Championship Subdivision Football | FCS Football | Stadiums | Blogs | Forums

I have a question for those of you who attended one of today's games.

I was at the WSU-W&M game at Zable Stadium. The whole presentation seemed minutely controlled by our dear friends in the NCAA. The normal pre-game warmup music (ours is selected by the team and features a lot of hard-charging beats) was replaced by mild music ranging from The Police ("I can feel it coming in the air tonight") to instrumentals. The announcer was apparently prohibited from driving crowd excitement (e.g. no stoking the crowd on 3rd Down). The video display board only showed replays and dull NCAA announcements. And of course there was no half time entertainment of any kind. The game may as well have been played at a neutral site.

At times, especially in the first half, the crowd was so silent I was expecting someone to announce the score was 15-Love.

So, was the feeling the same at other games?

TribeFanInNC wrote:I have a question for those of you who attended one of today's games.

I was at the WSU-W&M game at Zable Stadium. The whole presentation seemed minutely controlled by our dear friends in the NCAA. The normal pre-game warmup music (ours is selected by the team and features a lot of hard-charging beats) was replaced by mild music ranging from The Police ("I can feel it coming in the air tonight") to instrumentals. The announcer was apparently prohibited from driving crowd excitement (e.g. no stoking the crowd on 3rd Down). The video display board only showed replays and dull NCAA announcements. And of course there was no half time entertainment of any kind. The game may as well have been played at a neutral site.

At times, especially in the first half, the crowd was so silent I was expecting someone to announce the score was 15-Love.

So, was the feeling the same at other games?

I think UNI still got to the a half time show in past years, but it does seems really controlled by the NCAA and negates much of the home field advantage for many schools.

Recently, App State has just said "fuck it" and does the regular home field stuff (Yosef's rifle, 3rd down Hells Bells, bands playing, etc)

Two years ago, 3rd down Hells Bells was played for both App and JMU.

Yeah, technically it's against to rules to do anything that creates "an unfair advantage for the visiting team", but as long as the NCAA gets their cut of the gate, they seemingly don't care.

SIU's always done their normal pre-game and halftime show as far as the band goes. EIU's band came today and played their Halftime show as well.

T-Dog wrote:Recently, App State has just said "**** it" and does the regular home field stuff (Yosef's rifle, 3rd down Hells Bells, bands playing, etc)

Two years ago, 3rd down Hells Bells was played for both App and JMU.

Yeah, technically it's against to rules to do anything that creates "an unfair advantage for the visiting team", but as long as the NCAA gets their cut of the gate, they seemingly don't care.

I remember the bells playing at the 2001 playoff game at App vs W&M. Is the vanilla approach something new?

siuham wrote:SIU's always done their normal pre-game and halftime show as far as the band goes. EIU's band came today and played their Halftime show as well.

I'll be there for next Saturday's game. It will be good to compare the two presentations.

TribeFanInNC wrote:I have a question for those of you who attended one of today's games.

I was at the WSU-W&M game at Zable Stadium. The whole presentation seemed minutely controlled by our dear friends in the NCAA. The normal pre-game warmup music (ours is selected by the team and features a lot of hard-charging beats) was replaced by mild music ranging from The Police ("I can feel it coming in the air tonight") to instrumentals. The announcer was apparently prohibited from driving crowd excitement (e.g. no stoking the crowd on 3rd Down). The video display board only showed replays and dull NCAA announcements. And of course there was no half time entertainment of any kind. The game may as well have been played at a neutral site.

At times, especially in the first half, the crowd was so silent I was expecting someone to announce the score was 15-Love.

So, was the feeling the same at other games?

In the Air Tonight was sung by Phil Collins, not the Police.

BlueHen86 wrote:

TribeFanInNC wrote:I have a question for those of you who attended one of today's games.

I was at the WSU-W&M game at Zable Stadium. The whole presentation seemed minutely controlled by our dear friends in the NCAA. The normal pre-game warmup music (ours is selected by the team and features a lot of hard-charging beats) was replaced by mild music ranging from The Police ("I can feel it coming in the air tonight") to instrumentals. The announcer was apparently prohibited from driving crowd excitement (e.g. no stoking the crowd on 3rd Down). The video display board only showed replays and dull NCAA announcements. And of course there was no half time entertainment of any kind. The game may as well have been played at a neutral site.

At times, especially in the first half, the crowd was so silent I was expecting someone to announce the score was 15-Love.

