OPINION & EDITORIAL
Students: stop drinking, start cheering
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by Letters to the Editor
Monday, September 24, 2007
Congratulations to the University of Wisconsin student section on its continuing march into irrelevance. It is getting harder and harder to defend the UW student section. It is embarrassing to see the aerial shots at the beginning of every nationally televised game.
Did you all really have to squeeze in the 61st beer of the afternoon rather than leave 10 minutes earlier to get yourself to the game? I remember watching the USC-Nebraska game last week and marveling at the atmosphere — packed house, loud crowd. Fast forward to this week, and half the end zone is empty. Super job! Keep cheering when Madison is named the best college sports town and realize you have less and less to do with it.
Paul Lindorff
BS, Computer Science 2001UW alumnus, computer science
lindorff@cs.wisc.edu
Anonymous (September 24, 2007 @ 9:18am):
Although I don't think it will change anything, someone had to say it.
Thank you
Anonymous (September 24, 2007 @ 9:19am):
Mr. Paul Lindorff, Thank you for being such a grown up and lecturing us on our immoral behavior. If you were a sour sally in college and did not enjoy one of Madison's traditions - that is your fault. Get off your high horse and do ANYTHING but lecture us on our behavior. I mean seriously ... the only time I will have in my life when I can binge drink myself into the ground is now! x Signed x Freewill and Freedom
Anonymous (September 24, 2007 @ 9:29am):
Wrong, Mr. Lindorff, there is no other student section in all of college sports like ours. Not even the Cameron Crazies are as crazy or creative.
Anonymous (September 24, 2007 @ 11:09am):
Hey, I have ZERO problem with the drinking or swearing. None at all. Just get your drunk butt to the game on time. It's downright embarrassing to watch a Badger home game with alums from other schools and see a half-empty student section. At night, no less.
--Paul Lindorff
Anonymous (September 24, 2007 @ 11:55am):
In my department, a number of grad students came to Wisconsin from schools like Nebraska, Michigan, Oklahoma, Texas A&M, Penn State, and Georgia. Every one of them (including myself) is a strong college football fan who refuses to go to Badger games because the experience is unbelievably lame compared to those real football experiences.
For example, what purpose does the band serve? They're perfectly happy to sit there and let the PA system provide all the music during the game. The students can't be bothered to show up for kickoff, and once they're there, all they do is chant expletives back and forth to each other rather than cheer for the game that's unfolding before their eyes. Is one person in ten standing in the student section into the game enough to even know what down it is without checking the scoreboard?
When Bielema leaves Wisconsin for a better job elsewhere, know that the blame rests somewhat on the shoulders of the students. Why stick with a stadium full of drunks who know nothing about football when instead he could go to a stadium full of drunks who are actually into the game?
Anonymous (September 24, 2007 @ 12:09pm):
Maybe they should let alumni take the empties after kick-off.
Anonymous (September 24, 2007 @ 12:16pm):
Having spent 6 years in the student section and 8 years sitting with the old people, I am completely with Mr. Lindorff on this one. And it's only getting worse.
To address the person who said that the UW student section is crazier and more creative than the Cameron Crazies, I have one thing to say. Not even close. What's creative about 'Eat shit, Fuck you'? That's been done for longer than I've been going to games. The wave? Exceptionally predictable, both with what is done and its timing. Nothing that goes on during games is tailored to the opponent. Nothing is all that spontaneous.
What the student section does bring is great support. It would just be nice to see it 10-15 minutes earlier. It's only one beer.
Anonymous (September 24, 2007 @ 1:00pm):
"Just get your drunk butt to the game on time."
HEAR HIM!!!
Anonymous (September 24, 2007 @ 1:30pm):
Excellent article. When I was a student I spent 2 years in the student section and couldn't do it anymore. When you're too drunk to stand up and watch the game that you're supposedly there for, you're just pathetic and sad.
Anonymous (September 24, 2007 @ 3:20pm):
Well said. Though the Wisconsin Wave is breathtaking, drunk or not.
Anonymous (September 24, 2007 @ 3:59pm):
EXCELLENT, if brief, article. I'm a fifth year senior and I really only honestly enjoy going to hockey games here. The description of drunken idiots who know nothing about football is quite apt. No-one following the game, generic and stupid cheers... the student section singing along to Build Me Up Buttercup is probably as good as it gets for us, and even that has nothing to do with the game, or our opponents. Would it really kill the students to call the Hawkeyes "Cyclone Rejects?"
What surprises me the most is how often current students actually defend this practice, as if its their sacred duty to pay $200 for football games that they only sort of want to go to, too wasted to remember. Its surprising to think that these people seem to think that the most exciting thing going on in Camp Randall on Saturdays is Swingtown (which doesn't get played, because Leckrone refuses to cater to these morons) and Jump Around. Don't they realize that there's a top ten program on the field in front of them?
If the Badger Herald gets three of these editorials a week, they should find a way to print five.
