With the New Year just days away, football fans across the country are fully immersed in college football’s encore performance for 2006. This bowl season has given 64 teams the opportunity to fight for one more day, and with it, brought some intriguing match-ups. Probably the most interesting, however, is the Michigan-USC Rose Bowl game being played in Pasadena. A possible 2007 National Championship preview (featuring the losers of the last 2 national title games- USC to Texas last January, Michigan to Ohio State on Nov. 18), this game looks to feature everything one can hope for in a Rose Bowl. The traditional Big Ten-PAC 10 face-off, two great fight songs, and a stadium packed with rabid fans, anxious to cheer the Wolverines and Trojans to victory.
The focus today will be on the Michigan fan base, while my counterpart tackles USC. What is it, exactly, that makes Michigan’s fans so special? The first thing that comes to my mind is diversity. I can’t think of a more diverse group of people with a common interest than the Michigan teams attract. We possess an alumni fan base in all 50 states, and from over 80 foreign countries, as well as fans from all races and economic backgrounds. The University of Michigan boasts the largest living alumni base of any American university with over 425,000 alumni. I’ve traveled throughout the country and around the world, and have yet to come across a region where I haven’t seen a Michigan hat or t-shirt. A simple “Go Blue” will bring a smile, and remind you that Michigan connects people worldwide.
Which leads us into another area of distinction for Michigan fans; merchandise sales. Michigan fans buy up anything and everything with a block "M" logo. Michigan is a fixture in the top 5 of collegiate merchandise sales, finishing the 2005-06 year ranked #2. The success of the football program coupled with the university’s prestige and brand recognition has grown a large following worldwide from fans that may not have attended Michigan, but are passionate about the Wolverines and, along with alumni, show their support by buying Michigan merchandise. Michigan fans are proud of their school, and not afraid to let everyone know.
The pride that Michigan fans have in our school is a passion handed down from generation to generation. I got it from my father, who got it from my grandfather, and so forth. Michigan football has a cradle-to-grave passion that few schools can rival, notably, USC. USC fans are out there, but I don’t remember seeing a lot of them until Carson Palmer, Matt Leinart, and Reggie Bush started executing opponents back in 2002. In fact, from our last Michigan-USC Rose Bowl (1990) until 2002, it was as if USC had followed the lead from LA’s other football teams, and moved. The Coliseum was well below capacity, and support was low. It took one of college football’s greatest 5 year runs to break this fan apathy.
The most unique distinction that Michigan fans have, however, is class. Just as our teams win on the field with class and respect for our opponents, the fans off the field exhibit exceptional behavior, and make the game day experience enjoyable for everyone. As the nation turned to Columbus last month for the “Game of the Century” between Michigan and Ohio State, the poor behavior of Ohio State fans was a subplot almost as interesting as the match-up on the field. Thankfully, negative attention like that is not something that follows the Michigan fan. Being able to enjoy the winningest program of all-time, take in a great tailgate, and do so without having to worry about pepper spray and burning couches is something that generations of Michigan fans have been able to enjoy.
I've had limited interactions with USC fans- being 2000 miles away will tend to do that. When I was in Pasadena for the 2004 Rose Bowl, I found USC fans to be equally classy. USC fans were very gracious winners (though I can’t imagine I would have ill will toward anyone had my team just won a national championship), and those in attendance seemed to mirror the crowd that we brought from Ann Arbor. USC fan has a distinctly LA flavor, though. While walking through the USC tailgate area, I saw so many tricked out Escalades and Hummers, I half expected to see XZibit running around with a camera. Maybe that was just Reggie Bush’s family.
Luckily, this year it will be USC bloggers who get to comment on our good sportsmanship after a Rose Bowl victory. Michigan 24, USC 10.
What makes USC's fan base so special?
Well for starters, we're filthy rich. Just loaded. The kind of wealth typically reserved for Ivy League schools with wimpy football programs. It's just ridiculous. You should see the solid gold urinals and toilets in the dorms.
Then there's our looks. I mean, have you seen the people in the crowd when they pan to the USC section? Nothing but gorgeous women, and men for that matter. I've said it before, I'll gladly reiterate it here -- our fans dress like Judge Smails on a Sunday boat trip in the sloop, and still manage to pull it off. That's no small feat.
And how could I not mention the megawatt star power and undeniable popularity of our fan base? We've got alumni like Will Ferrell and George Lucas (not to mention former Trojan players like Marcus Allen and Ronnie Lott) patroling our sidelines regularly, alongside celebrity fans/non-alums like Snoop Dogg and Henry Winkler. I'm sorry, but I don't see anybody who's going to top Snoop & Fonz in the "coolest fans" portion of the competition.
While we're talking about our celebrity alumni and top-shelf Hollywood talent, I should also mention our school TV ad. You know the ones, every school has one, they get one complementary airing of it on any TV broadcast. They're usually something produced by the school's film school, or A/V club when a full film school is absent. (I remember one particularly embarrassing ad, for the University of Oklahoma, which closed with a shot of a uniformed football player holding a ballerina on stage at the school's performing arts theatre.) Thanks to the magic of USC's top-ranked Film School (with maybe a little help from Industrial Light & Magic), ours looks like the trailer for a hundred-million dollar Hollywood blockbuster. The music is dramatic, the CGI effects are first-rate, and the stars (Lucas, John Wayne, Neil Armstrong, Paul Williams, Marilyn Horne) are A-list all the way. It's a glorious vision.
But don't let our extreme wealth, amazing good looks, and high production values trick you into thinking we haven't endured our fair share of character-building hardship. Did you ever watch USC football during the Paul Hackett era? Well I was there brother, and let me tell you, it was fugly. We're talking Willingham at Notre Dame fug here folks.
Above all else, USC's fan base is special because they know their football (the occasional cheerleader excluded -- those white sweater & skirt sets enable you to get away with just about anything). Like a wine connoisseur who's refined his palate on the world's greatest wines, Trojan fans have experienced first-hand the greatest college football players of the last decade, along the way cultivating a virtually unprecedented appreciation of true football greatness.
What makes your school's fan base so special?
Michigan: David Peabody, Michigan Against the World
USC: Kyle Bunch, TrojanWire
What makes your school’s bowl tradition so special?
Who wins: Michigan O vs. USC D?
