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Michigan marching band reportedly banned to top row of Notre Dame stadium
By Andrew Kulha
Published:
There’s definitely some bad blood flaring up between the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and Michigan Wolverines ahead of this weekend’s season-opening clash.
These two programs have never really gotten along, of course, but this is a huge game for both programs this weekend and apparently even the Michigan band is starting to feel the heat.
Rumors and speculations are what they are, so take this with a grain of salt. Reddit is also it’s own beast entirely, so take that grain of salt and add a few more onto it. With that said, there’s a post gaining plenty of traction on the Reddit college football site that suggests the Michigan band is getting the short end of the stick this weekend.
Here’s the post. The source of this rumor is apparently Carl Grapentine, who is the stadium announcer at Michigan’s Big House.
Saw this from Carl Grapentine, the voice of the MMB and Michigan Stadium:
“Something will be missing. Oh, the winged helmets and the golden helmets will be on the field. The leprechaun, too. But for the first time in the 40 years that Michigan and Notre Dame have been playing, the Michigan Band will not be allowed to march its traditional pre-game show. Notre Dame said there wasn’t enough time to include the Michigan Band! And for the first time, the Michigan Band will not be seated on the sideline opposite the ND Band. They’ve been banished to the very top rows of ND Stadium. Do you know how long it will take to get 350+ band members with instruments to make their way down to the field for halftime? This is not right.”
Tradition is a funny thing in college football, and tradition in terms of marching bands runs just as deep.
There’s always interplay between the two bands during the game and for those in attendance, that can be part of the fun of a live college football game.
Apparently that’s not going to be the case in this game between the No. 12 Fighting Irish and No. 14 Wolverines.
Andrew covers the B1G on Saturday Tradition.