Michigan's Big House

---

Another day, another college football game. Today was markedly different from yesterday. First off, we didn’t have nearly so far to travel as we did yesterday. Ann Arbor is only an hour away from East Lansing, so that made it easier to sleep in. But it also meant that we didn’t have as many stops to make along the way. In fact, we only made one ‘stop’ between the two towns, and I wouldn’t really call it a stop since we didn’t actually stop the car. There’s a town called Hell that’s semi on the way between our two schools for this weekend, with only maybe a ten-minute detour. So of course we had to see that. Everything I saw online said that it was basically a tourist-trap type of place, but when we drove into Hell, it looked more like a few biker groups had decided to stop by for the day. I saw only two establishments: a saloon and one more store/restaurant. Both looked to share a parking lot, and both lots were full of motorcycles. It also didn’t look the same as it did on the map, and thinking that there was at least one more place a little further down and on the other side of the road, I kept driving. There was nothing else. So either I made a good choice, just keeping on driving since there probably wasn’t much to see anyway, or a bad choice. Can’t think of a reason it was a bad choice, honestly.

And we were off to Ann Arbor. I had been to this town at least twice, and even visited the stadium back in 2008. But only from the outside, and it was under construction. Today, we got to park in the downtown area and then explore before the game. I had told my travelling companions that we were definitely not repeating the mistake from last night. No more late arrivals.

Michigan is one of those schools that has been a college football powerhouse since forever. Sometimes they don’t do well for a few years, but they’ll always be back. They’ve been “back” for the past few years, though they can’t seem to break back into the best of the best. They sport a preseason ranking of 7^th, and though that’s based on nothing but expectations, that shows you how high the expectations are. So I was not surprised to see a huge number of fans in the town yesterday, the home opener of a season full of high hopes.

I like Ann Arbor. There’s lots to choose from, either for food or random shopping. We passed by a farmer’s market on our way in to park. Nick and Dusty stopped into a few “head shops” (as they call them: i.e., weed) in the main section of downtown. We also stopped in a comic shop. For lunch, we popped in the “original” Cottage Inn, an Italian restaurant. Its pizza was magnificent. Only later did we find out that it was the pizza that you could get at the stadium. Still, I don’t think the stadium variety would be as good. We got deep dish (which I normally don’t go for, but I was so hungry) and in a pan, so it was nice and rectangular. There was so much, we had to take a box back to the car for later. (Spoiler alert: it didn’t spoil in the car). I also wanted to get some ice cream later on, while we were strolling around, so I stopped in at an ice cream parlor and got chocolate-toasted coconut milkshake. Not a combination I would’ve even considered, but it was a “limited time” flavor, and I like both flavors separately, so I figured why not. It wasn’t bad, but I’m probably not going to be on the lookout for that combination in the future.

Our final stop downtown before heading to the game was the M Den. This is the vortex for Michigan fans before games. I even heard a guy say to his family (presumably his kids and wife) that this store was his favorite place on earth, of course after the Michigan stadium. Very comforting, and quite a portrait of America these days, I imagine. I had been to this place once before, when I stopped by on my way through the area in 2015 to pick up cheap shirts for the two guys accompanying me on this very trip. I wasn’t going to get anything, and don’t really intend to buy any swag for the teams whose games I attend this season. But they had cheap hats, and since all the cool kids were wearing Michigan hats, I capitulated to peer pressure. It’s a quality hat, and it was only $10. I had frankly expected to give it to my brother after the game, since I figured he would appreciate it and didn’t already have one. But after the two of them got outside the store and found me (I completed my browsing and commerce long before they did), Dusty said he would give Nick $5 if I did, so that he could go buy one of those $10 hats (Nick is broke, by the way). So much for my plan. But now I have a yellow hat with a blue M on it.

The trip to the stadium after all this capitalism was the final thing we had to do before the game itself. So we followed the herd. One thing we found is that Ann Arbor doesn’t have good phone service. I mean, it’s okay 5 hours before game time, but it slowly gets worse as the game draws near. And about thirty minutes before the game, if you’re anywhere near the stadium, you should reconsider having any emergencies. Using your phone inside the stadium was pointless once the game began. You could still get a little service on the concourse, but sending a picture via text message took at least 3 minutes out there. Over an hour from the seats. It even took about 10 minutes to send a simple text message, no media included. I recommend getting it upgraded, Big House.

