This makes me sad...

"The Haters Guide to the Top 25"...updated and published on an annual basis by Deadspin.

http://deadspin.com/the-2013-haters-guide-to-the-top-25-1221167616

"17. Michigan. That stadium. That stadium is the most lifeless bowl of humanity ever constructed. You may as well stage a game at Penn Station. I went to Michigan for a semester and the only time fans get loud at the Big House is when they're yelling at other fans for not giving a shit. Half of all fans in the student section during games are on the phone arranging for a frat house sandwich delivery. The enormous capacity of Michigan Stadium is basically a cheap way of making Michigan football look more important than it actually is. The reason 100,000 Michiganders go to those games is because they have nowhere else to go. Go to any SEC school, even Vandy, and you will find tens of thousands more fans who are genuinely interested in the welfare of their team."


While some of that is nonsense ('basically a cheap way of making Michigan football look more important..."), the comments regarding the lifelessness of the stadium is 1000000% true.

I know this has been debated here in the past, but it's simply a fact. I know we have some older alumni, yada yada yada...I respect those people, and they certainly deserve to be there. But it's not just those people. The fanbase as a COLLECTIVE is entirely too quiet.

And the 'structure of the bowl and sound goes straight up' argument is just an excuse. I don't give a damn how a bowl is designed, if you have enough people going crazy, the place is going to be loud. Enough said.

People got all pissy when they started piping music into the building. I think that was the first step towards restoring some life to the place.

I truly, legitimately want them to start a marketing campaign geared towards encouraging fans to finally make some damn noise in the place. I don't care how cheesy the campaign/slogan is...."We're the Big House, let's be the Loudest House" or something lame like that. I don't care. Just do it.

It has been noticeably louder since the renovations which have helped the acoustics a bit. I've said this before but noise feeds on itself and the Big House was always at a disadvantage because the sound escaped without anything to make it bounce back.

The other point I would make is that our fans tend to be less drunk than at other venues I've been to.

UTL 2 years ago was really loud though and the Neb and OSU games that year weren't bad.

The age is irrelevant, OSU has the same or older average age of the fans, but they're drunker and the sound bounces back from the upper deck.

'shoes

UTL is how loud every big game should be. It shouldn't take a momentous occasion, i.e. the first night game in history, to be the catalyst.

The other games shouldn't be far off from those noise levels, either.

We pack a lot of people into one place, but I don't think we can really claim a significant home-field advantage. Not to the likes of OSU, PSU, Wisconsin and many of the SEC schools. Heck, even most of the Pac-12 schools are louder.

It's just something that has always bothered me. I use to stand up for the 115,000 people when others would criticize, but I can't do it anymore. I was trying to convince myself as much as I was trying to convince others that their claims were incorrect.

I just can't defend it anymore.

I'll always love Meeeechigan, and I'll always be at the Big House on Saturdays. But at the same time, I'll always yearn for a louder crowd and decidedly advantage at home.

I will say, I do think booze plays a part in this.

That being said....

DRINK UP, FOLKS!


  

Here was the blurb on Ohio:

"2. Ohio State. Oh hey, turns out your pious asshole of a head coach not only has landmines planted in his brain, but he's likely 50 times dirtier than the pious asshole he replaced. From the high school to the college level, the state of Ohio is terminally incapable of operating a scholastic football program that isn't run by liars, false prophets, scumbags, or rape apologists. Any time someone tells me he's from Ohio and involved in football in some way, I double lock my car and put a cork in my asshole."

        

It may be an excuse but we're so used to greatness why should we get loud for just winning? And oh yea, ever been in the student section (and I'm not talking the graduate student section)? It's not so silent in Sections 33-29...

The addition of the luxury boxes on both sides of the stadium has actually really helped hold the sound in much better than before. But that stadium can be plenty noisy even for a non-rivalry game. Heck, I'd say 80% of the games I have been to have been blowouts over teams that were not expected to be much competition. The noise could definitely be better in some areas but it's certainly not as bad as that description in DeadSpin.

