Dear University of Wisconsin student season ticket holders,
It's seven days until football tickets go on sale for you and that means next Monday will be a mad rush to your computers, smartphones, or whatever is around you to get online and get your tickets. Good luck in your search for them and we all hope you get them.
However, as you prepare to get those tickets we also humbly submit to you that you consider a few things while putting that order in.
Now, this doesn't come from a place of hate or 30-something fuddy-duddyness, but rather a place of love for the game of college football and from what I've personally witnessed over the last four or five seasons at Wisconsin. So, we humbly submit to you, the student, these following suggestions:
1) SHOW THE HELL UP: Look, we get it, tailgating is the real sport on Saturday's in the fall for you… You think you have some "reputation" to uphold, yadda, yadda, yadda. However, think about this… You've spent good money to buy a ticket to a football game. What is that money worth to you? Let's put it another way. It's embarrassing when kickoff happens and they pan to the shot of the student section and it's half full at best and it's still not full nearly halfway through the 1st quarter. You do realize that you get to see a three time defending Big Ten championship football team, right? Show them the love and actually SHOW THE HELL UP BEFORE THE GAME STARTS! There will still be beer to be bonged, shots to be taken, beer pong to be played after the game – we promise… Madison isn't running out of beer anytime soon. I know a lot of people who wanted tickets and couldn't get them in the student section last year, I'm betting they'd actually show up on time at the very least, so if you aren't, then kindly pass them to someone who will.
2) STOP THE ES-FU CHANT: You're college kids at one of the best public institutions of higher learning – ACT LIKE IT. It's embarrassing and classless, PERIOD. If that's your collective creative peak then you shouldn't be in college. Just stop with it already, it's not fun for the families, it's embarrassing for the football program and the university and most importantly, it should embarrass you that you are using that kind of language around kids. Get a life, you aren't funny and it's just downright classless.
3) BE CREATIVE, DO SOMETHING NEW: One of the hallmarks of going to games used to be the creativeness that came out of the student section, however as of late it's frankly becoming boring. In fact dare I say we could predict exactly what you are going to do every game…. Here it goes…. ready: 1) show up late (unless you rush to be cool and sit in section O), 2) attempt to make the OHHHHH sound on kickoffs and when the other team has the ball, 3) rock back and forth after we score a TD, 4) wait till the end of the 1st quarter or a lull in the action and begin ESFU like your so cool, 5) possibly start the wave during the 2nd quarter (slow, fast, backwards, double wave, split wave, back to slow and end with fast), 6) after the half repeat steps 2, 3, and 4 because you have nothing else to come up with. 7) Sing Sweet Caroline during the 3rd quarter. 8) Wait till end of 3rd quarter to do anything really exciting and cheer for your section in race on the video board and then it's Jump Around time.
Anyone notice how not a damn one of those things are creative or new in any way shape or form outside of the wave situation and Jump Around – those are time honored traditions…. Why not attempt something new, come up with some new ways to support your team. How about chanting for the Badgers or doing more than just screaming at the top of your lungs. Anyone can do that.
4) LEARN THE DAMN FIGHT SONG: You go to the school, sit in the stands at all the athletic events and I'm betting 99% of you in that section couldn't recite more than the first two lines of the fight song. When I attended a Big 12 institution that was the 1st thing you learned stepping on to campus, there's no excuse to not know the words to your own fight song. So, for you, here it is in all it's glory….
On Wisconsin, On Wisconsin, plunge right through that line.
Run the ball clear down the field, a touchdown sure this time.
On Wisconsin, On Wisconsin, fight on for her fame.
Fight, fellows, fight, fight, fight, we'll win this game.
On Wisconsin, On Wisconsin, stand up Badgers sing.
"Forward" is our driving spirit, loyal voices ring.
On Wisconsin, On Wisconsin, raise her glowing flame.
Stand, fellows, let us now salute her name.
Learn it and sing it proud – it could be your "something new" we talked about above. After all it is perhaps one of the most iconic of fight songs anywhere in the country.
5) APPRECIATE WHAT YOU HAVE: I know you as a Badger fan have only seen one losing season in your lifetime and that means high expectations, I get that. However, winning football isn't always a guarantee, just like doing what you want or what you go to school for won't be a guarantee either. Most of what we gave as advice earlier comes down to this simple truth – appreciate what you have at Wisconsin right now. Believe it or not, there were two decades of football were breaking above .500 or getting to .500 were considered good seasons in Madison. It would behoove you to remember that. We heard so many boos out of the student section last season it was ridiculous. Get behind this team and have some perspective on just what this team has accomplished over the past three years – it's done something it's never done in the history of the program… Go to 3 straight Rose Bowls, the pinnacle of excellence in the Big Ten (outside of the National Title of course).
In the end, these are just a few humble suggestions to try and make things even better than they already are. If you take anything away from this at all, let it be suggestion number five. It will not only affect your Badger fandom, but help you in life in general.
Respectfully,
Andy Coppens
Managing Editor, MadTownBadgers.com
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