Last night, the modern marvel that is Twitter delivered another dose of Michigan schadenfreude to us and the rest of the college football world. Instead of another loss/failing to score an offensive touchdown against a power five opponent, this time Michigan delivered on a theme that came up in the offseason, the struggle to sell tickets.
The promotion itself didn’t last long before Michigan pulled it, but, if you missed the fun last night, we were at HLS are more than happy to catch you up and give you a good laugh. Firstly, here is a picture of the promotion in action:
How bad have things gotten for Michigan football? This bad… http://t.co/hLXUwyTWYz pic.twitter.com/y1hrnt8uSF
— NBC Sports (@NBCSports) September 23, 2014
I happened to grab NBC Sports tweet of this, but practically every outlet that covers college football ran a story on this. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a collective dogpile form so fast on Twitter before and it was so glorious until Michigan killed the fun:

via the Internet (seriously, everyone tweeted this too and I’m too lazy to go back in my timeline to find just one tweet)
I want to point something out here. Michigan flat-out threw their “great partner”, Coke, under the bus here. Coke didn’t do their job right, so the promotion for their students (whom, remember, they are struggling to sell tickets to), is done because Coke failed to understand the mighty Michigan marketing department correctly.
The statement is completely devoid of any information addressing the main issue that caused everyone to laugh: paying for two Cokes is all it takes to get into Michigan/Minnesota. Even if the promotion runs properly and is just aimed at students, it’s still embarrassing. I could only imagine the laughter directed at Notre Dame if a photo from the Huddle was tweeted out by a student showing that you could get free ND Football tickets with a handful of flex points.
It’s another chapter in Dave Brandon managing to be the worse athletic director of all time. The complete failure to foresee this kind of reaction is beyond inexcusable. And forget the laughter, can you imagine what their loyal, paying season ticket holders think?
@DaveBrandonAD I pay $350 a seat for my seat license x 3. Then $75 or $95 a ticket for each game x 3. Then I see this pic.twitter.com/Kexc2cKwu9
— nick demattia (@demoisblue) September 23, 2014
Wait, hold on, Michigan actually charges for seat licenses?! This poor bastard paying for over $1,000 per game for terrible football has every right to be pissed. I almost feel bad for Michigan fans that were suckered into paying that much money for terrible football (almost).
Talk about damage being done even after the promotion was pulled. And make no mistake, people actually got tickets from this promotion:
Spent $6 to get 4 football tickets. If anyone wants to come up for the game let me know pic.twitter.com/33oZ46oBEl
— pete elliott (@pete_elliott24) September 22, 2014
Never thought is see the day where I could legally buy a michigan football ticket for $1.50 AND get a coke with it
— pete elliott (@pete_elliott24) September 22, 2014
By the way, this guy (and his ticket tweet) appeared on CollegeSpun and BleacherReport to remove any and all doubt that this promotion was 100% legit. And what will this Michigan fan be doing with his cheaply bought tickets?
@jayphillips7 selling online for 45 a pop or best offer
— pete elliott (@pete_elliott24) September 22, 2014
Oh dear. Even when tickets are practically handed away for free, people would rather try to make a few bucks than sit through Michigan playing Minnesota. That might just be the most hilarious part about all of this.
@IrishTightness
Me to gas station clerk: "can you ring these up separately please".Clerk: "together you get UM tix".
Me: "I know".
— NDFANatic (@16th_Georgetown) September 23, 2014
I take it back. That’s the most hilarious part about this.
- Epilogue - January 3, 2022
- HLS Podcast Finale - January 2, 2022
- The Final Fiesta: Notre Dame vs Oklahoma State NCAA ’14 Sim - December 31, 2021