Excel
All-American
I have admitted several times that we have our share of less than hospitable folk, just as every school in the nation and sure, there are reasons you might come away with a bad impression other than the two I listed but I can't help but think that part of it has to do with the high expectation you came in with and the absolute letdown with which you left.As far as the gameday experience INSIDE the stadium, it was great so i cant argue with you there. As for your 2 bullsh#t points listed above, they are just that BS. I went with my wife. We were not drunk and we had no reason to be treated like we were (my wife was called a whore on a few occasions) We NEVER said anything in return or to provoke it. There were a few nice people and luckily we sat next to some good people, but outside the stadium was terrible.Oh I know its nothing personal Knapp which is why you'll take no offense at me saying anecdotal evidence doesn't prove much.People come to games in Madison for the party, that's well known throughout the country. At these parties we tend to drink a little and drinking is known to lead to asshatery. If you know this, as most football fans do, still choose to visit Madison and then whine about it I can't really feel bad for you.
As far as perception, I don't really care and it doesn't really matter what a few, new-to-the-conference-Husker fans think. Both football teams in the state are widely respected as having some of the best gameday experiences around and that won't change anytime soon.
You should talk to some of the other members of the Big Ten about the bold. It is not even close to the reputation that Madison has, both from folks I've talked to online and every single team that visited Lincoln. Most of the time I didn't even bring it up - just in general conversation about other members of the Big Ten, Badgers fans were mentioned as being some of the worst, and Madison specifically was mentioned as one of the worst places to visit for a game. This was a universal description.
You know I have no reason to intentionally drag you through the mud, so I'm not saying this out of spite or for any reason other than to relate what I heard.
Numerous sports writers and organizations have recognized the amazing expereince that a gameday in Madison is, and I'm not knocking Lincoln and the Huskers but naturally I'm going to defend my town:
"We love coming here," Herbstreit said. "Every week we're pretty spoiled. But I've played here, I've come in and called a bunch of games, so for me it's always fun to come in here, believe it or not, being an Ohio State guy." - Kirk Herbstreit.
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"Watching the Wisconsin faithful last week at Camp Randall "Jump Around" and karaoke "Build Me Up, Buttercup" and "Sweet Caroline" left me wanting more from my Husker home game experiences.
Our atmosphere is good, but it's not Camp Randall good" -Sportswriter Jeff Korbelik, Lincoln Journal Star
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ESPN's Scott Van Pelt declares Madison, Wisconsin "America's greatest college sports town"
http://nbcsports.msn...ootball/page/2/ Wisconsin #12 Gameday Experience
http://sportsillustr...10/top_ten0916/ Madison #1 College Sports Town (2003)
http://sportsillustr...t_weekends0916/ Wisconsin #9 Gameday Experience (2004)
http://www.nationalf...day-venues.html Wisconsin #8 Gameday Experience
http://sportsillustr...371/1/index.htm Wisconsin #2 Gameday Experience (2011)
http://www.huffingto...dison_Wisconsin Madison #7 College Football Town (2010)
http://www.budgettra...916.html?page=2 Madison #5 College Football Town
So yea, my point is that plenty of relatively neutral sources recognize the awesome time you can have in Madison and the great people with whom you can spend that time. If you didn't enjoy your trip there I kind of have to assume that you
1. Were an a$$ and were treated like I would expect any group of drunks to treat a disrespectful visitor.
or
2. You're harboring resentment because you lost.
I really cant believe you would list the two reasons you did and thats pretty disappointing, your reasoning is that of a 12 year old child. I always respected you more then that, and for you to say that we are saying this stuff because we lost is pretty sh**ty. You should be able to come up with something better to support your school then we beat you and your just mad. Their are alot of people on here basically saying the same thing. Even Tom Osborne got harrassed and called names, pretty pathetic. Maybe you should open your eyes, or atleast say ya we have alot of dbag fans but our gameday atmosphere is really cool, which is the way it is from and outsiders point of view. And you can keep your BS quotes they arent going to treat Kirk the same way they treat a visiting fan, think about what your saying for a second.
Come up with something better to support my school? I have provided ample evidence that visiting Madison can be, and for most people is, a great experience. I quoted Kirk just to add to my already convincing journalistic evidence in that here you have a man who played for a school most Badgers fans hate with a passion and a man whose own fan base treats him like absolute sh#t and yet he loves going to Madison. If you didn't enjoy it I'm sorry but you are in the minority of visitors to that fine city.
While I'm sure some sources can be found that say the opposite so far no one has produced anything outside of anecdotes and personnel accounts. Ok well I can say the same thing for what I've heard of Lincoln. Moving to Manhattan I've been told awful things about trips to Memorial and Husker fans, does that mean I believe them all? No, because they come from K-State fans...see how that works?
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