ESPN Events will present the inaugural Band of the Year National Championship - December 15 in Atlanta


bernard

bernard

THEE Realist
ESPN Events will present the inaugural Band of the Year National Championship, a prestigious competition featuring the nation’s top marching bands from Historically Black College and Universities (HBCUs). The event will take place at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta on December 15 in advance of the 2022 Cricket Celebration Bowl, the unofficial HBCU National Championship college football game between the champions of the MEAC and SWAC.

The Band of the Year National Championship will air live on an ESPN platform and will feature the top two marching bands from both the Division I and Division II conference levels competing for the title of Band of the Year.

espnpressroom.com

ESPN Events to Host Inaugural Band of the Year National Championship – December 15 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta

ESPN Events will present the inaugural Band of the Year National Championship, a prestigious competition featuring the nation’s top marching bands from Historically Black College and Universities (HBCUs) at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta on December 15 in advance of the 2022 Cricket...
espnpressroom.com
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WVPZ0sSfzM
 
Wait and see mentality with this...


(although this is something that can/should have been done without ESPN)
 

espnpressroom.com

ESPN Events to Host Inaugural Band of the Year National Championship – December 15 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta

ESPN Events will present the inaugural Band of the Year National Championship, a prestigious competition featuring the nation’s top marching bands from Historically Black College and Universities (HBCUs) at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta on December 15 in advance of the 2022 Cricket...
espnpressroom.com

"The championship will be the culmination of a season long competition where bands will be ranked according to their weekly halftime performances by a selection committee of marching band experts. Rankings will be posted on the college football section of ESPN.com."
In_The_662 said:
Wait and see mentality with this...


(although this is something that can/should have been done without ESPN)
Click to expand...
What a novel concept. Instead of trying to reinvent the wheel, John Grant and ESPN Events could have simply reached out to us to collaborate on something we've been doing for years.
 
I don't quite understand the need to make it between D1 and D2 bands; but I think it's a business decision that will include D2 schools in the events surrounding the game. Smart play if pulled off right.
What are some blockbuster D2 bands though? Miles?
 

RANKINGS​

Performances are judged on an individual basis, with judges giving scores for specific areas only. Bands are encouraged to submit a performance to be judged monthly. The committee is co-chaired by Jackson State Director of Bands Emeritus, Professor Dowell Taylor, and Dr. Julian E. White, FAMU Director of Bands Emeritus.

The next update will come in late October as the top 15 will be reduced to the top 10 overall in each division. The November ranking will list the top five in each division. The final ranking will award the top two teams in each division a shot at the ESPN Band of The Year title, which will be determined Dec. 15 in the Mercedes-Benz Dome in Atlanta, GA with the show starting at 6 PM EST. It will be simulcast on ESPN3 and ESPN Plus.

Rankings Release Dates:​

October Rankings: October 26, 2023
November Rankings: November 22, 2023
Final Cumulative Ranking: November 28, 2023

Ranking Categories:
  1. Auxiliaries
  2. Drum Major(s)
  3. Musicality
  4. Percussion
  5. Picture/Drill & Design
bandoftheyear.com

RANKINGS - Band of the Year

Performances are judged on an individual basis, with judges giving scores for specific areas only. Bands are encouraged to submit a performance to be judged monthly. The committee is co-chaired by Jackson State Director of Bands Emeritus, Professor Dowell Taylor, and Dr. Julian E. White, FAMU...
bandoftheyear.com bandoftheyear.com

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yt3N-WQ963Q
HBCU Gameday Exclusive: The men behind ESPN's Band of The Year, Jackson State Director of Bands Emeritus, Professor Dowell Taylor, and Dr. Julian E. White, FAMU Director of Bands Emeritus.
 
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The final totals of the ESPN Band of The Year competition are in and we finally have a list of five programs in each division that will be considered for an invite to Atlanta.

