Go to Subway anyway

The Michigan hockey team plays Notre Dame at the Palace of Auburn Hills this weekend. As The Blog That Yost Built pointed out when the schedule was released, Notre Dame may be getting exposure in a new market, but it may not be worth it to give up their only home date against Michigan for what amounts to a road game less than an hour from Michigan's campus.

Well, it seems that they're trying to reclaim the environment. While it's naturally going to be a heavy Michigan crowd, one staple of weekends at Yost will be conspicuously absent: The Michigan hockey pep band will not be in attendance.

This is not due to conflicts or crowds. It is because Notre Dame is excluding them from attending. The hockey team liason explained to the band that "it is ND's home game and they did not want to allow [them] to travel." The band contacted the CCHA and learned that there is no official policy on home games played at neutral sites, but they would bring up this issue at league meetings this year. Red Berenson and the team told the MMB staff that the band's presence would "greatly improve the environment," and that their hands are tied.

Incredible that this is deliberate. But band-related conflicts are not without precedent between these schools. The Notre Dame marching band has twice made problems for themselves when traveling to Michigan in the past. Michigan's long-standing policy of capping opposing bands groups at 330 members somehow became an obstacle for Notre Dame who was unwilling to write drill for a smaller group in advance. Ultimately, they complained publicly but still came without incident. And I think they came to Michigan this year too, though I don't remember hearing their fight song when they scored.

I don't mean to suggest this is a retaliatory snub -- if they wanted to inconvenience the MMB they could've done so at the games in 2004 or 2006 -- just wanted to note that similar things have happened before.

The Victors and the Notre Dame Victory March are unanimously revered among the top fight songs in the country and almost always appear #1 and #2 in pundits' lists. It is unfortunate that this attempt at neutralizing the Michigan faithful comes at the expense of some of the greatest traditions in college athletics, and not by circumstance, but by choice.

Update: Notre Dame will indeed have its pep band there Saturday. The associate athletic director responded to an e-mail explicitly stating that since the Michigan band played at its home game on Friday, that "in turn, the Notre Dame band will perform at its home game on Saturday." He said that during CCHA play, visiting teams' pep bands do not perform at Yost Ice Arena, and we should not expect Notre Dame to host a visiting band, since that is not customary in college hockey.

He neglects to account for CCHA regular season games played at neutral sites, such as the annual Michigan-MSU hockey game at Joe Louis Arena, where both bands are present. And when LSSU played one of its home games at Joe Louis, rotating Michigan and Michigan State as opponents, both visiting teams' bands went. There's even a precedent for CCHA regular season games played at non-hockey venues: The Cold War.

To which Michigan sent a band.

The band is on the screen!

A post at the commentating panopticon Awful Announcing expresses incredulity that Fox showed the WFVU and Oklahoma marching bands 58 times during last night's Sugar Bowl.

And that's a bad thing?

We may be biased here at the HSR, but the cameras should be focusing on the bands at least that much. College marching bands are a consistent source of coordinated chants, animated cheers, flashy instruments, and students always cheering loudly. For all the work they put in they rarely get televised attention for it. With the notable exception of the Rose Bowl, pregame and halftime are rarely shown unless they can fit it in between commercials for whatever sports drink sponsored this presentation.

Ironically, during the 29 theoretical times they showed Oklahoma's band, they were probably playing Boomer Sooner during each one. It's certainly not as annoying as USC's pep dirge (which they played at least sixty times during last year's Rose Bowl), but it doesn't help to look so uninspiring when you finally get the airtime.

Anyway: We applaud Fox Sports' BCS bowl game producers for showing off an essential element of the pageantry and tradition of college football. Keep it up.

How Michigan Influences OSU

As we prepare for the 104th edition of the greatest rivalry in all of sports, it's important to take a few jabs at each other along the way. Here are some aspects of college football where Michigan has influenced the Buckeyes.

Stadium Decoration

Because the athletic director loved the colors*, the rotunda at Ohio Stadium is decorated with maize and blue flowers. Michigan Stadium wasn't built for five years afterward, but it's probably not hard to guess what the color scheme was going to be.

Nostalgic Longing

The Ohio State song "I want to go back to Ohio State" straight-up stole its first lines and melody from Michigan's "I want to go back to Michigan."

Marching Band Formations

The first script Ohio was formed in 1932 by the Michigan Marching Band.

Yes, this is not THE [HYPERBOLE] SCRIPT OHIO as we know it today. It is still Ohio, in script. And OSU fans will be quick to point out that the MMB just marched straight there. Which is fine, because it gets it over with faster.

The OSU band also played music from Titanic at last year's game. While they played Celine Dion's famous song, they formed the ship, cracked it, and sunk it off the edge of the field, using fire extinguishers for steam. The crowd loved it.

Now, that's a clever idea, but I liked it better when the Michigan Marching Band did it in 1998.

"Michigan Daily: The Band Plays On - 10/1/1998: 'That whole thing with the band members grouping in the shape of that old sunken ship, complete with the fire extinguishers for steam, was quite creative and entertaining, and very cool.'

How to Behave

Actually, they came up with this one all on their own. I hope.

*No. It's because the winner of the 1922 dedication game got to paint the flowers in their colors. Michigan won 19-0.