OT: Trustees Take Last Seats on Plane, Forcing MSU Band to Bus to Final Four
Have you ever driven from here to Minneapolis? I have. It sucks. But that's what the MSU band is forced to do tomorrow because the trustees booted them off the team charter. I didn't need another reason why I want them to lose, but I have one anyway.
LINK.
....assuming he has one.
I mean, if your options are that or just like a one-piece lose hanging "robe" type substance you have to go with the latter. You just cannot wear that, even at home and not in the public view. That look is a no-go, full stop. That has to be avoided at all costs even if you have to resort to other "taboo" measures. Wear a dress or some time of gown if you have to. You just can't do that.
No fucking way. I'd at least rock a sport coat or a big sweater.
I think a full-body mascot costume is the best option for him.
Yeah, there really aren't too many options for that, you have to go completely outside the box if that is the hand you are dealt.
Hmmmm. Not sure that's "the hand he was dealt" as much as it is the hand he's drawn to.
With few exceptions people that morbidly obese made lifestyle choices that led them there. Mostly they like to eat and they dont like to work out. I dont judge them but it drives me crazy when I hear people (not you) try and defend their weight gain like it's an illness and their powerless to do anything about it.
I have a daughter whose pretty heavy and God love her, every time she's at my house she's doing one of three things: eating stuff bad for her, sleeping or watching TV. And yet if she brings up her weight with me (I never do) you would think she's a gym warrior living on water and carrot juice and yet the weight keeps piling on.
Sorry, rant over.
"The hand he was dealt" in terms of how his body distributed the weight, not in putting on the weight itself.
And I agree that overweight people made decisions that lead them to where they are. I do think overweight people bear a disproportionate stigma for their "sin." Food is an addiction for some people, chemically and physically not a whole lot different than alcohol or drugs. Drug addicts and alcoholics are viewed sympathetically for their disease (while endangering not only themselves but others with their conduct), overweight people are just constantly made fun of and ridiculed for simply being bigger than other people.
I won't claim to be an expert in this space, but I've read things to suggest our "gut flora" (the bacteria that lives in our intestines) plays a role in this. It's fascinating stuff, and from what I can gather it's a science not yet well understood. But there's reason to believe the gut flora composition and balance contributes to a lot of things, not just weight.
A year ago I had an appendectomy, and during that process they pumped me full of antibiotics, which killed my gut flora. I was a mess for two weeks until things were re-built.
Ahh, I think he has more than 2 weeks of damage there....
Apparently no pictures are available of him not actively feeding himself.
This image is greatly enhanced by the fact that he's stuffing his face with fries. Sumo match with Weis at some point? Pay per view? Would probably draw more viewers than the AAF?
I've never seen a box of fries appear so tiny!
Good ol Triple Chin, what a disgusting, fat POS.
Good grief, Engler, put the fucking fork down for a few minutes a day.
That FUPA is legit.
The article says it's going to be about 10 hours on the bus. It's going to be a hell of a lot longer than that, depending on when they drive through the Chicago area. They should just go up through the U.P.
That's like a 2-day trip right there... Yes, Chicago sucks and can take forever. But the UP is never the answer.
Final Four --- Bowl Games --- they all have basically become "junket trips" for a school's various administrators.
Sucks for the band, but hey, "important people" need to go.
Penn State went to the Gator Bowl a few years ago. A middle-tier Bowl game that's basically irrelevant. But it was in Florida! And Jacksonville is warm! Well, sort of warm - at least warmer than Pennsylvania. So many "important" PSU folk wanted that free trip, the school actually had to charter TWO 747s.
Yeah bro, we are intimately familiar with irrelevant, mid-tier bowl games in Shitsville, Florida. We kinda wrote that book.....
Surprised Sparty's Trustees do not have a Lear or Gulfstream at their disposal like some of the better schools.
Maybe it's because they aren't one of the better schools.
A 12 hour bus ride with some Sparty co-eds doesn't seem too bad to the 21 year old version of myself. Catch up on homework for a few hours and then crack open some cheap beer.
Doesn't even sound bad to the 45 year old version of myself.
How would the trustees taking like 8 seats or whatever displace the entire band from the plane? This doesn't add up.
Most likely, it's also the Trustees' spouses - plus a secretary or two, maybe some kids too.
Such is how these things work - the entitled Trustees will add their +1s and +2s and +3s.
Add it all up, it's probably about 25 seats versus 8. And 25 seats is pretty close to the 30 seats the band needs.
That makes sense and also feels worse.
The surprising thing isn't that the trustees took the seats (don't conflate this and their other scandals; trustees have good reasons to travel in the fastest way).
The surprising thing is that MSU didn't have the money (or interest) to fix this the best way. Why else wouldn't they just get another plane?