At the moment, we have a much bigger problem than lack of noise. It's the students. The majority of them don't show up to the game until halftime. It's happened at every game I've gone to since Brady Hoke's first season. You have a completely packed stadium except for that one corner that makes up the student section. It's only 30% full. No students for pre-game to sing 'The Victors' when the band forms the block M, no students in the stands to cheer the team charging out of the tunnel. It's such a disgrace.

Crap. Now I'm depressed. You probably shouldn't have posted that link, Admin.

Drinking of more important to college students than football. Football is big, but when you compare it to drinking and sex it's nothing. Football Saturdays are seriously the only times when all students have no obligations. You're lucky they make out at all.

Drinking and sex were around prior to 2011, yet this was never an issue with the students until very recently. But whatever. There's still a good ten hours to drink after the game. Football is still football. We're talking 6-8 days out of your entire school year where you have a home game. It shouldn't be this much of a hassle.

Michigan is very competitive, stressful, hectic, etc. that they need this. I think that you can also put a little blame on Rich Clod....

You guys should see the player's family section. It is horrible. 75% of them don't stand up for the school song, none of them stand up during the game, hardly any even cheer. They are there because they got free tickets, not because they give 2 shits about who wins. They only really care about seeing whatever player they know on the team. It is incredibly depressing.

As for loudness? I don't think it's as much about Michigan fans as you guys think. Down in New Orleans the Superdome was basically 50/50 Michigan / Va Tech fans and Michigan fans were definitely louder. Besides one friggin' section, of course.

Really though, next time you watch a home game, notice that the section between the 40's behind the Michigan bench is never, ever, showing excitement.

LOL....that makes sense. I'm not making excuses for it but yea, people who don't even really deserve those tickets sit on their hands with their mouths sewn shut.

'hail, I assume that you have been with the students at least once or twice?

Nope. I've only been to the Big House a few times. I've had a players tickets 4 of the 5 games I've gone to so I've never gotten to experience the student section. It looks fun though. I like that little dance they do to one of the songs the band plays.

vs UConn (When Denard became Denard)
vs Michigan St. (sat behind the end zone opposite the student section)
vs UMass

Then
vs Virginia Tech (Sugar Bowl)
@Minnesota

Let me get this straight.  The parents of a player don't deserve to get tickets?  Give me one VALID reason why this is so.

Since 1968 other than my four years as a student and the past 3 with season tickets, I have sat in pretty much every part of the stadium (attending 2-3 games in those non season ticket years, big games and small games, it is a myth that Mich fans are older on average, wine-sippers (maybe wine-gulpers back when students brought in Boones Farm bottles), or appreciably less enthusiastic. Everyone has their anecdotal evidence which might suggest otherwise but it is 90 percent the stadium design (The Rose Bowl isn't very loud either) and 10 percent the alcohol factor.

Noise and enthusiasm are contagious and this is why I'm not totally against using music on the PA to whip up the crowd. It gets loud and people think- hey I'm part of this noise and they yell louder, it's a visceral, almost subconscious thing.

If we had a replica of Autzen stadium in Ann Arbor and played in it, we would be just as loud.

'shoes

WolverineHistorian wrote:

The addition of the luxury boxes on both sides of the stadium has actually really helped hold the sound in much better than before.  But that stadium can be plenty noisy even for a non-rivalry game.  Heck, I'd say 80% of the games I have been to have been blowouts over teams that were not expected to be much competition.  The noise could definitely be better in some areas but it's certainly not as bad as that description in DeadSpin.  

At the moment, we have a much bigger problem than lack of noise.  It's the students.  The majority of them don't show up to the game until halftime.  It's happened at every game I've gone to since Brady Hoke's first season.  You have a completely packed stadium except for that one corner that makes up the student section.  It's only 30% full.  No students for pre-game to sing 'The Victors' when the band forms the block M, no students in the stands to cheer the team charging out of the tunnel.  It's such a disgrace.  

Crap.  Now I'm depressed.  You probably shouldn't have posted that link, Admin.  

I immediately regretted putting it up, but 'shoes had commented so quickly there was no turning back.  

blu4vr wrote:

Let me get this straight.  The parents of a player don't deserve to get tickets?  Give me one VALID reason why this is so.

I'm not saying that. I'm saying that parents should consider showing some enthusiasm for their kid's team.