Nick Saban was right about clamoring for his student section to turnout and stay out once at a game. However, unlike Michigan’s most recent conference game against Maryland, if your opponent is a middling Sun Belt team, and you’re, well, Alabama, you can’t expect too much. I know, I know, true fans turn out and stay out even if you are winning 56-14 against LA-Lafayette, but the reality of life is that not everybody cares.
While big fans of the sport enjoy seeing their bench unload late into a blowout, allowing them to get familiar with the next crop of student-athletes, the average college football fan doesn’t know the three deep, or redshirt players, or that one walk-on who got a lot of praise in spring ball. Instead, they appreciate the game but decide they want to spend their Saturday doing something besides watching a superior team dominate an inferior team.
With that being said, I took issue with the student turnout during Michigan’s home game against Maryland. Unlike Nick Saban’s complaint about his student fans, this game was a B1G conference game, homecoming, and a battle of one-loss teams. By all accounts, Maryland is a worthy opponent, and their dispatching of the now on fire Texas Longhorns is extra impressive today.
Excuses can be made in the form of the 70-minute weather delay, the initial noon kickoff time, and the stigma of Maryland football being a pushover, but the reality is that Michigan’s student section routinely fails to fill to capacity, and if it does, maintain capacity for the duration of the game. This is not just a one-off occurrence either, this is an all too familiar sight, especially on homecoming.
Since 2004, my father and I have traveled to Ann Arbor for the annual Michigan homecoming game, and we have always sat opposite of the student section. For the better part of 14 years, I have watched the homecoming crowd fill the Big House to capacity in all except the northeast end zone, the student section. For a program like Michigan to not have the full support of its students is puzzling, especially for B1G conference games and homecoming games.
Wisconsin and Penn State are still upcoming on the home schedule and I have no doubt that the Big House will be filled with 110,000+ fans and students for those games, but the measure of a great home atmosphere isn’t assessed by just the big games but also by the non-conference and smaller conference games.
Having lived in Omaha, Nebraska for three years I learned something about fan loyalty, as I have never encountered a fanbase so loyal to such an abysmal program. Nebraska football is a religion to the people of Nebraska, and I don’t blame them, there really isn’t anything else to do on a Saturday in Nebraska if you live outside of Omaha or Lincoln. However, Nebraska fills their stands week in and week out even against such garbage opponents as Troy and B1G bottom dwellers Rutgers and Illinois. Call it blind loyalty but Nebraska fans are passionate about supporting their team as its student section which has sold out for decades running. They are having their worst start since 1945 and yet, they still show out on Saturday, what excuse do Michigan students have?
Unlike Nebraska, Michigan isn’t a dumpster fire (anymore) and fields a team that may still contend for the playoff, but they can’t seem to attract their students to the games or get them to stay. Michigan students could learn a thing from Nebraska students in how to represent the university on its biggest stage each week. The same goes for Alabama and all the other blue bloods that go up big in the first half and cruise to victory. Students should take more pride in their programs and need to learn to be, well, better fans.
If this issue does not resolve itself I can foresee a time when student tickets are slashed in quantity allowing the Universities to sell the tickets to season ticket holders and fans to guarantee the seats are filled. This removes the liability of having more drunk students at games while also generating more revenue for the schools. If this sounds like an appalling idea, it should, the student sections are what make the college atmosphere entirely different from an NFL game, and to lose that would be a great loss for college football as a whole.
In short, college football student sections from across the country could learn a thing or two on how to support their schools and programs. Using the once proud 0-5 Nebraska Cornhuskers as an example, this is not a matter of wins and losses or who you are playing but a matter of actual investment and commitment that you place in supporting your school. College football season only comes around for 12 to 15 weeks a year so why not make it count?