#MarchOnClay

[BeastMan]

If y'all have missed it, Clay Travis suggested not having band concerts at halftime to shorten the college game which is too damn long. Bands folks have united to protest Travis using the #MarchOnClay hashtag. I'm not here to demean any one in the band (my wife was in band in HS) but why do band folks feel like they are such a big part of the game? People are there for the football period. Same goes for cheerleading. The NCAA could outlaw cheerleaders and band and it wouldn't hurt the game at all. My whole life I used halftime to hit the bathroom and get a refill. I enjoy what bands add to CFB in a big way but the halftime show isn't a big deal to me. At a minimum, the visiting band shouldn't march & we could shorten halftime. Thoughts?

[basedog]

I somewhat agree mostly on the cheerleaders. Would rather see a real band like the Aggies and yell leaders!

[PassInterference]

The band is an integral part of the pageantry and uniqueness of college football. I say keep the halftime show.

I'm on board with not letting the visitors march. The usually don't bring their whole band. At minimum set the time duration for halftime and let the schools decide what to do with it.

[smootness]

I'm not sure they feel like they're a part of the actual game. But just like the football game is the showcase for the football team, the halftime show is the showcase for the marching band. It's their chance to show their talents and perform what they've been working on, and I assume they enjoy it. So of course they're not going to want it taken away.

Doesn't seem that hard to grasp why they would be upset by that proposition.

[msstate7]

If the goal is to shorten the games, how about reviews only happen with a challenge outside 2 mins to go in each half like NFL or clock not stopping on 1st downs?

[msstate7]

I like halftime being long in college bc it allows coaches to make adjustments and players to rest some

[smootness]

If the goal is to shorten the games, how about reviews only happen with a challenge outside 2 mins to go in each half like NFL or clock not stopping on 1st downs?

It is funny that the proposed solution to shortening games is to eliminate the one thing whose length hasn't changed. Halftime is a chance for players and coaches to rest and regroup as well; it's not as though it was created so that the marching band would have something to do. The marching band started playing during halftime so that there was at least something going on while the players were all off the field.

[TrapGame]

I like halftime being long in college bc it allows coaches to make adjustments and players to rest some

...and everybody else a chance to pee.

[Mjoelner34]

The best way to shorten the game is not to have a freaking 5minute commercial break every 5th play! Of course that'll never happen. $$$$$$$$$

[Bama_Dawg]

You want to make the game quicker? Eliminate so many damn commercial breaks (or media timeouts). Seems like every change of possession, end of the quarter, the dude in the red hat comes on the field and stops play until they come back from commercial.

[Bass Chaser]

There could be no clock stoppage on incompletions unless under 2 minutes in the half.

[msbulldog]

Hell, I too use the opportunity to pee and hit the concessions. With what they charge for concessions $5 hotdog $4 water the university cannot afford to shorten halftime HaHa! Let the band play, lot of band students get scholarships, it ain't hurting anything. The players need the rest time and the coaches at other universities need the time to make adjustments (not ours).

[PassInterference]

Other than a shorter halftime, why is every NFL game almost exactly 3 hours & 15 minutes?

[Bothrops]

It's college football tradition. Part of the landscape, pregame, etc.

[Lumpy Chucklelips]

Shortening games is going to have to come from the game itself, not halftime. The players need the time to recoup some mainly and to make adjustments in their play. Halftime is only 20 minutes....how much can you cut it, even if you did?

[EngDawg]

Now the half-time air was sweet perfume
While sergeants played a marching tune
We all got up to dance
Oh, but we never got the chance
'Cause the players tried to take the field
The marching band refused to yield
Do you recall what was revealed
The day the music died?
We started singin'
Bye, bye Miss American Pie
Drove my Chevy to the levee but the levee was dry
Them good ole boys were drinking whiskey and rye
And singin' this'll be the day that I die
This'll be the day that I die

Don McLean - American Pie

[BeastMan]

It's college football tradition. Part of the landscape, pregame, etc.

I love the band pre game as well as cheers and fight songs after scores. It's awesome. But go read that hashtag. They think they are the show. It's hilarious

[BeastMan]

Shortening games is going to have to come from the game itself, not halftime. The players need the time to recoup some mainly and to make adjustments in their play. Halftime is only 20 minutes....how much can you cut it, even if you did?

The NFL has shorter gameplay and halftime fwiw. The one thing CFB does that I'd like to keep is stopping the clock until the chains are set. Makes the last 5 mins of a close game a nail biter until the final whistle.

