Will visiting bands perform their pregame routines and be on the field in 2022??

Bands, with interludes during commercials, could be part of an orchestrated piecing-together of real fun activities that make the in-stadium experience less fragmented. 

Unsure about the situation for OSU, but the coaching boxes/sideline areas were changed in 2020 for social distancing and left in place in 2021. As a result, every visiting band at Michigan Stadium (and Spartan Stadium) is being put in the upper areas of the stadium.

No.  Each team will be bringing in their own DJ who will plug in their laptop and press play on a song written by someone else.  

Did OSU's band really not perform last year? I've been to enough OSU-Michigan games that a lot of the pregames blend together, but I can't imagine they didn't do their little cursive practice

I recall the first game I attended when the visiting band was NOT seated within a reasonable distance of the field - it was…

Michigan’s last game in South Bend - 2018.  ND placed the Michigan Marching Band in the stratosphere - the highest rows in a corner section of the end zone. I thought it was ridiculous - and “garbage”.  Then again, exactly what I expect the Irish to do.

Unfortunately, it seems to be becoming commonplace to do that.  I think Michigan provided “rafter” like seating for the Bucks band in November - and, I definitely expect the Bucks to return the favor at the Shoe.

My son is a freshman in the Illinois Marching Band and they are coming to the Big House for the game this year.  Supposedly they will be performing a joint halftime with the MMB during that game.  As for where they will sit or what happens at pre-game I'm not sure.  

I do believe that Covid prompted the B10 to prevent anyone from sitting on the sidelines - such as visiting bands, the alumni band, or probably huge groups of recruits or dignitaries.  I haven't heard that changing so I suspect the visiting bands will be banished to the upper edge of the stadium.  I think that's silly since they're exposing more people to their germs than if they were down in the open area of the field - it isn't like football players are interacting with them during the game.  

I think it will be like last year.

First, I'm pretty sure it is B1G rules (apparently this is where they drew the line...) that require visiting bands to now be seated in the stadium, not on the sideline.  As noted elsewhere, at MSU the MMB was in the upper corner of the upper section.  Takes 20-30 minutes to get the band up and down from there, so lots and lots of wasted time.  This was also true for every band that visited Michigan last year.

My understanding is that in Columbus this year the MMB will have the same treatment that OSU got at Michigan last year: No pregame and they will have a shortened block at halftime so will do their pregame vs. a full halftime show.  This is also related to the logistics of getting the band into the stadium after pregame.  At home the MMB takes just a couple minutes to get from the field into their seats -- it is a direct shot from the field into their seats.  When combined with all the regular fans trying to get to seats at the beginning of the game, it is nearly impossible to manage getting 200-300 people with instruments into the upper sections.  As soon as the band was seated, it would be time to start departing for halftime.

It is hard to fault athletic departments for doing this.  I presume they are giving up ticket revenue for this; making them give up premium seats is perhaps a bridge too far.

As someone who loves college bands and who was on the sidelines of ND, MSU, and OSU, this is a crappy outcome.  You'd think the situation would be better at neutral site games, but at the B1G championship game, the bands were pretty well tucked out of the way.  Go almighty revenue dollar, go!

Everything about this is abundantly stupid, not the least of which is the Athletic Department/respective bands playing the "you did this to us, we're going to do it to you" back and forth, to the detriment of pretty much everyone involved. OSU and MSU pettiness just adds icing to the cake.

Given the announcement about the permanent DJ, I have to think the MMB will have a much, much reduced role in gamedays from here on out, which in itself just feels all kinds of wrong. The degree to which the MMB has become just another thing the gameday operations folk program into their script feels so obvious and predictable now, and it sucks. Nothing spontaneous or organic anymore, it all looks and feels so controlled.

Added bit of information: From here on out, the Alumni Band will be in the stands for Homecoming, they've worked with Athletics to secure a permanent block of seats they had last year.