to wrap around to about the 30 or less, so way less students are attending games.
in fact, i also seem to remember about 10 years ago that students were complaining because they couldn't order a full season of tix; they could only reserve 1/2 season because of demand.
so it's pretty obvious the students aren't into the games nearly as much as years past.
October 31st, 2011 at 10:00 AM ^
Section 1 prides itself on being where the wave goes to die. If you want to hear section 1 cheer listen after really good punt or kick off coverage or a good blitz pickup. I'll agree we don't cheer very loudly but there are very serious fans that have been going to games for a very long time.
October 30th, 2011 at 5:21 PM ^
As much as we love football, most of the students don't really get pumped up for the likes of EMU, SDSU, MINN and Purdue. For the not-so-hardcore, which is the majority, those games don't have much pull and they are just happy if they win. They dont mind leaving early or getting late. They don't live and die by every snap.
But yeah, also noon games suck. We need more 3:30 games. And night games. No one wants to start drinking at 10 AM.
October 30th, 2011 at 5:25 PM ^
Also, as a poster above said, our last 3 years we have sucked. There's better use of our time than to sit in the cold and rain and watch us get smacked by Penn St as we did in 09, my freshman year. Until this year, we all kind of went into the tougher games just hoping to not be embarrassed.
October 30th, 2011 at 5:34 PM ^
the last couple of falls i've taught i had students who just preferred it if you didn't bring up the football team. sadly, many of them just aren't real fans. personally i find it pathetic, but basketball was the same way when i was an undergrad and it's just now making a comeback in terms of student attendance. but considering that the undergrads who are there this year spend most of their time coming up with clever and classy chants like "fuck the irish" i don't really miss them.
October 30th, 2011 at 5:46 PM ^
Trolling? Really? It's a fact. We haven't been good recently until this year. I don't see how you can argue otherwise.
As for real fans vs not real fans, does it really make you not a real fan because you don't want to talk about the sad level we were playing at? No. We might have had some nice days in Forcier era, but there was really nothing to talk about because it was embarrassing.
And you're bashing the chants that the students come up with? Not meaning for it to be an excuse but we're 20 year olds. Come on. "Fuck the Irish" is a classic. We don't care that everyone does it. Why should you think that we should be above and beyond any other student population in terms of chants we come up with?
October 30th, 2011 at 6:10 PM ^
Until the students start seeing a great product on the field consistently, with competitive games against top competition, I think you could excuse them for cutting corners since they have better things to do...They are in fact students
October 31st, 2011 at 1:33 AM ^
I don't want to get into a pissing contest here, but what are the better things for them to do? I mean, if they think life is hard now, just wait until they graduate and get their first job. I don't even want to consider how exponentially more difficult having kids would be.
Everybody has "things to do". Let's not pretend that students have much, much, better things to do than everybody else.
October 31st, 2011 at 8:24 AM ^
As I read that post I was thinking "I have quadruplet 3 year olds, a job, a wife who doesn't like me watching a lot of sports, an extreme fondness for hunting etc etc etc and this guy is talking about all the other things students have to do???" Even through the crap of the past three years I have never turned off a game early once. I am from Nova Scotia Canada and have yet to be able to make pilgrimage to AA to see a game in my life. The fact that people are making excuses for students who simply have to roll out of bed to get to the games and pay $25 for a ticket makes me want to be sick. I would give my left testicle for that opportunity and the fact that some don't appreciate it is pretty sad!
October 30th, 2011 at 9:32 PM ^
Why should you think that we should be above and beyond any other student population in terms of chants we come up with?
Because we're Michigan...we are better
October 30th, 2011 at 9:33 PM ^
Nothing of the form "fuck _____" is a classic. And you're 20(-ish) year olds who got into Michigan. Presumably you have functioning brains. You should be above and beyond most other student populations in the B1G, not to mention those of MAC schools--once again, you got into Michigan! The whole point of the Michigan Man meme is to encourage people to act in a way that reflects well on their alma mater, their classmates, and eventually their fellow alumni. Accountability isn't just for student-athletes. </rant>
October 31st, 2011 at 1:25 AM ^
talk about being entitled. you speak of the definition of "fair weather fan". and yes those types are fans but not "great fans". the great fans are loyal through thick and thin. i was lucky enough to attend the nat'l title rose bowl game in 1998. however, i went to more games in 2008 than any other year; missing just one road game.
October 30th, 2011 at 5:36 PM ^
I didn't realize there were students that were fair weather fans. Thanks for letting me know there are still some of you left.
October 30th, 2011 at 5:47 PM ^
Why should a student who grew up on the East or West coast with no allegiance to Michigan, automatically become a diehard supporter of a mediocre team? Some do, some don't. Maybe they grew up as Rutgers or USC fans or where ever their parents went to school.
We have posters on the board here who go to Indiana, MSU, Ohio State, and several other schools. They didn't automatically become fans of those schools when they enrolled, they stayed Michigan fans.