Dog Fan Wrote:

Vicious Maggot Wrote:This is total crap.
Hopefully the West siders will pick up the slack and get loud....or at least tap their money clips and rattle their jewelry.

We do need SOMETHING to wake up the dead among the west siders. Perhaps NIU could have a whoopee cushion give-away day. Not only would this get into the heads of the opposing players (if, for nothing else, to make them roll around laughing on the field, just before they get pasted), but also to show how we feel about the teams switching sides.

This issue is really riling me up. I will now buy every loud noisemaker I can get my hands on. I don't give a crap who gets upset. I am buying a professional megaphone and use it to amplify my already loud air horns. Plus, I will use it to yell choice (but, of course, polite) words to the opposition. Then, I will put the megaphone up my more-than-ample rear end and do what I do best. I will make the students quite proud of this 50+-year-old old fart (so to speak). If anyone complains, I will hand them mock library cards and tell them that's where they ought to be (in a cordial way, of course).

I would like to find out who instigated this change so we could send them some vociferous e-mails - in a nice way, of course.

Hmmm.... You said megaphone. That reminds me, any chance we can get Extreme Makeover:Home Edition to give the stadium a makeover? :)

How about we just get a bunch of the west side ticket holders to switch their tickets with students on the east side? Or have the students actually buy season tickets?

A long shot, but it would be fun...

You are not alone....Miami has been forced to move also

Multiple rumblings being heard on the issue in Oxford also. It is a MAC mandate...we were told

We are compliant and we are MAC CHAMPS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Quote:  Dan, I was thinking the same thing. In 2004 the MAC issued revised sportmanship guidelines that specified how far the band and student sections had to be from the visitors bench. CMU relocated those sections because of the new rules. I'm trying to find the guidelines.

I thought NIU had already complied with the guidelines by closing the first couple rows close to the visitors.

I sit on the west side, and if everyone else is quiet, that just makes my comments more audible. :D Also, the people on the west could make lots of noise by banging their canes against their oxygen tanks.

East side students will just have to channel their noise for the oportune times when opponents happen to end up on the east side.

MUNADA Wrote:You are not alone....Miami has been forced to move also

Multiple rumblings being heard on the issue in Oxford also. It is a MAC mandate...we were told

Strong rumors have it that Miami's situation is what prompted the MAC rules.

At least on the West side, we have the boxing glove guy! That guy is NUTS!

2 things:

1. if you've ever been to iowa's stadium, the fans are almost on top of the opposing teams bench. Im talking less than 10 feet and maybe 3 feet higher. But the students are on the home team side of the field.

2. to solve this problem every west side ticket should be switched with a student from the east side!

Those of us on the chain gang found out I think at the Bowling Green game that the sides were switching this year. I guarantee you that this was mandated by the MAC, not NIU administration.

If this hurts our home-field advantage, then I greatly underestimated the resurgence of this football program because I actually thought people were coming out to see the team. Certainly taunting was a fun part of the game and to be honest, I found some of the comments hysterical, but if that's the only thing students were going to the game for, they need to wake up because they've been missing a pretty good football team.

I will miss seeing all the confused looks on the visiting coaches faces about the middle of the third quarter. I can only recall 2 staffs who didn't seem to have those looks at some point; Southern Illinois and Toledo.

Vicious Maggot Wrote:This is total crap.
Hopefully the West siders will pick up the slack and get loud....or at least tap their money clips and rattle their jewelry.

No money or jewelry left. All our money goes to putting children through college so they can get drunk and obnoxious at football games.

good_nocall Wrote:Those of us on the chain gang found out I think at the Bowling Green game that the sides were switching this year. I guarantee you that this was mandated by the MAC, not NIU administration.

If this hurts our home-field advantage, then I greatly underestimated the resurgence of this football program because I actually thought people were coming out to see the team. Certainly taunting was a fun part of the game and to be honest, I found some of the comments hysterical, but if that's the only thing students were going to the game for, they need to wake up because they've been missing a pretty good football team.

