This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.
The original was posted on /r/cfb by /u/headbangeranon on 2023-12-07 06:55:40.
Hi, I hope this is okay to post here. I don’t come to this sub often. I just read threads about my team and that’s it. A year ago I posted in this thread about how Boise State University opted not to send their marching band to its bowl game in Texas. Instead they hired a high school band to perform for us. Unfortunately this was not the first time this had happened - in 2018 the same thing happened.
This year, BSU decided not to sent the Blue Thunder to their conference championship game in Las Vegas last week, and they are currently fighting to be able to attend the LA Bowl next weekend.
I’m pretty upset that my band has to fundraise for a trip that the university and the athletics department - of which the band is a part - really should be paying for. It is really frustrating to put in all that work, to commit and show up every single day, to back your team no matter what, to get your hopes up that you will get to have this incredible experience…only to be let down at the last minute. The timing of bowl games also affects travel plans, finals, and even graduation, so not knowing whether or not you’re going until the last minute is really stressful. Additionally, I don’t think it reflects well on the school as a D1 FBS team to not send their marching band to a bowl game and instead hire a high school band. Every other team in the country managed it last year, even for bowl games with much lower payouts; Eastern Michigan and San Jose State both managed to get their bands to Idaho for the Potato Bowl, which even BSU fans can admit isn’t the most desirable game to be in. It also severely impacts recruitment. My senior year the Blue Thunder had 220 members; this year they are 180. The Blue Thunder has not traveled to a bowl game since 2019, and to my knowledge, the one regular season travel game the band goes to each year is entirely funded by the band itself.
This means that none of the 180 members currently in the band have ever attended a bowl game, even though Boise State has appeared in a bowl game every year since 1999.
I’m not asking you to donate. If you check the band out on social media and give them a like or a share or maybe even a comment, that’s awesome. If you don’t, that’s cool too. I just want people to be aware that this is happening. This is a D1 school with one of the most successful teams in college football over the past 25 years. The band has not traveled in four years. It’s not fair to the students, the staff, the fans, or even the team to not have them there.
Thank you for your time.