Fan appreciation thread: great job not selling your tickets to Buckeyes

Hardly any buckeyes near us, and they never once had the lead, so they were uncharacteristically (and quite pleasantly) quiet. Shoutout to my good friend Jtown who secured tickets for Indy Matt, the Real D, and me. Go blue! Memories for a lifetime!!

There was only one w/in swearing distance from me this year instead of the, as of lately, several groups near by.  I didn’t need to worry about getting out numbered by the red wave.

…as it should be!

Definitely agree. I noticed on the walk down Pauline there were a lot fewer of them at various tailgates than I am used to seeing and that was definitely the least number of them I've seen in the stadium ever since I've been going to games in 2008. I'd say that was probably about as good of a ratio as can be expected, since some leakage is inevitable with a game like this.

It was actually kind of cute hearing the tiniest little rumble in background while we were on offense.

I was also pleased with the dearth of buckeyes. Well done! 
i was annoyed by the block provided to OSU at the south end zone. Meyer spent some of his available time with that group. Is definitely still a Buckeye. 

Watched the game on TV, didn't see much red at all. Loved it!

Yeah I was very pleasantly surprised at how few of them I saw in the stadium. A true home game. Let's make that a tradition please. 

I would agree, going back too 2001 there were years where it looked like 40%.  Although it’s so easy to see the red, this felt like much less, more than 10%, less than 20% would be my guess.  

There were a good number of them, but I agree that it was a lot less than the worst years when they could make a noticeable amount of noise.  Yesterday, you couldn't really hear a lot from them, even when they scored a TD.  I think the really high ticket prices probably had a big effect on less of them being there.  And if there's a reasonable chance of losing to us, that also deters a bunch of their fair weather fans.  

I'll never forget that 2001 fiasco.  I blame that loss completely on Drew Henson for making the poor choice of taking the Yankees offer.  If we have him in that game, we absolutely win by several touchdowns.  Without him, we had to use an unready John Navarre, the best option in a thin QB room.  We had to sit near a loud-mouthed Buckeye fan to boot.  

Astute point

I was also pleasantly pleased and noted the smallest amount of red I have seen in the stands in the past 20 years.

whenever they’d try to start their O-H bullshit; I would laugh, point at them, then loudly proclaim “They are so stupid it takes two of them to spell Ohio.”

First game I can recall in a long time where it didn’t look like there were at least 30K buckeye fans in the stands.

it looked and, from what I heard from the TV, truly sounded like home-field advantage.

Not the people in Section 37, row 50, seats 18 and 19 though. You suck!

I saw plenty of OSU fans high in the SE end zone and predominantly in the low South and SW end zone.

For the most part, they were pretty quiet. They were trailing most of the game. They were pretty loud, though, during and immediately after that crushing tying drive in the 3rd quarter.

Totally agree.  Was the best Maize & Blue showing I've seen on TV in a long time.  OSU has always traveled better than I like to Michigan stadium.  Did notice some red in good seats, which suggests some of their fans really pay up.  Won't continue if we keep winning.  Radio announcers said it was as loud as ever too.  Michigan fan support was great this year.

Remarked the same to my old man who I got the privilege to sit with yesterday: “There are fewer of these assholes here than there used to be.” The southwestern corner of the endzone was a scarlet scab of its former self (my last osu game was 2019). 
 

Aside from a few drunk people of both persuasions yelling shit at each other, all fan interactions seemed mutually respectful. Love to see it, especially with the W.

It was the smallest OSU crowd since 2011 when Luke Fickell was the interim HC and Michigan won that game. (I was there for that one)

Glad you brought this up. Have been a Michigan fan since day 1 of my freshman year when Bump was our coach.

The sea of red the past 20 years or so at the Big House was just as disturbing to me as our losing to them, or truly may be more so.

While some of it can be blamed on students being gone for Thanksgiving and selling tickets, as UM has quite a number of out of state students, it was an embarrassment.

Watching on television, the absence of red was one of the first things that I noticed yesterday.

Go Blue!

We got to our seats and nearly the whole row in front of us were Buckeye fans. My wife said to me, “oh I don’t want to have to be fake polite all game”. But then, in the most Michigan Stadium fashion, they all realized they had the wrong section and row. They all moved down one section to the left and 2 rows higher and were replaced by Michigan fans, the rightful owners of the seats. This was just before kickoff and we had a handwringing, nervous, great time after that. 

Said the same thing to my wife about not seeing a ton of red. Unfortunately, I had a few of them next to me and one was a complete loudmouth jackass. He was constantly saying something about cheating. But the people around me were not having it. At one point I turned to him and told him he should probably chill before someone gets too upset. Was great to see them rush out of there at the end of the game. 

We noticed that too.  Most Buckeyes we saw were with Michigan family or friends, very few groups walking around wearing only OSU gear.

It was distinctly noticeable. They were few and far between! The odd thing is, two years ago, they left quickly. This time, they hung around awhile after the game and watched.  But great job everyone, for not selling your tickets. In 2021 I had 6 buckeyes nearby. This year, 1, and she was with a Michigan fan. Go Blue!!

When we got to our seats yesterday (sec 2 row 63) there were two buckeyes directly behind us. I thought "oh fuck". Turns out they were in the wrong row and section. Not sure why I was suprised though, Buckeyes can't count that high 🤣

FWIW this was only my third time attending The Game. Saw the 100th game in 2003, and the 2pt fail in 2013. There was absolutely less scarlet and grey yesterday than years past.

Go Blue!

Yes, I remember that feeling at that 2001 game. If I recall, it was one of the first times The Game was held on Thanksgiving weekend and at the time, that was blamed for why there were so many OSU fans. 

Anyway, yesterday did look like fewer than normal. I mentioned that to my family when we sat down to start watching the game. It was refreshing to see! Red does stand out visually, so who knows, but I agree with the comments that there were years where it seemed like 30-40% OSU fans. 

Unfortunately I sat three rows in front of the Ohio State band and was annoyed when they played during Mr. Brightside. I do respect them for play their school's fight song in defeat even though I know they were hurting.

Good job Michigan football fans for showing support for Michigan and not selling them. 

Just FYI, there was a suckeye on 11 Criers that was gloating about landing tickets from the ticket exchange on this blog. It was in their who's attending the game thread. 

I recall even fewer on 2021.