Dick head move by the administration... I dunno, kind of.. a trend?
The difference is we would charter a second plane.
I recall we flew to the Frozen Four last time it was in Minneapolis - St. Paul (before last year -- 2011). There were maybe 25-30 people on the plane. This is the Final Four. They would charter a second plane lol.
There's a huge difference between driving a couple of hours on a bus to the next state over and driving to Minneapolis from East Lansing. And yes, it's always about money, but if you're MSU you'd think after you spent over half a billion dollars in legal fees and compensation for victims of the worst sexual assault situation in modern US history you'd, I don't know, not fucking nickel-and-dime your marching band going to the Final Four especially when they are displaced by the Board of Trustees, people who rather publicly bungled multiple situations recently.
It's not about superiority; Michigan fans vocally pointed out when the marching band wasn't flown to Texas for their game against Alabama, if memory serves me right. But for a school that makes hundreds of millions of dollars off college athletics, you'd figure they could shake a couple bucks free for an integral part of that experience to a lot of fans.
"UM would not charter a second flight for a handful of band members"
Except for the fact that UM flew the band out to the RB in 2005, you're right.
Tell us again that Jabrill Peppers is a moron who's too stupid to cover anybody.
How has this account not been fired into the sun yet? Clearly a Sparty troll.
When I went to the Frozen Four with the hockey band, there were rumblings that if the team won, we were going to get to fly back with them on the team's charter instead of our commercial flight (we always flew commercial with pep bands, if we flew). Instead, they lost in the opening game and we sat around for like three or four days until we could go home.
This is my way of saying you don't know anything about anything.
No, despite what is normal and common with other universities, the MSU trustees and administration once again display total tone deafness regarding the optics here. They are coming off one of the biggest university scandals in history, one in which they botched the handling of it over and over again. And while that debacle is still warm they decide to boot a bunch of hardworking students off the team plane so the jock-sniffing board and administration can ride with the team. In this context, if it looks bad it is bad. Fucking morons.
Tone deaf? A handful of band members taking a bus is not a big deal to anyone. Not even the kids on the bus. You are making this a big deal for no reason other than to feel as though you are a better person by proxy of your UM fandom.
This is a nothing story and the fact that so many people are trying to use it to demonstrate superiority to MSU is embarrassing.
Trustees get preferential treatment, period. It happens at UM as well.
Bullshit. After the Nassar scandal and continuous fuck-ups in judgement, the MSU trustees should not expect nor accept preferential treatment, much less kick a bunch of students whom they are supposed to be serving off an airplane. I would hold the same opinion if I was not a Michigan alum. They could have easily sidestepped this whole thing by chartering a plane for themselves.
My frustration too. This entire forum has become a gathering place for people trying to find ways to convince themselves they are better than MSU or OSU in any way possible.
This is a dumb thing to worry about and makes everyone appear petty and ignorant.
Michigan would have handled this the same way. Let's stop being babies because this year didn't end as planned.
"Michigan would have handle this the same way. "
Except others upthread have pointed out instances in which our band DID fly to other locations involving significant sporting events, and people who have actually been in Michigan's band—like Bando—have actual facts suggesting that Michigan would not handle this "in the same way."
And you're completely misinterpreting the comments—literally zero of us are "worrying" about this. We're mocking MSU for another public relations fuckup.
Not "filled" and definitely not worried about it. One thread with some entertaining comments.
Are people not allowed to comment, is that so threatening to you?
It must be.
Makes sense. No respect for that place. Go Texas Tech. Now I'm all in ..
To be fair, Engler needed two rows for himself and his FUPA.
Just another reason to cheer against MSU. Yet, somehow good things keep happening to that piece of shit institution. Really hope Texas Tech can beat those fuckers.
I know people in these positions, and I am telling you without a doubt college board of trustees, board of regents… Whatever you wanna call them, are some of the most entitled adults you will ever see in this country. They EXPECT free, 5 star Treatment whenever they are at a university event. They expect to be prioritized over all students, athletes, public, professors, or coaches
"Checks out." - Dave Brandon
Why does this actually move the needle for anyone here?
Take the Luddington Ferry. Cut the trip way down.
Take the ferry from Muskegon. It takes 2 hours, give or take, compared to the 4 hour journey from Ludington.
I love band.
But this is like Stalin taking Mussolini's seat on a plane.
WMU only sent 100 of their 300 person band to their bowl game. And the chicken-shit administrator(s) who made the decision didn't even have the stones to tell the 200+ kids who were excluded. They dropped it on the band directors and made them do it.
What can a person say but that this is typical and hardly surprising, given how MSU Regents have handled the whole Nassar thing.
It wouldn't bother me if they cancelled the flight and we had a Final 3 without East Lansing!!1!!!!!!
GO BLUE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!