So, was the feeling the same at other games?

In the Air Tonight was sung by Phil Collins, not the Police.

I stand corrected.

TribeFanInNC wrote:

BlueHen86 wrote:
In the Air Tonight was sung by Phil Collins, not the Police.

I stand corrected.

No problem, I'm a fan of the Police, not so much Phil Collins.

Nice win today.

T-Dog wrote:Recently, App State has just said "**** it" and does the regular home field stuff (Yosef's rifle, 3rd down Hells Bells, bands playing, etc)

Two years ago, 3rd down Hells Bells was played for both App and JMU.

Yeah, technically it's against to rules to do anything that creates "an unfair advantage for the visiting team", but as long as the NCAA gets their cut of the gate, they seemingly don't care.

Yeah, i think Richmond said **** it also, we acted like it was a normal home game

SpiderFan5 wrote:

T-Dog wrote:Recently, App State has just said "**** it" and does the regular home field stuff (Yosef's rifle, 3rd down Hells Bells, bands playing, etc)

Two years ago, 3rd down Hells Bells was played for both App and JMU.

Yeah, technically it's against to rules to do anything that creates "an unfair advantage for the visiting team", but as long as the NCAA gets their cut of the gate, they seemingly don't care.

Yeah, i think Richmond said **** it also, we acted like it was a normal home game

After last year's playoff snub maybe we were just afraid to piss anyone off.

Montana pretty much did the same thing, however, one added touch was that the Montana announcer made sure to tell the crowd to act sportsmanlike when the Griz were pretending to show up for the first few quarters.

Montana dumbs it down a little bit.. they flashed the Jackrabbit logo on the screen after their TDs, different graphics on the video board, announcer can't lead the "First down Montana" thing, but a lot of the stuff was normal.

There's something to be said for sportsmanship, but it sounds like the NCAA is taking that a few steps too far. Outside of Davis leaving a pile of manure outside the visitor's locker room, LBSU fans calling for a visiting hoops coach to put in a guy in foul trouble just so he could foul out, and (perhaps) UCSB fans tossing tortillas on a basketball court (and calling a visiting hoops player an @$$hole because he got a charge call that they thought should have been blocking), I've never really seen ANY arena/stadium step over the sportsmanship line. And in those instances, it was always a SMALL segment of the fans present. Oh, sure there will be INDIVIDUALS making complete @$$es of themselves. But never an entire venue.

The NCAA should leave well enough alone. "FIRST DOWN, [Name your school]!" is rather innocuous in the sports realm.

TribeFanInNC wrote:

siuham wrote:SIU's always done their normal pre-game and halftime show as far as the band goes. EIU's band came today and played their Halftime show as well.

I'll be there for next Saturday's game. It will be good to compare the two presentations.

The announcer had to dumb down his approach. And it was noticeable from the start when, as SIU was coming on the field, all he said was "The #1 Ranked Southern Illinois Salukis led by Coach Dale Lennon." in a very monotonous voice.

I was there, and you are right about the atmosphere. As for the fans, students on Thanksgiving Break didn"t help, and I suppose most of the fans came with memories of the 2004 postseason-Hampton, Delaware, and JMU--all nail-biters and all 3 opponents brought good fan support, which added to the intensity. Saturday's game didn't compare. Hope the trip to Carbondale goes well.

clenz wrote:

TribeFanInNC wrote:I have a question for those of you who attended one of today's games.

I was at the WSU-W&M game at Zable Stadium. The whole presentation seemed minutely controlled by our dear friends in the NCAA. The normal pre-game warmup music (ours is selected by the team and features a lot of hard-charging beats) was replaced by mild music ranging from The Police ("I can feel it coming in the air tonight") to instrumentals. The announcer was apparently prohibited from driving crowd excitement (e.g. no stoking the crowd on 3rd Down). The video display board only showed replays and dull NCAA announcements. And of course there was no half time entertainment of any kind. The game may as well have been played at a neutral site.

At times, especially in the first half, the crowd was so silent I was expecting someone to announce the score was 15-Love.

So, was the feeling the same at other games?

I think UNI still got to the a half time show in past years, but it does seems really controlled by the NCAA and negates much of the home field advantage for many schools.

Maybe, but I think its fair when in some circumstances home field is determined on a $$ bid rather then earning it...

SuperHornet wrote:Outside of Davis leaving a pile of manure outside the visitor's locker room

That wasn’t put there just because of the locker room location, that place has piles of sh!t everywhere. Piles of sh!t are a fixture on that campus.

