Houston Part 1: Badgers in Tigerland

The Houston experience can be neatly divided into 2 even chunks:  

Part 1: The Badger Game and Part: 2 Everything Else.

So begins part 1 . . . 

Before I start I feel that I must make an observation that permeated throughout the entire trip.  Houston feels empty.  Everywhere felt decidedly uninhabited.  The social scenes, the bars, the hip neighborhoods and the trendy malls all seemed lacking in people.  I heard it explained to me as such: Houston is huge.  Not necessarily dense, but geographically expansive.  So, any city center/social hub would be incredibly inconvenient for so many that no place really emerged as the "social center".  There were cool trendy neighborhoods that we came across (Montrose and Midtown come to mind), but they seemed under utilized and a little to small to be considered a true social hub.

This being said the brilliantly named NRG Stadium (reread it and give yourself a minute to let the punderful name sink in) had the same feel.  We arrived at the game approximately 5 hours before kickoff and the lot seemed about a quarter full.  It still felt empty right up to the start of the game.  Wisconsin was represented well, but make no mistake, Houston is an LSU town.  There were easily 3 LSU fans tailgating for every 1 Badger.  I ended up buying a ticket for the game at the tailgate and here was my view.

I was deep in enemy territory, but more on the game later.

I would first like to address the fundamental differences between a Big Ten Tailgate (the entire big ten will be represented by Wisconsin in this comparative study) and an SEC tailgate (represented here by LSU).

*Quick note on the breakdown, this will not include bars, only unlicensed parties thrown by the people, for the people. 

Tailgating Breakdown:

Wisconsin Photo Courtesy of: http://lettersinbottles.blogspot.com/
LSU Photo Courtesy of: http://sportselitists.blogspot.com/

Here's a quick breakdown of the Big Ten.  The Big Ten has interpreted the tailgate as an outside party, during the day.  Vaguely reminiscent of a giant block party.  Typically there will be outdoor games such as bags (or cornhole for the filthy mouthed), beer pong, multi-storied multiple person beer bongs and other such staples of a college house party.  The food served is usually limited to burgers and brats that were purchased the morning of.  A Big Ten tailgater will get the majority their daily sustenance from beer.  Hard liquor will be available, but not prevalent.  The had liquor selection is restricted to whatever bottles party guests bring from their house or whatever the house has left over from the party the night before.  Most of the tailgaters throw it together the morning of by grabbing beer, easily prepared food (not always present), cups, and ping pong balls.  There are a select few who start preparing the night before with some additional food items, jello shots, and hard liquor mixers, but they are definitely the exception not the rule.  Big take away, a Big Ten tailgate is a party.

Now quick look at the SEC.  The SEC has classed up the tailgate.  They have interpreted the tailgate as an event.  Each tailgate spot is distinct.  The group of tailgaters have usually been tailgating for years and have a floor plan for how the set up is going to be.  Tables will be set up for food, TVs connected to satellite dishes will be erected, chairs will be spread throughout and tents will be placed in a manner that will maximize the flow.  Years have been spent getting the set up just right.  They begin the setup a day (or in some cases days) in advance.  Each tailgate has multiple different types of food prepped before they set off to erect their party tent.  An example of the food spread would be BBQ, shrimp jambalaya, multiple deserts on a table, a vast array of pre-made sides, veggies, and snacks, a fully stocked liquor selection with mixers, beer in coolers and perhaps a keg.  Outdoor games, such as bags, are as ubiquitous as at a Big Ten tailgates, however you will find less beer pong tables.  Big take away, an SEC tailgate is an event.

How do they compare, and who the hell do I think I am trying to judge these two?  Well I went to Wisconsin, I have been to 2 LSU games (and a few other SEC games) and I spent the last year deep in the heart of SEC country on the Georgia-Alabama line, 30 minutes from Auburn.  I understand that it's not a plethora of SEC experience, but it doesn't take much experience to get the vibe.  First off, both are awesome, and just a ridiculous amount of fun.  Second, I am biased; I was raised with the Big Ten style, and God damn it I love it.  Third, rowdy farmers market?  What the hell do I mean by that?  

