Wow! Unless we win the MAC East, our band never leaves Southwest Ohio two seasons in a row. They missed the bowl last year because bands weren’t allowed to go to the Bahamas. Too bad they can’t travel to Athens for what should be a very important Saturday afternoon game in October! Is it because our program is broke?
Miami University Marching Band
2023 Performances & Events
Dates and times are subject to change.
Saturday, September 16: @ Cincinnati (at Nippert Stadium)
Saturday, September 23: vs. Delaware State
Saturday, October 7: vs. Bowling Green (Family Weekend)
Saturday, October 21: vs. Toledo (Homecoming / Senior Recognition)
The band’s budget was $50K per year as of 2016, tiny compared to other MAC programs (let alone major ones). We’ve never had the money for trips longer than a few hours away unless subsidized by the university, anything short of a billionaire alum (call me in 20 years) that’s not changing.
Seems like we should always be able to get one bus trip to a close-by away game plus the game in Cincinnati, which is in the commute area. The band was at Michigan in 2014, at Notre Dame in 2017 and at Ohio State in 2019. Most MAC away games don’t even require an overnight. We went up and back same day to BG when I was in the band.
Is there still some prohibition for travel of Miami and Ohio bands to each others’ campuses? At one point there was.
With so few times playing Ohio on Saturday afternoons anymore it seems a shame not to send them this season…especially since that might be the de facto MAC East Championship game.
I just posed the question about a GoFundMe page for Athens on the band’s Facebook page.
Just trying to get a feel for whether the University would allow the band to go if we actually raised enough money for a road trip. If not, it’s probably a moot point.
That’s an issue I raised in an earlier post. I know there was a decision not to mix the two bands back in 1979 but that’s been been 44 years. But the question about the ban lingers. That said, I don’t remember seeing the two bands on the same field since that time.
I’ll be glad to reach out to the band director. I didn’t realize we had a vacancy there. We just got a new one a couple years ago - Dr Brooke Johnson. She is still shown as the director of athletic program bands on the MUMB website. Didn’t realize she had departed already, if that’s true.
Dr Johnson announced to the band that she was leaving this past January and they honored her at the last home hockey game she did with the pep band
There have been 5 or so candidates that have made it to the final round for selection and from what I’ve heard they’ve picked someone but haven’t announced who it is yet
The admin doesn’t support the MUMB very well, in funding or actions that would help it increase reach. Until that changes, it’s likely that we keep going through directors every 5ish years like we have lately.
IMO, the band doesn’t add a great deal to home game atmospheres so they’d be even more limited at a road game. It stinks they don’t get to go anywhere, but based off the value (or lack of) they add to games, they shouldn’t go. If they stop playing Let’s Go Hawks when we’re punting and start playing it on 1st or 2nd down, I would be open to having a different discussion.