In the meantime, for all you real Badgers out there... go to a hockey game. It's as good as it gets in Madison these days.
Anonymous (September 24, 2007 @ 4:05pm):
Ninety percent of life is just showing up.
- Woody Allen
PS. I think "on-time" may also be implied here.
Anonymous (September 24, 2007 @ 4:09pm):
"For example, what purpose does the band serve? They're perfectly happy to sit there and let the PA system provide all the music during the game."
- As a former member of the band I can tell you that we were not perfectly happy to sit there and let the PA system provide all the music. That was decided by the athletic department (of which, yes it is somewhat surprising, the band is not a part of ... actually a 1 credit course)
Anonymous (September 24, 2007 @ 5:08pm):
"To address the person who said that the UW student section is crazier and more creative than the Cameron Crazies, I have one thing to say. Not even close. What's creative about 'Eat shit, Fuck you'?"
Sadly, that's what passes for cutting edge around here. The students get dumber every year.
Anonymous (September 24, 2007 @ 6:27pm):
To give an alternate perspective, I got my bachelor degree at a small private university which was completely focussed on basketball. Being a huge football fan, I was excited about attending grad school at UW-Madison, which I thought appreciated the sport. I managed to score several tickets my first year here.
It did not take long for me to find out that there is nothing to be excited about. I didn't understand why people weren't showing up the game on time when they had such a great team playing for them. I didn't understand how the entire student section could cheer for a UNLV interception because they weren't paying attention to the game. I didn't understand why anyone would get so hammered before the game that they would then spend half of it in a pool of their own puke (happened near me 3 times in four games).
The last straw for me was when the student section chanted "shoot him like a horse" when an opposing player was injured. That's not creative. It's just mean and shows that the students care nothing for sportsmanship.
Anonymous (September 24, 2007 @ 11:21pm):
My apologies Jeff that you did not enjoy your college experience to the fullest...and to the person who claimed 'students get dumber every year,' get your head out of your ass. The standards for admission go up every year, our academic rankings go up every year, and we're know as the Ivy League of the midwest. But god forbid we have fun on game day. You people need to get off your high horse and stop judging students because your jealous that you wasted your college years and we aren't doing the same
Anonymous (September 24, 2007 @ 11:28pm):
A lot of the previous posts have referred to the students as being sub-par fans because we show up late. I would just be witty and say we all have style because we show up "fashionably late" but that would be too easy. How's this for commitment: Most games are at 11:00am. Some 60,000 students are up at 6 or 7am flooding the streets in white and red. Going State or Monroe street, meeting family to cook out, or yes, to drink. Know a lot of other schools that start drinking at 6 in preparation for their team's game? I don't. How about a Minnesota game? Nope, they SIT DOWN DURING MOST OF THE GAME!!!!
"Come on time, it's just one less beer."
Most of the time, we have been nursing our last beer, because we can't drink anymore by game time. We would be on time but have to trade our voucher's for real tickets and we can only enter through one gate. BOTTLENECK!!
"Student's get dumber every year"
Do you know how hard it is to get into Madison in 2007. People with 3.95's and get 30's on their ACTs get denied. Because we have such a good time on Saturdays, I know a lot of students who have to stay in Friday night and study all day sunday to keep up.
Way to hate Alumni
Anonymous (September 25, 2007 @ 8:10am):
YOU ARE ALL MISSING THE POINT!!!
True fandom is doing what you need to do and still being there for kickoff... that is it. Every other college student section does it and they all have the same issues. I have worked at 4 football universities and visited 9 of the 11 Big Ten stadiums... and they are all there. The Big House is preternaturally quite for 100,000+ - but they are all there...
Get drunk, get your tickets, talk to family, eat a brat, stand in line, take a #1, drop a deuce, drink more, find your seat and get there on time.
- Adam Brigham, '00
Anonymous (September 25, 2007 @ 8:39am):
"your jealous that you wasted your college years and we aren't doing the same"
First of all, Mr. Ivy League, it's "you're"...but I'm sure you already knew that!
Please don't keep repeating the myth that any Saturday spent any way but blind drunk is a wasted one. Kids drink in crappy apartments all over the country...you think you're unique for shotgunning Milwaukee's Best in a living room or on a porch? Kids at NoDak State can do that, too. What they CAN'T do is enjoy a premier football program in an incredible and historic stadium 7 saturdays a year.
That attitude annoys me to no end. What a colossal sense of entitlement! I drank during college, but I didn't treat is as the seminal experience of the era.
And, yes, it is a bottleneck getting into the stadium...wait until you have to commute every morning! The solution to both is: leave a little earlier. You're so smart - do the math.
You think you're the ONLY school with early games? I've been to a lot of other college stadiums. The UW student section is by no means unique - what sets UW students apart is that they are the only ones who think they are more important than the game.
Look, I'm a UW grad, and I'm the first to defend UW students to the uninitiated. It gets difficult sometimes.
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