Michigan Marching Band
I for one am really disappointed that the Marching Band was not there on Saturday night. You have a game in Primetime on ABC under the lights, and the greatest fight song in college football was silent. Michigan is a university that is far from cash strapped. The $100 million gift to the Athletic department from Mr. Ross, aside from the other $100 million for the business school, should have more than been enough to get the band there on Saturday. For the university to say that financially they can't afford to send the band is just wrong. When Ohio played at Cal a few weeks ago, their band was there and they were loud and noticeable. Michigan seems to be one of the only schools that doesn't willingly take the band with them unless some alumnist steps forward to foot the bill. Thoughts?
September 23rd, 2013 at 10:06 AM ^
This should end well.
September 23rd, 2013 at 10:32 AM ^
Not going to matter. There will be no band soon. Dave Brandon has to save the money to pay the salries of the incoming recruits. The National Collegiate Semi Professional Athletic Association (NCSPA). This is a league of entitlement folks and these kids gotta eat better because taco bell in college is so bad. They gotta have alexus to drive at 18 yo. If coach got one, I gots to have one. It just isnt fair that coach worked his entire life likely beginning as an assistant somewhere making no money and now he gets a reward, while I live in a dorm with free food or with 7 roomates in an apartment with video games, college girls and really no worries. Oh and dont forget I only get a free education from an institution of higher learning.
September 23rd, 2013 at 10:34 AM ^
Somebody run over your dog this morning?
September 23rd, 2013 at 10:48 AM ^
After saturday, I ran over my own dog today.
September 23rd, 2013 at 10:54 AM ^
that is a little extreme
September 23rd, 2013 at 10:40 AM ^
I feel like I've read this before.
September 23rd, 2013 at 10:43 AM ^
Thinly veil your stereotypes better.
September 23rd, 2013 at 10:47 AM ^
the problem with our society is that we thinly veil to much.
September 23rd, 2013 at 10:48 AM ^
Yes, because the world would be much better if people were outwardly racist?
Wait...what?
September 23rd, 2013 at 12:16 PM ^
Nice jump to your conclusion. You must workout.
September 23rd, 2013 at 2:10 PM ^
Thank you, i have been.
And to be honest, I don't think it's a big jump. Seeing it went from "thinly veiled stereotypes" to "the problem with our society is that we thinly veil to much". So using mathematics, he is saying that:
- Commenter A: Thinly veiled stereo types
- Commenter B: We should remove thinly veiled stuff
- (Thinly veiled stereotypes) - (thinly veiled) = stereotypes.
- Stereotypes are a product/cause of racism.
- Thus, I don't think my statement is that much of a jump.
Plus it goes along with everything else he's said this thread.
September 23rd, 2013 at 4:48 PM ^
nailed it, imo. Thread will probably get shut down now, however; this was not destined to be real productive anyway.
September 23rd, 2013 at 11:00 AM ^
Quick question: do you breathe almost exclusively out of your mouth?
September 23rd, 2013 at 11:05 AM ^
There wasnt anything racist anout what i said. I really find it odd that you have to make fun of the way I talk. I hate close minded thinking. Because someone uses slang it makes them a racist. Racism is dead my friend. I can do it in a southern tone, northern, canadian. It doesnt matter. It also doesnt matter what I say to you because you becaquse you are convinced by one way of thinking. Not sure how else to put it partner. See ya round the blog.
September 23rd, 2013 at 11:12 AM ^
I'm not sure I could stack a more severe combination of ignorance, comprehension failure, and lack of self-awareness into a single comment.
September 23rd, 2013 at 11:01 AM ^
September 23rd, 2013 at 11:15 AM ^
September 23rd, 2013 at 11:20 AM ^
lol! I give up. I lose. Go blue.
September 23rd, 2013 at 12:16 PM ^
Jesus. The vitriol against players on this blog is getting ridiculous, especially when it's completely irrelevant to the topic.
