Where should the MMB travel now that Notre Dame is off the schedule?
With the football team no longer traveling to Notre Dame, and the MSU and Ohio games being moved to the same year, the Michigan Marching Band no longer has a trip on odd years. This got me thinking about a new location that the band should travel to. For me, I believe that the bad should travel to Penn State every odd year. What are your thoughts?
Has to be PSU. We have brought them there a couple of times.
at State College were all Homecoming games and their Alumni band took 2nd billing. I really doubt the band would have PSU as an option. Unfotunately, I was at all 3 of those game - but the drugs I'm taking are starting help me forget the games ...
It'll probably be Rutgers ...
Go Blue!
Maybe it'll change under Franklin, but I'm pretty sure JoePa had a no-opponent's-band policy, which is why I never remember PSU bringing their band to the Big House...
I'm almost certain they brought their band here a few times.
State College is tricky because they require the band to actually sit in the stands. In 2006, the MMB was slated to go because the football staff specifically asked for it. The travel and lodging was completely set up, the money was there, everything was all in line. PSU put the kibosh on it because they didn't have seating. If the MMB were to do State College (and it would be tough, considering it's a pretty lengthy drive each way and flying is cost prohibitive), the decision would have to be made quite early so PSU can plan on it.
To give a little background, B1G rules always allow for opposing bands or sanctioned pep bands (i.e., the MMB can't just informally send 15 kids with regular tickets and their instruments--it has to be approved), but it's on the host school to both approve it and have somewhere to put them. No one is ever going to flat-out say no, but there are legitimate reasons why proposed visits don't work out, for one reason or another.
Isnt MSU OSU only on the same year this year beacuse of the 2 in a row for MSU at home?
Unless the Big Ten is going to give us two consecutive home games against MSU down the road to compensate, this is the new normal - MSU and OSU on the same yearly alignment.
You are correct...and it drives me crazy. We got screwed with this. No other team in the conference got a doubled-up road game against a rival. Asked for comment, Dave Brandon said, "We don't play Neil Diamond loud enough, do we?"
Yeah, we're basically going to alternate awesome and terrible home schedules every year from here on out, if the Big Ten doesn't somehow rectify this. I don't understand how they couldn't figure out how to avoid this. Someone posted earlier pointing out that all they had to do was flip a couple of games (I think involving Indiana and Minnesota) and they could have had us hosting MSU next year.
Like most things, I blame this on Dave Brandon. He previously expressed his ability to have input on scheduling (like the OSU game) and yet Michigan is, by far, the biggest loser in the new scheduling. I think we have two double-road games; maybe one other team has one...and no one is doubled up at a rival.
I don't know if Brandon could have done anything. In the case of the OSU game, both schools were crying foul, and that was the conference's marquee matchup anyway - the media thought it was sacrilege to move the Game, too. In the case of Michigan-MSU, MSU probably has no problem with the game flipping over like this, and neutral observers probably don't care that much either way. I don't think the Big Ten intended to screw it up like this, but they probably also didn't really care to rectify it, either.
He could have said we are fucking Michigan and we want it changed. Brandon gets way to much blame here, but he should have pushed back hard on this.
I'd be inclined to agree, but my impression was he used a lot of his sway in that respect, what, a year before by demanding both that Michigan and Ohio State be in separate divisions and that The Game remain the last week of the season. DB went to bat hard on that. Sure, we're Michigan, but you can only go into the conference meetings swinging your dick around so many times before the other guys really start resenting you more than they already do.
I wouldn't get too upset about having back-to-back games in East Lansing as a byproduct of the confernece realigning and expanding. How do you make it a non-issue? Win those games.
Here's a plus side to the conference realignment--annual games with Penn State. That didn't always happen when the conference was at eleven teams and it certainly wasn't assured when Nebraska joined the conference either.
Michigan's Eastern Division Big Ten games are as follows for odd and even numbered years in the upcoming seasons:
Odd - Ohio State, Michigan State, Rutgers, at Penn State, at Indiana, at Maryland
Even - at Ohio State, at Michigan State, at Rutgers, Penn State, Indiana, Maryland
It's clear the conference ranked Michigan's top two opponents in the Eastern Division as Ohio State and Penn State--that's why those two games are home and away. I also suspect they wanted UM to play on the East Coast once per year, so that's why Rutgers and Maryland alternate as home and away games.
