We need to have a "band day" like most other schools have. Invite a ton of HS marching bands to the game (not like we don't have the tickets). It's free recruiting for the band, and it's an easy show week for those times when you get 3-4 home games in a row (just make a big block M and fill it with HS kids blasting away with our band on easy pep band/patriotic tunes + the rouser.)
The recruiting aspect of this is huge. Most good college bands turn away 2 or 3 kids who audition for every one who makes it. After that process, they still only march the best ones and have the rest as alternates. In addition to increasing the baseline quality, you have the fear of being an alternate motivating the kids to be on top of their stuff and stay in shape physically and on their horns. We need the numbers of interested kids to let us be selective, and right now we don't have them. Before you bring it up, it has nothing to do with quality of the football team. There are plenty of schools with historically sucky teams but good bands. Michigan State, Illinois, and Purdue come to mind immediately.
Lastly, when I make my millions, the first check is going to buy the U of MN band a drill writer and the second is for an arranger. No more high school stock tunes and modern art fallopian tube forms.
Disagree. tOSU Marching Band is highly regarded as one of the best bands in the country (hence its stupid nickname) from a technical marching and musical perspective. They have a high audition-to-acceptance ratio
(link) of ~400 with 225 making the cut, 33 of those being alternates. That's as high as a band gets for tryout ratio at 1.77 to 1. Also notice what little time there is from audition (late August or Labor Day weekend) to the first game for this band.
Wisconsin has tryouts and has, again, 225 block spots for all field marching (pregame AND halftime), but 320 members. The tryout at the beginning of the year is for the block spots. The rest up the ~320 spots of uniformed band members. There are THEN alternated who wear red sweaters, black pants, and stand at attention at the back of the endzone during pregame. These are about 20-40 in number. So the ratio is clearly much lower.
I can't find numbers on other marching bands (USC comes to mind as does Michigan) that have a national reputation.
I think musically and marching our pregame is better than anything I've seen from WI (2 games at Camp Randall and their band here in 2003), but our halftime does bore people unless they're doing an interesting picture show. There's no reason they couldn't do high step for both pregame AND halftime. I marched for 4 years and can tell you I was tired at the end of the day but absolutely would have done it if asked.
I also do wish the instrumentation/recruiting focused on getting more brass. Having flags doesn't bother me but having only 30-32 total trombones (28 in pregame block), in the teens for tubas, and 60-something trumpets doesn't give the full sound we hear from other bands. Unfortunately we can't put a gun to the brass players of the state. I think a stronger football team would definitely excite HS band players to try out for the MN band...
Ultimately, though, a band will be recognized if the team is doing well. They go to bigger bowl games and get TV time, are heard more, their fight song is more "iconic" (think Michigan, USC, Notre Dame), even un-unique things you do are seen as cool (drum major back bend for example). Kids in HS want to be that person that plays the fight song when the team beats X rival. It snowballs.