<a href='http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20041012/SPORTS04/410120342/-1/SPORTS' target='_blank'>Security rules leaves questions</a>

As I travel around the country to various college games, I can attest to the rowdy behavior of some places. My ranking of the worst go like this:

1. LSU
2. Wisconsin
3. Notre Dame
4. Florida
5. Texas Tech
6. Tennessee
7. Ohio State
8. Oregon
9. Alabama
10. Florida State

The nicest fans I have ever encountered are the CornHusker fans of the University of Nebraska. A class crowd if there ever was one!!

It is easy to see why Marshall is so successful. Coach Pruitt sees the hostile crowd as an asset. It energizes his program. He uses "us against the world" as an asset. That is the difference in the "Big Time" and small time programs. I am not saying that any thing goes, but a rowdy home crowd is a part of competition.

Miami has a problem that the league needs to deal with as well...

<a href='http://www.recordpub.com/article.php?pathToFile=/articles//sports/&file=ksufball.txt&article=1&tD=' target='_blank'>http://www.recordpub.com/article.php?pathT...t&article=1&tD=</a>

"'We envy places like LSU, where we went a few years ago. The difference in our programs [compared] to those programs is more off-the-field.'"

Wow, I was saying exactly the same thing to friends last night.
We have a bigger problem here in Toledo though. We have some fans, myself included, that *want* to stand up and be loud but when we are, stadium ushers tell us to sit down! UT won't allow us to make the Glassbowl an imposing place for other teams to play.

-Dan

I agree that a loud, rowdy crowd is part of the competition. Now, I don't think anyone would disagree that throwing anything onto the field is completely out of bounds. But, if the noise you make disrupts the visiting team's signal calling, that's as it ought to be. Moving the students away from the visiting team is a good idea. I like the band in the end zone too; not because of anything related to this but because it makes it easier for everyone to hear them.

Gatorama Wrote:As I travel around the country to various college games, I can attest to the rowdy behavior of some places. My ranking of the worst go like this:

1. LSU
2. Wisconsin
3. Notre Dame
4. Florida
5. Texas Tech
6. Tennessee
7. Ohio State
8. Oregon
9. Alabama
10. Florida State

The nicest fans I have ever encountered are the CornHusker fans of the University of Nebraska. A class crowd if there ever was one!!

I see that you have not been to Morgantown, W. Va. during your travels.

We moved our band back to the top row of the stadium to comply with MAC requests. Next year, there will be new stands, and the band will be even further away.

The East stands are for reserved seating. We don't have significant numbers of seats in the endzones, so moving our students there is not really an option. Plus, the students deserve the right to have good seats for the games - especially since those seats would be empty, otherwise. Other conferences have students behind the visiting benches.

I think the solution is to address the students about their language, etc..., but I don't agree with moving our students or band.

It sounds like you guys need to put some cops on the field between the visitor's bench and the stands. Maybe we ought to bring some Toledo Policemen with us this year...

-Dan

You can't swap the team benches?

The Southland made us flip-flop our benches (and when we left we switched them back).

arkstfan Wrote:You can't swap the team benches?

That is exactly what Kent did in order to keep the students in the "Gold Zone" this year. Doesn't have seem to be a problem, and I think the students like being behind the home bench as well ... closer to their team. Plus if the visiting team is on the press box side, the home coaches get a better look of what is going on on the visitors bench, injuries, substitutions, personnel packages ...

As for Miami's students I had no problem with it. Though they are a bit over the top at times, it is part of being the visiting team. Plus it kept the players entertained while they were routed in the 2nd half!!

If your team goes into an opposing stadium and is expecting tea, crumpets and pie from the opposing fans ...

then you're playing and following the wrong sport entirely.

mattsledge Wrote:If your team goes into an opposing stadium and is expecting tea, crumpets and pie from the opposing fans ...

then you're playing and following the wrong sport entirely.

I agree...this other crap elimeinates the whole idea of the twelth-man and home field advantage. At the Ohio game I was pleased to see them finally getting into the game in the fourth. That was the first time it got loud in the stadium from their fans. And it showed by frustrating our offense further and making it hard for us to dig out of a deep hole.

You don't fix a hole in the wall by tearing down the house, you patch the hole. Stringently punish out of hand incidents and enjoy the normal hazing by the crowd to the visiting team and fans.

In the MAC everyone has been asked to put the students on the opposite side of the field,

rockytop Wrote:Miami is the only team that has not complied with the MAC’s newly recommended sportsman
ship guidelines.

This is an incorrect statement. UT students are on the same side of the field as the visiting team. They are not directly behind the bench. The student section runs from the 40 through the end zone

Actually, that is an incorrect statement. The UT student section starts at the 25 not 40. The students are barely in earshot of the visiting bench.

[quote="rockytop"]In the MAC everyone has been asked to put the students on the opposite side of the field,

I wasn't at the Miami- Kent State game, so don't know what happened.

But I was on this board last March, reading a long list of whining from Miami fans about what they perceived to be rude behavior of Kent State fans at the MAC basketball tournament at the Gund. Some even called one of our players, Eric Haut, a "thug." Don't recall that insult when they beat us.
When I have more time, be happy to pull up that thread. Maybe somebody can do this sooner than I. It was immediately after the MAC tourney.

Funny how the perspective has changed. Does it all depend on who is getting the :chair: for RedHawk fans?

Flash Fan, I certainly do not condone racist or vulgar behavior, and believe it should be taken care of regardless of the perpetrators.

My post, however, was merely indicating that per the referenced article, Chryst is supposedly quoted as saying that MOVING students and band from behind the visitors bench is NOT what has been requested by the MAC administration.

If Miami and NIU aren't going to move their students away from the opposing bench, then maybe Bowling Green ought to move its visitors bench to the students.

I understand, skeeter. You strike me as a reasonable poster.

But read the article. It explains how Laing and Martin perceive that Miami has not complied with the guidelines. Laing ought to know. Besides, this is a report from a MAC Conference AD, not some hot headed fan.

[quote]Martin’s Kent State team spent the entirety of Saturday’s 47-27 loss to the RedHawks with their backs to stands packed with Miami students, listening to a massive, un-ending verbal attack that ranged from racist to sexually explicit to total vulgarity, according to KSU director of athletics Laing Kennedy.

Miami might argue that the atmosphere has always been part of playing a football game on the road. But in the Mid-American Conference, that type of environment was supposed to be a thing of the past.

“In the MAC everyone has been asked to put the students on the opposite side of the field,