College football is tradition. College sports are tradition. They are the lifeblood of gameday culture, the epitome of school spirit, and the force that brings the student body together as they support their school.
Since college football was born 155 years ago in Piscataway, New Jersey, schools have been introducing traditions that have become as important to the student experience at the games as the game itself. From the traditions that have been in place for over a century such as the 12th Man at Texas A&M, to more recently established customs like the touching Hawkeye Wave, schools have introduced these game day rituals to craft a campus culture that is both unique and meaningful.
That exclusivity can be a topic of intense debate in the college football community. Fans are very protective of their school’s traditions and have a right to do so. Many schools have traditions that they feel fundamentally shape their identity. Seeing students at another school appropriate their customs can be seen as attention-seeking at best and an insulting attempt to diminish the significance of their school’s culture at worst.
That being said, there are definitely some traditions that can be used by multiple schools without much uproar. Singing along to the lyrics of “Sweet Caroline,” for example, originated at Iowa State, but is belted out by thousands of students at different universities all over the country. The University of Miami’s tradition of entering the field through a white smoke screen has similarly been adopted by many teams across the country.
So it seems as though if a tradition doesn’t directly reference one school’s culture, it’s fair game to be adopted by other teams. Obviously, no school would dare try and replicate rituals such as “Dotting the I” at Ohio State or the “Sooner Schooner” adored by fans in Oklahoma, but incorporating songs and traditions used by other schools can allow younger programs to create a stronger gameday culture.
So what’s the issue with “Mr. Brightside?” During the 2016 football season the University of Michigan sang the popular song for the first time during the third quarter of their game against Wisconsin. The gimmick took off and has now become a full-time tradition at Michigan Stadium, with the song becoming associated with Wolverines football in the eyes of many college football fans.
Just a year later, students on The Heights started belting out the song’s iconic lines as well. Like with Michigan, the song gained popularity in the Boston College community. It is now one of our most treasured game day traditions as well. While some disgruntled Wolverines fans have mentioned that they were the ones to start the trend, there hasn’t been much uproar about it over the past six years.
That’s changed somewhat this past fall, however. BC has gotten off to a successful start under newly hired Head Coach Bill O’Brien, winning four of their first seven games including some notable victories over Florida State University and Michigan State, causing the college football community to take notice.
While this newfound attention has been incredible for the prestige of the program, it has also come with some unwanted controversy. Clips of BC students singing “Mr. Brightside” during the second quarter of games have naturally gained a larger audience as the team has continued to impress on the field. This has led to a large number of not just Michigan fans, but college football fans as a whole, to wonder: Can you copy another school’s tradition they’ve been doing for years? Is it really a Michigan thing? Can a school lay claim to a song in the first place?
Absolutely not.
The University of Michigan did not create “Mr. Brightside.” Brandon Flowers and Dave Keuning did. So why should they alone be allowed to sing the song at games? It makes little sense from both a logical and technical perspective.
Sing-alongs have been popular in college football long before “Mr. Brightside” was heard ringing through the Big House and Alumni Stadium. A number of schools use them as a part of their pregame walkout or to enhance the game time atmosphere. Even if a song is associated with one school in particular, such as “Jump Around” at Wisconsin or “Country Roads” at West Virginia, other schools use them to little uproar. These schools themselves claim no exclusive right to the creation of the song, and therefore, other schools can use it as part of their game day tradition if they so choose. The University of Michigan and its fans should do the same.
Ultimately, whether you’re chanting the lyrics during the second or third quarter, from Chestnut Hill or Ann Arbor, “Mr. Brightside” is an incredibly fun song to sing at games. It is understandably associated with Michigan football due to its size and success as a program, but as other schools around the country begin to chant its lyrics as well, don’t confuse an iconic tradition for an exclusive one.