That left Indiana and Michigan State as the two remaining teams. I suspect the reason why they opted to have OSU/MSU either both at home or on the road is that it synched up with adding a major Western Division opponent, i.e., Wisconsin or Nebraska to balance out the home/road schedule. Here's Michigan's conference schedules from 2016 to 2019 when the Big Ten goes to a nine game slate (W stands for Western Division):
2016 (Home) - Penn State, Wisconsin (W), Maryland, Indiana, Illinois (W)
2016 (Away) - at Ohio State, at Michigan State, at Rutgers, at Iowa (W)
2017 (Home) - Ohio State, Michigan State, Rutgers, Minnesota (W)
2017 (Away) - at Penn State, at Wisconsin (W), at Maryland, at Indiana, at Purdue (W)
2018 (Home) - Penn State, Wisconsin (W), Nebraska (W), Maryland, Indiana
2018 (Away) - at Ohio State, at Michigan State, at Rutgers, at Northwestern (W)
2019 (Home) - Ohio State, Michigan State, Rutgers, Iowa (W)
2019 (Away) - at Penn State, at Wisconsin (W), at Maryland, at Indiana, at Illinois (W)
The portion of the schedule that Brandon can control is the non-confernce portion of it. The 2014 slate doesn't look very impressive and it looks even worse because the home game with Michigan State was moved back to East Lansing.
But from 2015 to 2019, you'll note that there are no MAC teams on the schedule (Ball State was moved to the 2020 season). UM is moving away from Miami (Ohio) and Bowling Green to play Hawaii, UNLV, Cincinnati, etc. Competition wise, that's something of a step up for the teams on the lower end of the non-conference schedule scale.
I am pleased to be in the East Divsion, and I agree that playing PSU annually is a plus. Just wish they didn't have to bunch up MSU and OSU like this. It was nice for our fans to have one of our rivals coming to town each year.
Give them a weekend in NYC.
if by weekend in NYC you mean a 12 hour bus ride out there on friday, couple hours of practice, the game, and then a 12 hour bus ride back.... because thats how that trip would probably end up
I think the "bad" should travel to Columbus and stay there.
"This got me thinking about a new location that the band should travel to."
This is MICHIGAN, Sir...and we don't end our sentences in prepositions.
...I was setting someone up for the classic joke...
This got me thinking about a new location that the band should travel to, asshole.
Sheesh.
you gotta give a guy more than 2 minutes when you have a setup like that to reply to. Asshole... ;)
The MMB tried to go to Penn State several times in the early '00s. The issue was that PSU wouldn't give them sufficient seating in the stands and wouldn't put them on the field. Maybe with new leadership they'll allow the MMB to go there, though it is a very long trip by bus.
If not PSU they'll probably travel to wherever is closest, since shorter trips are cheaper and the AD foots most of the bill. West Lafayette, Bloomington, and Evanston will be the likely destinations.
The Final Four.
Duh.
I also read somewhere that Maryland doesn't allow opposing bands in their stadium, which is supremely stupid. Maybe the conference will force them to drop that idiocy.
Given that we are financially bailing out their athletic department, they should be willing to budge on some of their policies.
So I can't blame them. If I remember correctly, they didn't have much of a band themselves when I lived there.
I'm surprised the conference does not have a uniform rule about this.
Please say no again PSU! Besides, doesn't the band have awful seats in the stadium? Far from the playing field?
2001 was extra messed up because the MMB committed to going, then all of the sudden Athletics agreed to the Cold War on the same day and wanted the whole band there. The MMB had to send a pathetically small pep band to State College, and the rest of the MMB to the Cold War. The only problem was the MMB had agreed to do a fundraiser concert at some high school in Pennsylvania, and the school was really banking on the money it would have brought. The MMB cancelled, they cried foul, and the whole thing turned into a press release crossfire between Michigan and this random high school in Bumblefuck, PA.
TO YOUR MOM'S HOUSE.
I really wish they could travel to all away games.
Some schools do send a pep band to every away game.
Then Michigan should do that. I'd like to hear the fight song every time Michigan scores.
I hear it inside my head.
(My imaginary friend sings it to me)
quite a bit ... We do sing The Victors after every score !
Go Blue!
That is greatly appreciated, but it cannot be heard on TV. I understand the costs involved with traveling, but...but...but....I WANT THEM THERE!
To whichever David Brandon Special game they have that year. Like the Florida game in Dallas.
Do you mean Alabama?
Space, bitches. Space.
Evanston would be fun. There's always such a large Michigan turnout there it would feel exactly like a home game (minus ~60,000 people).
The Rose Bowl. Where else?
Would you leave them home on the even years? We don't want to burn the band out making them travel to the Rose Bowl every year.
Why would the band go to the Rose Bowl? Wouldn't they be at the college football playoff?