B1G Stadium Tour: Year 2

In the fall of 2016, Joe and I continued our B1G Stadium Tour and visited 2 more stadiums.  This was in addition to going to all the MSU home games, being a second year teacher, working and going to law school, and planning a wedding.  It's no wonder this post is taking months to get up!  Anyhow...

Joe had never been to the Big House in Ann Arbor so we decided that would be an easy stadium to go to this year with our busy schedules.  I had been multiple times but only to Michigan vs. Michigan State games.  My mom got her Master's at UM and has been getting season tickets since then even though she is now a MSU fan (she did go to MSU for undergrad).  Normally she sells all her tickets but we got tickets to the UM game against UCF as an early Christmas gift.  Thanks Mom!

It's hard for MSU fans to not be biased about this place.

We decided to do a "Four Weddings" style rating system for the stadiums we visit to have some way to compare then throughout the years it takes to visit all the stadiums.  University of Michigan scored the following:

Stadium

 Amenities:  Amy- 8, Joe - 8

Aesthetics: Amy - 8, Joe - 8

You can tell this stadium has been highly renovated recently.  It is very nice.  Even to MSU fans.

Joe got to experience just how packed you are in the Big House.

Campus

Landscaping: Amy - 7, Joe - 7

Buildings: Amy - 8, Joe - 7

The Law Quad helped sway my score for the campus categories.  

UM Student Union.  Very pretty and very similar to other B1G union buildings.

Town

Bars: Amy - 9, Joe - 9

Atmosphere: Amy - 7, Joe - 7

Fans: Amy - 6, Joe - 6 

Ann Arbor has a great bar scene and tons of breweries.  It's hard to beat being able to walk to multiple craft breweries and still not get to all of them.  

The atmosphere and fans were lack-luster.  It doesn't help that it was a non-conference game that was a blow out from the start but Joe and I both noticed how quiet the stadium was.  When the fight song was played, very few people sang any of it.  The UM fight song is so easy I even know most of it and I HATE IT!  I also had been to games there before and it was a very different atmosphere for that than at the MSU vs UM games.  I was sworn at for wearing MSU gear to the Big House when I was in middle school so I was expecting a much different vibe than what we experienced.  

Overall Score: Amy - 7, Joe - 7

We also traveled to Indiana University to watch IU take on MSU.  Our friend came with us for this trip so she got to see the stadium and town too.  This was a night game so we drove down that morning and started with lunch at a local brewery.  We learned from our Purdue trip and got a hotel for that night so we didn't have so much driving to do in one day.  We even go to stop in Indy and have brunch with Joe's cousin on our way back to Lansing.  

We have gone to our fair share of football games together!

Stadium

 Amenities:  Amy- 8, Joe - 8

Aesthetics: Amy - 7, Joe - 8

Outside the stadium was the mast from the USS Indiana. 

I always love watching the bands.

Campus

Landscaping: Amy - 8, Joe - 7

Buildings: Amy - 8, Joe - 7

Indiana Union.  It's fascinating how similar all the the Union buildings are (and they all have public bathrooms!)

The benefit of traveling with someone is more pictures of the two of us.  

Town

Bars: Amy - 8, Joe - 8

Atmosphere: Amy - 9, Joe - 7

Fans: Amy - 8, Joe - 7

Brewery for lunch.

Nick's English Pub.

The bars were really nice and had a good game day atmosphere.  The fans were all very nice and we never felt unwelcome while wearing our green and white.  The lady who sat next to me was a band mom and talked with me quite a bit about the game and some missed field goals.  The seats were also HUGE. We had close to 18 inches for each seat and the bleacher were wide enough that you weren't kneeing anyone in the back.  The stadium was about 3/4 full which was a bit disappointing to see for a night game against an MSU team that was supposed to be good. The game didn't go as we had hoped but we still had a great time exploring Bloomington!