I will miss seeing all the confused looks on the visiting coaches faces about the middle of the third quarter. I can only recall 2 staffs who didn't seem to have those looks at some point; Southern Illinois and Toledo.

do you have any memories/stories from the sidelines? being a huskie fan and being on the sidelines in front of the opposing team must have been great...feel free to elaborate..

i don't think we'll have to worry about people not showing up merely because of side switches...i just think it was a perk...back in the day, though, that was what made the games more amusing (because many of the athletes were, um, unrefined...they were never taught to ignore the fans)...nowadays, the game is definitely more exciting for your average fan...

I really like the idea of organizing a pregame rendevous one half hour before kickoff with at least a few hundred students and west side tix holders to exchange Eastside tix in the front lower rows for the West side to at least have some rowdy presence there.

I would be happy to trade my lower level seats in West sec C near the visitors locker room entrance with some students. How can ticket takers know whether or not you are a student or non student fan age 20, 40 or sixty when entering East side or even a parent sitting with family?

NIUBro Wrote:

Vicious Maggot Wrote:This is total crap.
Hopefully the West siders will pick up the slack and get loud....or at least tap their money clips and rattle their jewelry.

No money or jewelry left. All our money goes to putting children through college so they can get drunk and obnoxious at football games.

All the bourbon and beer does cost a pretty penny.

It seems like every game something memorable happens, some I can talk about and some I better not. I'll start another thread so as not to take this one off the topic.

UT1 Wrote:We are compliant and we are MAC CHAMPS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hmm...so THAT'S the reason why we didn't win the MAC Championship! Gosh, had we only known it was as simple as being compliant! :rolleyes:

Miami had to flip our stadium this year as well. Not a happy campus. They complained about the heckling the band and students did. OhioU's football team and administration complained loudly about our band and student placement. They brought recording crews to Yager to video. audio record our crowd. We didn't heckle their team(save Hawk) that day. We took out our wrath on the refs, and Rick Chryst, who was in attendance. OhioU's Prez. McDavis was also there. The band bood the refs for a good 5 or 10 minutes. In fact Miami scored one or twice while we booed. I think it is stupid. The MAC also forced our band to be placed at the VERY top of the East Grandstand....

<a href='http://muredhawks.collegesports.com/facilities/mioh-yager-virtual-seating.html' target='_blank'>http://muredhawks.collegesports.com/facili...al-seating.html</a>

The MAC has focussed this on Miami... like our fans are SO bad. Wanna see bad fans go to the Joanie. Yuck. I've heard the change had a lot to do with Miami, and the fact that our band IS very rowdy. But, we have calmed down substantially, and there were no complaints when we played at Old Miami Field, and the stands were actually CLOSER to the field.

CountryRedHawk Wrote:Miami had to flip our stadium this year as well. Not a happy campus. They complained about the heckling the band and students did. OhioU's football team and administration complained loudly about our band and student placement. They brought recording crews to Yager to video. audio record our crowd. We didn't heckle their team(save Hawk) that day. We took out our wrath on the refs, and Rick Chryst, who was in attendance. OhioU's Prez. McDavis was also there. The band bood the refs for a good 5 or 10 minutes. In fact Miami scored one or twice while we booed. I think it is stupid. The MAC also forced our band to be placed at the VERY top of the East Grandstand....

<a href='http://muredhawks.collegesports.com/facilities/mioh-yager-virtual-seating.html' target='_blank'>http://muredhawks.collegesports.com/facili...al-seating.html</a>

The MAC has focussed this on Miami... like our fans are SO bad. Wanna see bad fans go to the Joanie. Yuck. I've heard the change had a lot to do with Miami, and the fact that our band IS very rowdy. But, we have calmed down substantially, and there were no complaints when we played at Old Miami Field, and the stands were actually CLOSER to the field.

Ohio U wasn't the only team to complain about the Miami band placement.

Most of the MAC complained. I see no problem with where our band sat... we razzed the other team, but never got violent. We never threw stuff at the other team. Just some goodnatured razzing. (sideline phone rings... whole band points and screams... PHOOOOOONE! Until it is hung up.) OhioU happenned to be the team we played that week, our archrival, and the most vocal of all of the complainers. So, now we harrass them for that. Big babies, don't like getting picked on by the BAND! Well, at least I get playing time! :D