Take a step back and tell me which schools have both a good atmosphere in football and basketball?
It’s really rare. Hard enough to get students really into a sports program, let alone two. Michigan does one of the better jobs in my opinion.
Wisconsin probably does it best from a football and basketball perspective. They have a raucous homecourt and homefield. Look across the country and try to figure out who else has a top notch football AND basketball environment.
And even with Wisconsin…I’ve attended the most recent basketball and football games against Michigan in Madison. Those atmospheres are both dramatically overrated. Kohl Center fills up better than Crisler but it was not particularly raucous IMO.
I’ve honestly never been to a football game there but have heard it’s fun. Unless jump around is the reason for that.
I was at the half courter and Stauskas step back games. Their students at least showed up in full. I do agree they pack the place, but it’s not crazy loud at all.
(As a side note, for those that think the Michigan PA announcer gets annoying, Wisconsin by far takes the cake. You want to get annoyed when a team hits a three, go to a game at Kohl Center)
Excellent analysis man–really good stuff. I was frustrated that we didn’t slip more against Nebraska. Seemed we were stubborn at times in how we countered their D–and Mo definitely loves the pick and pop way too much.
The second thing is Michigan’s choice to make over 42% of its students from out of state. People who weren’t already Michigan fans going into college simply aren’t going to care very much about the secondary sport
Eh, I don’t know. I was in-state but I had a lot of friends from out-of-state who were big sports fans here. (A lot of them first got interested in Michigan because of the sports teams.) Besides, we’re talking about a school with over 40,000 students.
Basketball has just been a lower priority for the average Michigan student/grad/fan (regardless of location) historically than football. If you’re comparing us with UNC, look at their football fanbase - how fired up are they?
I think a lot of it is that we’ve been very up-and-down, going from Final Fours to .500 records repeatedly over the last 50 years. Whenever we have a big thing going, something seems to happen to derail it and set back fan interest. Beilein was on a roll and interest was getting pretty high c. 2014, but then we had the two injury-plagued years. Hopefully we’re now building something again.
I say this every time the conversation comes up, but believe it so strongly–the u needs to find a way to give seats away or sell them cheaply to employees and fill the place. Employees at most universities are incredibly faithful followers and often, not incredibly well paid. I don’t see why the arena ever has to be half-empty.
Yep, I would almost guarantee you that there are lots of employees who would love to come to a Michigan game and cheer for THEIR team. There may be a few professors, perhaps some grad assistants, but most of them are custodians, and cafeteria workers and secretaries, they are maintenance workers and security personnel. They are regular workers who are not necessarily paid a lot of money but they love MICHIGAN! They would cheer loudly and proudly. I believe if the powers that be wanted this to happen, it certainly could, and it would be a great way to reward loyal employees of the university while filling many of those seat that go empty all too often.
Full and fired up for most none cupcake games at a school half the size of Michigan. Probably because the tickets are free and we get T-Shirts and other crap for going, plus points that go towards better Duke basketball game lottery luck. There were two games in a insanely crappy 3-9 season that too many students came, and they just decided to fill in aisles. That’s what I’m saying, college students are easily bought with incentives. Give the students who come early and often better football seats, a discount on tickets, something. Michigan tried to get better attendance with that HAIL program, but that was a dud (GPS spoofing, tiny prizes, nothing to stop showing up and then leaving).
Games against top 5 teams at a school like Michigan should not have multiple half empty student sections. I think the program has reached a point higher than that. That’s just my opinion.
This 100%. That’s why the Jacksonville game was the one sellout this year. The students were gone and tickets were given away to a large amount of organizations. Jacksonville shouldn’t be the one sellout in a season.
Wisconsin, as you mentioned, Louisville, NC State, Nebraska, Michigan State, Arkansas, and Tennessee were all top 20 in basketball attendance and also have good to fantastic football support.
Yeah that’s a good list. Although suprisingly I might take Michigan St off it. They can be really hit or miss for football.
There’s potential for so many more schools to fill up football or basketball and it’s just rare.
Even with that list, Wisconsin is the clear cut toughest academically. Adds another factor for schools like Wisconsin and Michigan. Harder to get students to buy in.
More or less agree that tougher academic schools will have to work much harder for good fan support.
I know this has been covered, but what is the deal we get on a subscription to The Athletic again? As a fan of all the NYC teams, I wasn’t sure if coverage would be relevant for me, but I guess there’s enough UM stuff to keep me busy over there?
I hate to say it but Wisconsin does really well with the school spirit thing. Those people are fanatical.
Oh absolutely. First school that came to mind.
I just don’t think they’re “raucous”. Wisconsin feels like a big time high school to an extent. All the locals root for them and pack the place, but not exactly an intimidating environment.