Ohio State's marching band sat high up in Michigan Stadium. Here's why
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The Ohio State University Marching Band had a lofty view of Ohio State’s win in the Big House against Michigan over the weekend from the top of the bleachers.
For anyone worried about why the band seemed relegated to the nosebleeds, don’t worry. It wasn’t a snub, said Konner Barr, a spokesperson for TBDBITL. It was for good reason.
Prior to 2021, Barr said the band sat down on the sidelines at Michigan Stadium, but it was too much of a safety issue. Though it’s called the Big House for its seating capacity, the sidelines inside the stadium are pretty tight.
Barr said the band’s seats this year were much safer.
Jerry Emig, Ohio State’s sports information director, said the university was allotted 4,000 tickets for Nov. 29’s rivalry game in the Big House. Of those tickets, 363 were reserved for TBDBITL.
“We were happy to be where we were at,” Barr said.
Fans had similar concerns in 2021 when rumors spread online that TBDBITL was given 100 fewer seats than requested at Michigan Stadium and that band members weren’t fed during the game. A few charged that TBDBITL was relegated to a nosebleed section, signaling that perhaps the Big Ten rivalry had gone too far.
But those rumors were quickly debunked by Ohio State, saying the band was seated farther away from the field as a COVID-19 protocol.
The band also sat in sky-high seats for the 2023 game, NBC4 reported at the time.
TBDBITL could still be heard perfectly clear down on the field Saturday when it played “Carmen Ohio” after the Buckeyes’ win.
Ohio University’s band sat in C Deck at Ohio Stadium
Earlier this year, Ohio State saw its own band seating controversy, as some fans clocked the Marching 110 of Ohio University seated not in the lower-level seating where the visiting band traditionally sits during Ohio State games, but instead in Ohio Stadium’s C Deck.
That, both schools confirmed to The Dispatch, was the visiting school’s own choice.
“They elected to seat their band in C Deck,” Ohio State spokesman Ben Johnson said at the time.
Ohio University spokesman Dan Pittman acknowledged “the seating arrangements for this game were different than those at some other venues.” But he said the university “fully covered the $69,000” it cost to get the band to Columbus, house them, feed them and purchase the C Deck seats.
Higher education reporter Sheridan Hendrix can be reached at shendrix@dispatch.com and on Signal at @sheridan.120. You can follow her on Instagram at @sheridanwrites.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio State’s marching band sat away from field for Michigan-OSU football
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