[thf24]

I love the band pre game as well as cheers and fight songs after scores. It's awesome. But go read that hashtag. They think they are the show. It's hilarious

You have to understand that a large portion of the band, possibly the majority in some cases, doesn't care about football other than generally supporting their school (some not even that). They're there because they enjoy music and performing, so in their minds, they are the show. As a former band member, I was never under any illusion that we were anything but a sideshow and was grateful for what spotlight we got, and the same was true for most. Just trying to offer some insight into where this sentiment is coming from. That being said, if halftime performances were eliminated, I think you'd notice more of an effect and see more of a backlash from non-band sources than you'd think.

[Political Hack]

Need a band. Don't need a halftime show.

[smootness]

Other than a shorter halftime, why is every NFL game almost exactly 3 hours & 15 minutes?

Lack of potentially lengthy OT, fewer time stoppages, stricter TV schedule. There are a lot of reasons.

[Johnson85]

If y'all have missed it, Clay Travis suggested not having band concerts at halftime to shorten the college game which is too damn long. Bands folks have united to protest Travis using the #MarchOnClay hashtag. I'm not here to demean any one in the band (my wife was in band in HS) but why do band folks feel like they are such a big part of the game? People are there for the football period. Same goes for cheerleading. The NCAA could outlaw cheerleaders and band and it wouldn't hurt the game at all. My whole life I used halftime to hit the bathroom and get a refill. I enjoy what bands add to CFB in a big way but the halftime show isn't a big deal to me. At a minimum, the visiting band shouldn't march & we could shorten halftime. Thoughts?

Definitely don't care about the halftime show but like others have mentioned, it's not where the problem is. Can't maximize tv revenue and keep the time short while having a traditional length football game.

[IMissJack]

What has lengthened the games is making rules that encourage passing 40 plus times a game (ie touch interference calls, defenseless receivers, etc. ) and not enforcing rules such as Linemen down field. All of these have encouraged pass oriented offenses and therefore more clock stoppage.

[Todd4State]

Well, as the board band expert my two cents?

I agree with everything thf said. I guess it depends on the band because most of the Famous Maroon Band is non-music majors but the majority of the people that actually think that people other than their parents are there to see the band are music majors. I don?t think very many of us actually believed that people were there to see us at MSU.

I was in the same group as thf in that I always knew that there was a reason it was called a FOOTBALL game and not a football game/band show/cheerleading spectacular and whomever and whatever else performs.

And I don?t have a problem with fans leaving at halftime because as I said, the band wasn?t the reason why people were spending money driving however long and I very rarely see people on any message board or twitter talking about band stuff. Having been in band and having a father that played athletics at MSU, I don?t think there is a question that while the band works hard the football team works harder. The band doesn?t have to get up at 5 AM for workouts, have to spend the entire year working out, maintaining their diet (insert flag girl joke here), and no one in the band faces scrutiny on any level anywhere close to the football players. In band we basically show up a week before school starts and practice really hard that week but then the rest of the year we practice an hour a day and we got Fridays off if we didn?t have a home game and weren?t in the pep band. When we went to a bowl game it was BECAUSE OF the football team doing well.

I?m glad I did the band because as I have said before it helped me to pay for MSU, which was a dream for me as far as going to college, and I didn?t have enough academic scholarship money to pay for pretty much everything until I joined the band and my band scholarship took care of the rest. I had no intention of joining the band until some of my friends talked me into it and Mrs. Lance and I hit it off and everything was great from there. Even better I was in the band from 96-99 which was a pretty good time to be a MSU football fan. And the other big appealing thing about the band for me was the fact that I got to go to MSU football games for free and I got to travel around to some of the away games. It wasn?t because I thought that I was going to be whatever.

As far as Clay Travis goes he?s obviously trolling so he?s not worth my hashtag. But if he?s talking about shortening the game, I do disagree with him about cutting out the band although I have a feeling he really doesn?t believe that himself. Most band halftime shows are about 10 minutes long anyway so that the other band has time to perform if applicable. Most bands don?t travel to away games like they used to because of money. Sometimes you don?t even see a pep band. We would always take to the full band to in state games home and away. I think the guy in the red hat slows the games down more than anything. I?d like to see what they do in soccer with basically no commercials during games and just sponsors logos around the scoreboard on the TV screen for a quarter at a time.