September 23rd, 2013 at 1:08 PM ^
I find your philosophy intriguing and would like to hear more....oh wait, no I wouldn't.
September 23rd, 2013 at 10:06 AM ^
We didn't bring the offensive line either.
September 23rd, 2013 at 10:18 AM ^
September 23rd, 2013 at 10:22 AM ^
I bet Glasgow grades out fine; Kalis ok. The real problem was Miller. I was sitting in the center of the endzone, so I could really see him on every play. He just got repeatedly. Everyone else got beat from time to time, but not consistently.
September 23rd, 2013 at 10:28 AM ^
September 23rd, 2013 at 10:31 AM ^
I have a mental image of Coach Funk getting of the plane before the game, and looking around for his players, to see that they left them in Ann Arbor. Then yelling "Oh Funk this, not again"
September 23rd, 2013 at 10:37 AM ^
YOu didnt know that football will soon be 7 on and 7 and there will be no more o-line. This is the future of the game.
September 23rd, 2013 at 10:07 AM ^
September 23rd, 2013 at 10:39 AM ^
Says the man using an exclusively Ohio State phrase.
September 23rd, 2013 at 12:58 PM ^
if you've ever noticed, the udub band is the only one in the stadium because the other schools boycott their WI game. The udub fans have a history of being very nasty to opposing bands.
The UW band is good, I'll grant you. As a longtime observer of the MMB, I have been disappointed in the wussy shows and that flat-footed stride they use. The band hasn't been anywhere near as awesome since George Cavender directed it and Jerry Bilik arranged the music.
September 23rd, 2013 at 1:05 PM ^
Is it just because we're Michigan and we can't ever have nice things, or is the consistent band-bashing an artifact of Dunning-Kruger nonsense?
September 23rd, 2013 at 3:38 PM ^
If you are trying to do a parody of a grumpy old man, you're doing a spot on job.
Cavendar was a great director, but he retired 35 years ago. Things change. That's how life works.
if the band were still doing everything exactly the same as they were in 1978, they would be criticized for being old and outdated and people would ask why they were so unable to get with the times.
September 23rd, 2013 at 4:02 PM ^
You've been around a while if you remember them. Do you remember Revelli? I was his paper deliverer in Ann Arbor back in the 60's.
September 23rd, 2013 at 10:07 AM ^
...and considering we did see fit to fork over a couple thousand to paint some words in the sky...yeah, I don't get it, either.
September 23rd, 2013 at 4:53 PM ^
let's buy some speakers for the band, too
September 23rd, 2013 at 10:08 AM ^
But then we went over on our skywriting budget.
September 23rd, 2013 at 10:12 AM ^
I know I'm biased since I am a pretty big fan of higher education, but why does the band need to travel to multiple away games? Every member of the band should be a student first. More travel means more time away from classes.
September 23rd, 2013 at 10:18 AM ^
Agreed. Furthermore, this was a mere athletic exhibition between student-athletes. I saw no need to televise or have all the fancy trapping and pagentry, such as a marching band.
September 23rd, 2013 at 10:28 AM ^
September 23rd, 2013 at 10:43 AM ^
The idea that we shouldn't take the band to a game because they need to study is pretty silly. Maybe the football team shoudn't go either? I hear they have a big test on Monday.
The band doesn't go to many away games because of the massive cost of taking the band anywhere. The band outnumbers the football team 3 to 1 and has massive amounts of equipment to haul. Even making a day trip somewhere takes 6 chartered coaches and a semi-truck. It's a considerable expense. Connecticut is a 12 hour drive. That would have been a hell of a drive. Plus, it was a night game, meaning that now you are driving back over night with the kids sleeping on the busses or you are putting up 300 people in a hotel.
Is it worth it to have the band at big games? Absolutely. Is the cost high enough that you have to pick and choose what games to take them to? Yes. Every school has to make this same choice.
