Michigan vs. Wisconsin

Kyle Shenfeld
This weekend my fraternity and I took a bus trip to Wisconsin University to see some of our friends and to attend the Michigan vs. Wisconsin football game. I had a great time with the kids I met and knew at Wisconsin. I didn’t do much thinking at all throughout the weekend but one thing stuck in my mind.
Wisconsin was one of the other schools I got into beside Michigan so I paid fairly close attention to what was going on around me when I was in Madison. I noticed a lot of similarities and differences between Michigan and Wisconsin that I found fairly interesting.
One of the main things I noticed was the difference in the football. Obviously we are both big 10 schools with impressive and upstanding programs. However, the stadium and atmosphere at Camp Randall was much different than The Big House.
Camp Randall stadium is like a normal professional sports stadium. It is built straight up out of the ground and it is set up with indoor concession stands and fairly technological and modern innovations. The stadium had several extremely large screens that were designed to motivate the crowd.
The most intriguing difference was the modernization of Camp Randall. The fans were constantly glued to the big screen in the students’ section of the stadium. There was constant cheering and dancing. I thought it was fun and interesting but I noticed that all this fun and excitement was greatly distracting people from the game. My friends and I felt like we were the only people paying attention in the game.
At the game the Wisconsin fans were belligerent. They were passionate and cared deeply about their team, which I respected very much. However, I found their actual knowledge of football to be far less than that of the fans in Ann Arbor. After Ryan Mallet played the entire game, fans were yelling Henne sucks after Ryan Mallet threw an interception. In The Big House, the fans know what is going on in the game far more precisely than the fans in Camp Randall
I thought about his for a while on the walk back from the game as the Wisconsin fans yelled and made fun of us. It occurred to me that the difference in fans and even personality was in the setup of the school.
Wisconsin felt like a place where people were paying for the fun of it. The game reminded me of Disney world. It was like a show. It was very urban and commercial but fun nonetheless.
At the end of the day I enjoyed myself greatly. My point is that the reason the fans were so different was because of the way the stadium and the school is set up. In Michigan we’re more about understanding and loving the game while in Wisconsin they were more about having a good time. This is no coincidence considering Michigan is very basic while Wisconsin runs makes an effort to entertain their fans and students with more than just football.