Picture each tailgate crew at an SEC game as a stand at a farmers market.  You can easily tell the stalls apart, and based on the the appearance you have a pretty good idea what their serving up, but it's impossible to get the full picture just by looking.  In order to get admittance to each individual tailgate you must talk to one of the core members in order to get approval to hang.  It's possible to lurk, but then you're just a creepy dude hanging out with everyone glaring and the farmer wondering whether you're here to steal his goods.   In order to partake in the tailgate you must find a core member.  You'll end up asking the exact same questions you would to a stall proprietor at a farmers market, "When did you guys get here to set up?  What is the delightful smell?  How do you make the ___ taste so goll dang good?"  So, on and so forth.  Needless to say, you will be genuinely interested (especially as a big tenner) in the answers, but these are the formalities to hang with this one group.  Most SEC tailgaters are super nice and accepting.  I have never had an experience where they haven't given me a plate of food, a beverage, invited me to stay, and introduced me to the group.  However, this style of tailgating makes it harder to flow throughout the tailgating scene.  A person will find themselves hanging at a tailgate with a new bunch of best friends for the entire tailgate.  

The Big Ten tailgate is completely different.  It is completely fluid.  It is impossible to tell the difference between one group of tailgaters and another.  This is where the house party analysis comes in.  Imagine that everyone tailgating is part of one big house party, each group of tailgaters adds booze and surface area to the overall party, but they aren't apart from the party as a whole.  At a big ten tailgate you will see people moving freely from one booze source to the next without being questioned.  It's free flowing, super relaxed, and highly social.  Random dude off the street can call next game of beer pong and based on immutable house party rules that dude, who nobody knows, is up next.  At a Big Ten tailgate you'll see a funnel in the distance and find yourself wandering 4 blocks to see if there's a line for the 4 story beer bong.  When you get there the beer bong proprietor will fill it up for you and down the hatch it goes.

Quick note on game attire:  

SEC: Visor, polo, khaki shorts/pants for the men and a dress/skirt combo for the ladies. 

Big Ten: Baseball hat, T-shirt/Sweatshirt, Jeans for every man, woman, and child.  

That's the gist.  Both are great, but I prefer the Big Ten style.  In the Big Ten Style the whole is much greater than the sum of it's parts.  In the SEC style each part is stellar, but they don't really compound on one another.  It's a pick your poison scenario where the only side effect will be a righteous time.

Back to Houston . . . 

The scene was to be expected.  There were multiple LSU group tailgates consisting of about 10-12 people and plus a few adoptive members who underwent the formalities and were accepted.  There was a Wisconsin group who rented a trailer, and holding true to the Wisconsin house party culture every Wisconsinite in the parking lot eventually congregated over to create a huge impromptu party.

Now, when I set out for Houston I was a group of 1.  I found out some buds were going to the game, so we met up and prepped for the tailgate.  In true Big Ten style, 6 hours before the game we ran into a Wal-Mart came out with a grill, charcoal, lighter fluid, grill utensils, brats, burgers, and beer and hurried off to NRG.  We hit the parking lot, started assembling the grill (which took us longer than I care to admit) and started roasting some meat and drinking some beers.  Here we are in post grill assemblage jubilation:

Left to Right - Eric "Series of Wires and Tubes" Ma, Dan "Why are there so many Vikings fans here?" MacKenzie,
Cale "Narrating this Blog" Bakken, and Ben "I'm Going to Bring the Big Truck" LeBlanc.
Picture taken by Alyssa "Screw Chairs" LeBlanc.

Now, it was around this time that I bought the ticket to the game at a rock star deal.  We drank, ate, mingled and participated in general revelry for the next few hours until it was time to go into the game.  As I said before the lot looked empty, but hot damn was the game packed.  I left my friends and found my seat.  I was the only badger fan for what had to be miles and I was scared, as captured in this photo.

The fear is palpable.  Luckily I was sitting by a great group of LSU fans who set my mind at ease. Seen here:

Great guys from a great fan base.  It was a great first half of football.  Then the second half began and apparently nobody told Wisconsin, because they didn't show up.

That's all I'm going to say about that.  The wounds are still deep and haven't healed.  However, I will say that every time I have been around LSU fans I have been genuinely impressed.  They are an incredibly polite and fun fan base.  They were probably a little more polite in Houston due to the neutral site game.  I've found that a a neutral site attracts an older demographic, which limits the amount of drunk idiot college students that are in attendance.  There were still some on both sides, but with the overwhelming older crowd they curbed their enthusiasm a bit.

Final breakdown on the Houston Wisconsin/LSU game:

Houston is huge, LSU/Wisconsin fans are great, and NRG is the greatest name for a stadium ever.



Next up Houston Part 2: Everything Else.