There wasn’t a sea of 110,000 people dressed in blue and orange charging towards Memorial Stadium. There weren’t any chants or tailgates or masses of alumni. There was only one small TV hidden in the corner of Joe’s that displayed the football game. Champaign cannot come close in comparison to Ann Arbor on game day. First off, Memorial Stadium only fits about 70,000 people in it, but it’s lucky to get half of that on game day. The orange patches of U of I fans spread across the stadium emphasized the empty seats on the TV screen at Joe’s.
I remember the day the Michigan student football tickets went on sale during the summer. Everyone went nuts to get them and if they sold out, students get regular-season tickets just so they can make it to the games. At U of I, it is very common to not buy football tickets, as most students don’t actually go to the games. Their “tailgates” consist of going to Joe’s, an undergraduate bar, but Joe’s barely even fills up. Most students seem to ignore game day altogether. When my friends took me to Joe’s, the only students that were dressed for the game were the visiting Michigan fans. To the U of I kids, it was just another chill Saturday afternoon. They slept in, got ready, and went to a bar to hang out with friends.
It felt like culture-shock to not only me, but to the dozens of Michigan students I met that day. We all admitted to being used to the excitement of those early morning alarms that ring in your ear differently than they do on any regular day. We, mostly the girls I talked to, also noticed the difference in the tendency of Michigan students to dress in elaborate, unique spiritwear and the plain, orange U of I t-shirts that every 1 in 20 people wore. We agreed on the preference of the chaotic, blue-tarped tailgates at the frat houses over the chill, sit-down bar atmosphere at Joe’s. An article in Bleacher Report stated that the University of Michigan’s college game day experience is ranked number eight out of fifty colleges based on stadium, tailgating, fans, atmosphere, history, tradition, overall experiences. The University of Illinois didn’t make the list of colleges.
Come to a University of Michigan game day and experience it for yourself! Go Blue!