UNHWildCats wrote:

clenz wrote: I think UNI still got to the a half time show in past years, but it does seems really controlled by the NCAA and negates much of the home field advantage for many schools.

Maybe, but I think its fair when in some circumstances home field is determined on a $$ bid rather then earning it...

Tough shit. What is the point of homefield then? Play all the damn games at a neutral site then.

clenz wrote:

UNHWildCats wrote: Maybe, but I think its fair when in some circumstances home field is determined on a $$ bid rather then earning it...

Tough shit. What is the point of homefield then? Play all the damn games at a neutral site then.

yes but its not fair when teams get homefield because they are richer as opposed to actually earning it. If all home games were actually given based on what a team did then by all means let the home teams give their fans what ever atmosphere they want, but as long as home games are awarded based on $$ then yes, they should limit somewhat the things the home team are allowed to do.

That said, the entire field should be seeded and home teams allowed to do what they want.

UNHWildCats wrote:

clenz wrote:Tough shit. What is the point of homefield then? Play all the damn games at a neutral site then.

yes but its not fair when teams get homefield because they are richer as opposed to actually earning it. If all home games were actually given based on what a team did then by all means let the home teams give their fans what ever atmosphere they want, but as long as home games are awarded based on $$ then yes, they should limit somewhat the things the home team are allowed to do.

That said, the entire field should be seeded and home teams allowed to do what they want.

That's entirely horeshit.


"Mommy, they have a better bid than us...make sure their announcer doesn't do what he normally does because....well, it bothers us"

green&gold75 wrote:I was there, and you are right about the atmosphere. As for the fans, students on Thanksgiving Break didn"t help, and I suppose most of the fans came with memories of the 2004 postseason-Hampton, Delaware, and JMU--all nail-biters and all 3 opponents brought good fan support, which added to the intensity. Saturday's game didn't compare. Hope the trip to Carbondale goes well.

Especially in the beginning the atmosphere Saturday reminded me a lot of our first playoff appearance in 1986 at home against Delaware. That time the weather was similar, but in the mid to upper 60's, and I felt like everyone was enjoying the sun and digesting Thanksgiving leftovers. We lost that one 51-17.

clenz wrote:

UNHWildCats wrote: yes but its not fair when teams get homefield because they are richer as opposed to actually earning it. If all home games were actually given based on what a team did then by all means let the home teams give their fans what ever atmosphere they want, but as long as home games are awarded based on $$ then yes, they should limit somewhat the things the home team are allowed to do.

That said, the entire field should be seeded and home teams allowed to do what they want.

That's entirely horeshit.


"Mommy, they have a better bid than us...make sure their announcer doesn't do what he normally does because....well, it bothers us"

UNH has a point here. If a team earns homefield advantage on the field then they should be entitled to all the benefits that come with being the home team.

If they bought homefield advantage because they had more money I think the NCAA has a right to "dumb things down".

Either way, it's a privilege to host a playoff game, so if the NCAA wants to dumb things down that is their prerogative. If teams don't like it then they shouldn't bother bidding on a home game.

BlueHen86 wrote:

clenz wrote: That's entirely horeshit.


"Mommy, they have a better bid than us...make sure their announcer doesn't do what he normally does because....well, it bothers us"

UNH has a point here. If a team earns homefield advantage on the field then they should be entitled to all the benefits that come with being the home team.

If they bought homefield advantage because they had more money I think the NCAA has a right to "dumb things down".

Either way, it's a privilege to host a playoff game, so if the NCAA wants to dumb things down that is their prerogative. If teams don't like it then they shouldn't bother bidding on a home game.

It's not our fault UNH has a shitty ass stadium that can't put enough butts in the seats to put a better package together than anyone.

clenz wrote:

BlueHen86 wrote:
UNH has a point here. If a team earns homefield advantage on the field then they should be entitled to all the benefits that come with being the home team.

If they bought homefield advantage because they had more money I think the NCAA has a right to "dumb things down".

Either way, it's a privilege to host a playoff game, so if the NCAA wants to dumb things down that is their prerogative. If teams don't like it then they shouldn't bother bidding on a home game.

It's not our fault UNH has a shitty ass stadium that can't put enough butts in the seats to put a better package together than anyone.

has nothing to do with being a UNH fan.

Has to do with the better teams should be hosting games, not the richer teams.