MSU/CMU weekend brings together community and students, some disappointed in behavior

Saturday provided an environment that participating students and community members are likely to always remember.

The mash-up between Michigan State University and Central Michigan University allowed fans to come together, even if it wasn’t for watching the football game.

“It’s fun even if we lose,” Troy senior Matt Mahler said.

The atmosphere of a tailgate is what is important to a lot of students, no matter the outcome or prospects of a game.

“The amount of people here makes all the difference,” John Keller said. “Everybody just wants to party.”

The Macomb native said this tailgate, being his last, will be special for him.

“It’s monumental,” Keller said. “Especially my senior year. I’m never going to forget this.”

Students and other community members that didn’t make it into the game still tailgated as the game played.

Rochester Hills sophomore Sean Morrissey said the tailgating experience and the experience of the football game go hand-in-hand.

“Football is all about community support and student support,” he said.

He said having Michigan State come to CMU is a big deal for the school and the students.

“It’s a once in a lifetime deal,” he said. “It’s great for the schools to play each other.”

With the population doubling, things were bound to get a little hectic.

But students like Rockford senior Josh Sinclair said he was impressed with traffic and crowd control before, during and after the game.

“It was really well done; moving people outside away from Broomfield and Mission so it wasn’t too congested,” he said.

Sinclair said MSU fans were polite for the most part and the atmosphere was more fun than hostile.

“We’re going to hackle and yell,” he said. “Crap is expected.”

Sinclair waited in line from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. to get front row seats to the game, as his body was painted to cheer on the Chips.

“We did get slaughtered, but it was still fun to watch,” he said.

Farmington sophomore Jessie Vial said she expected Mount Pleasant to be overcrowded, but she thought it would be more rowdy than it was.

“I expected the student section to be huge, as it was, but it wasn’t as crazy as I thought it would be,” she said.

Vial said she stayed until halftime.

“I was cold and once we started losing I gave up hope,” she said.

She said for the most part, everyone was pretty civil and any clashing was mostly joking.

“I didn’t encounter anything very negative,” she said.

Charlevoix sophomore Kathryn Sell had a different perspective of the interactions between CMU and MSU fans. Although she was impressed with State’s “class,” she felt CMU fans were not as well represented.

“People were chanting ‘eff green, eff white’,” she said. “The student section was constantly flipping them off.”

As a whole, Sell said CMU was disrespectful. She said objects were being thrown onto the field by the CMU student section and there was an announcement to refrain from doing so.

But even having students show up to the game impacts the football team overall, Rochester Hills senior Vinnie Olson said.

“If not a lot of people come out, it affects the team’s performance,” Olson said.

He said the relaxed tailgating rules helped bring student involvement back to CMU football.

“It’s brought student appreciation for the team back,” he said. “It’s brought back stud ent support.”