Anyway, the herds we were following weren’t going to the stadium per se, it turned out. We probably went about five blocks out of our way before a large group of people veered to the right, so we followed them. Turns out, they were most likely waiting for the team to leave the athletic facility and walk to the stadium. Maybe? We couldn’t really tell. But they were all (like several hundred people) waiting in front of some building but allowing room between themselves and the building, like they were anticipating someone to come out and do something soon. Since the stadium was only two blocks away by this point, and it was already open, we opted to forgo whatever was happening there. It was a VERY simple process to get in the stadium: lift up your hat, shake your jacket, and then get your ticket scanned. No big lines, no pat downs. So many gates available. It’s like they heard all the groans from Friday night in East Lansing and said, “We don’t want to be like that.” Thank you, Michigan Stadium, for a painless entry process.

I got my souvenir stadium cup with something to drink, and wandered around the stadium, taking in how big it was. Unlike most stadiums that hold this many people (capacity is 107,601; they claimed attendance last night was over 110,000), it was a single bowl. No upper decks at all. Our seats were about three-fourths of the way to the top of the stadium, but they were not bad at all. The views, indeed, are pretty good from anywhere (though I’m not sure about near the field, since it’s probably harder to get an idea of how far something is). The seats themselves, though, were a nightmare. First, they are aluminum and not very wide from front to back. Then they’ve taken a play out of the Tennessee book and simply made each seat narrower from side to side and voila: more seats available. Probably not an issue if you’re not very wide or sitting near wide people. Guess who was sitting between two very wide people at the game. Once Nick and Dusty got to their seats (two rows behind me; I got a separate ticket in a different row because it was way cheaper to get two seats together plus an individual ticket than trying to get all three together), I went to sit with them until near the starting time. After a quick (not really; the line for the men’s restrooms was ten minutes long) bathroom break before the game, I came back to get in my actual seat. The people on either side of my seat probably thought I wasn’t coming, and they definitely hoped I wasn’t. There was no room for me, so after some disgruntled scooting over on both sides, I sat for basically the entire first half wedged in between them, always in contact and usually with more than just the side of their legs. I’m not going to body shame someone, but I do blame the extremely narrow seating for all of our discomfort. It was absolutely miserable.

And that’s a big shame, because this crowd was much more engaged in the action on the field, and in performing all the cheers and chants together as a crowd. Unlike at Spartan Stadium, Michigan Stadium felt energetic. And I could see how crowd noise might be a factor here. The student section didn’t really show up until maybe 15 minutes prior to the game, so I was a little disappointed in them. And then by the third quarter, half of them had already left. I had expected a bit more support from the student body, especially for the first home game. Plus they all were wearing the same bright yellow shirt, so their corner (opposite from ours) was very easy to spot.

One thing that sort of surprised me is how vulgar some of the chants I’ve heard are. At Michigan State, the crowd (at least my end zone, which included a good number of the students), chanted “F*ck you, Tulsa” on several occasions when something didn’t go their way. Michigan fans had a chant that said “You suck” to their opponents. It wasn’t a long chant, basically just those words, maybe a couple more after that. This was not primarily a student thing either, since we were on the opposite side of the stadium from them. It reminded me of Florida fans, honestly, and I have no good opinions of them whatsoever.

Concerning the game itself, it was a lot more entertaining than the Michigan State game. First off, Michigan was a thirty-five point favorite in this one. They’re ranked number seven, after all, which is a good bit higher than Michigan State. But unlike last night, when the visitors couldn’t get out of their own way and kept allowing the home defense take advantage, tonight the visitors took advantage of several botched plays by the home team. Michigan was even losing the game for most of the first quarter. And sure, they started to contain the Middle Tennessee State offense for most of the rest of the game, but they never got a big spark to pull away as definitively as everyone expected they would do. Instead of winning by thirty-five points, they won only by nineteen. The way many of the fans were reacting during and after the game, you would’ve thought that Michigan lost. Sure, it was a bit disappointing when compared with expectations, but you still won by three scores. And this was against a team that never really had a chance, and against whom you could try a few things that you might not get to try otherwise. At least not when you needed to buck up and play everything perfectly.

Nevertheless, I can tell for sure that Michigan is big party school. They had some insane looking parties all along our walk to and from the stadium after the game. I bet it gets pretty wild.

---