September 23rd, 2013 at 11:01 AM ^
Please point out to me where I said the reason why they don't travel is due to missing class or missing study time?
My point is that travel comes at a cost to the students. That cost is often not seen or simply ignored by people that don't really understand how much time is required to do things like travel to away games.
September 23rd, 2013 at 1:59 PM ^
"I know I'm biased since I am a pretty big fan of higher education, but why does the band need to travel to multiple away games? Every member of the band should be a student first. More travel means more time away from classes." A quote from your earlier post...
That may not have been your reason why they don't travel, but it was the reason why you think they should not, in your own words... I am not saying I agree or disagree with you, I am just responding to your initial question.
September 23rd, 2013 at 2:40 PM ^
Your post specified that you personally thought the band shouldn't travel to multiple away games because they should be students first. I guarantee you that if you polled the band members, a majority of them would be more than thrilled to go to one or two more games than they currently go to.
The idea that anyone is protecting the band members as students by only taking them to 1 or 2 road games a year is just not accurate. It is purely about money, and nothing else.
September 23rd, 2013 at 10:32 AM ^
I guarantee you a football player has more distractions and obstacles to their academic success in a single season than an MMB member has across four years of school.
But you'd never argue those guys need to stay home to study, so... Here we are.
September 23rd, 2013 at 10:50 AM ^
So the members of the Michigan marching band are more like the football team in terms of being students than normal students?
Because, I thought the band members were real students.
September 23rd, 2013 at 10:59 AM ^
So should every student miss as much time as football players (who, by the way, do not miss the most amount of class time due to sports)? That is not a logical way to go about this.
Also, the football players have study hall, academic support staff, and people checking in on their coursework. The band students (at least here at UW) are on their own.
September 23rd, 2013 at 11:10 AM ^
I guess I just don't get your point. MMB students tend to be high achievers. Let's face it, it's a band largely comprised of engineers and science folk. These are kids that don't need an academic support staff or a study hall to make sure they do enough to stay above a minimum GPA threshold. This is also a group of students, unlike athletes, who can schedule classes at just about any time except 4:45-6:15 during the fall. Athletes get first registration priority because with lifting and conditioning schedules, practice obligations, and travel, they often can only attend classes in very narrow windows of time during the day.
In four years of being in no less than three MMB-related ensembles in a given year, I might have missed about five class sessions. Total. Just about all of us carried a bag of schoolwork with us on away trips. I wrote a senior thesis in a hotel room at NCAA hockey tournament. I know people who had tests proctored by the MMB staff in faraway places, and submitted work electronically on the fly. It's just like any other extra-curricular activity. If you can budget your time well, you can make it work. And compared to athletes, we really didn't have it all that hard.
So I reiterate my point: What makes the MMB different in your "big fan of higher education" scenario when the actual class time missed by MMB students, even if they were to go to every away game, is drastically smaller than the football team? Why should you single out the MMB and not football?
September 23rd, 2013 at 11:16 AM ^
So, because band students do well in class, that means they should miss more class?
From my point of view, any missed class, by any student, for any reason, is not a good thing. Sure, some students can make up the missed material, but not all can. I'm not saying band travel is OMG THE WORST THING EVER. I just feel that the time required for travel from the students is a unseen cost that is easy to brush aside.
September 23rd, 2013 at 11:40 AM ^
So nice that you have such an acute interest in seeing that MMB members keep up with their schoolwork.
September 23rd, 2013 at 2:56 PM ^
What classes are the band students missing? Has Michigan started scheduling classes on Saturdays and Sundays since I graduated?
No away trips require any band members to miss classes. The band leaves early on Saturday morning and usually returns very late Saturday night. The suggestion to go to UConn (which would never have happened due to $$$$) would not have required them to miss any classes either, as they would have left early on Saturday morning.
So what the heck is your argument? What classes are you so concerned about the band students missing? Because they aren't currently missing any classes, nor is anyone suggesting they miss any.