We attended a USC/ND game years ago when the ND band appeared and were well received both pre-game and half-time. I forget the year but we were proud of the band and the treatment they received from the fans in the stands. If some things happended between the bands we were not aware of it.
I think the issue is both logistical (your band goes home for holiday all over the country) and financial (most expensive weekend to fly). Maybe disappointing, but hardly embarrassing as you say.
That’s pretty lame for a school as wealthy as ND. They don’t have to send the whole band to every away game, but it would be nice to see at least part of the band at all games.
That is 100% not the policy of the band for football; the whole band goes or no one does. I have heard Dr. Dye say this explicitly, so I expect this remains the case unless things have changed since a few years ago. The only exception I had knowledge of was only upperclassmen got to go to Ireland for Navy a few years ago.
I for one would have loved to go to USC over Thanksgiving one of the available years as part of a small 100+ person contingent. I agree with you that it would be nice. That's just not how it is. Whenever Dr. Dye chooses to retire or leave ND, maybe the new director will take a different point of view.
Their direction sucks. Without fail, they insist on playing little ditties leading up to critical plays, instead of music to get the crowd involved. Our crowd is bad enough. Saturday night it was comical watching the big screen with the video about how loud the stadium was, in our history. It now takes artificial noise from our speaker system and gifs from our Jumbotron to get crowd to make noise. The band did try to get the crowd involved once USC inside the 25 or so. It was infuriating watching the same pattern that has happened for years.
Maybe laminate it too.
you feel like you're going to toss your groceries.
I hate those fuckers even more after reading it.
but that level of commitment is admirable. I cannot stand anything about the swagger of the USC band or the fair weather Southern Cal fans, but to have the band on the road for every game would be a great tradition if ND students would be in favor of that level of commitment to the band (I would understand if that would not be the case considering the time and wear/tear commitment).