The Band of The Year committee released the rankings based on cumulative scores exclusively to HBCU Gameday. The top five programs in each category will be in consideration for the invite to the Band of The Year competition to take place on Dec. 15 in Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

Two bands will be selected from the top five in each category based on a number of factors, including availability for competition. The participants will be announced on Nov. 28.

North Carolina A&T ranked second in September, first in October and third in November. Jackson State ranked third in Sept. and Oct. and first in November. Southern University ranked first in September, dropped to seventh in October and rose to fifth in November.

1) North Carolina A&T “Blue and Gold Marching Machine” – 832
2) Jackson State “Sonic Boom of The South” – 808
3) Southern University “Human Jukebox” – 801
4) Norfolk State “Spartan Legion” – 791
5) Prairie View A&M “Marching Storm” — 778
5) Tennessee State “Aristocrat of Bands” — 778
6) Florida A&M “Marching 100 — 770
7) Texas Southern University “Ocean of Soul” — 735
8) South Carolina State University “Marching 101” — 702
9) Alabama State University “Marching Hornets” — 676
10) Grambling State University “World Famed Tiger Marching Band” — 673

hbcugameday.com

Band of The Year announces top five contenders

The ESPN Band of The Year committee has tabulated the cumulative scores as it narrows down two bands in each category.
hbcugameday.com hbcugameday.com
 
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Band of The Year 2023 Finalists Announced​

The four finalists for the 2023 Band Of The Year have been revealed as they make their way to Atlanta, GA

After months of anticipation and intrigue, the Fabulous Four have been chosen for the inaugural ESPN Band of The Year to award the top HBCU marching bands in Division I and Division II/NAIA.

The two finalists at the Division II level are Florida Memorial’s “The Roar” Marching Band and Virginia State University’s “Trojan Explosion.”

The two finalists at the Division I level are the North Carolina A&T “Blue and Gold Marching Machine” and the Jackson State University “Sonic Boom of the South.”

The four institutions were extended invites on Monday evening after being among the ten marching bands considered, five at each level. All four bands finished ranked in the top two in their respective categories, but the Band of The Year committee needed to make sure that the bands would get the support they needed from their institutions. All four confirmed support from their administration, including housing the students over part of what is traditionally winter break.

North Carolina A&T and Jackson State University are no strangers to the national stage as both have performed in Mercedes-Benz Stadium in the Celebration Bowl. NC A&T in 2017-2019 and Jackson State in 2021 and 2022.

hbcugameday.com

Band of The Year 2023 Finalists Announced

The four finalists for the 2023 Band Of The Year have been revealed as they make their way to Atlanta, GA.
hbcugameday.com hbcugameday.com
 
Just saw the competition on ESPN+. The Boom committed bandslaughter tonight in Atlanta. Po’ A&T. Have never heard the Boom sound as great and look as great as they did. In the D1 division, they went on first. And it was so striking until I knew, from the opening sound from A&T, that the Sonic Boom of the South had cut head.

You have to see the video for yourself. New dimensions to the sound and drills filled with precision and innovation. Was the bomb!
 

Shenanigans

People PLEASE get on your respective schools about investing in streaming and creating a uniform standard across all 12 schools. This would allow the halftime shows to be shown live with sponsors creating more revenue

Get ESPN out of the picture because they've had ample opportunities to get it right and repeatedly fail
 
IMO, bands that use auxiliary stuff should be judged separately. They can stand still while those dancers run back and forth with their shenanigans lol.

Maybe some of bandheads can educate me, I don't see a marching band definition that includes anything other than instruments.
 
Auxiliaries are apart of the band. The drum majors...are actually auxiliary, too. In my opinion NCAT shows are very VERY entertaining. Their field sound is typically great and very entertaining. I saw JSU's show. It thought it was solid but there were bad mistakes in the drill on the far left side. If NCAT danced more then that kind of energy gets more of a win....maybe. This same committee had PV and FAMU over TxSU. Considering Mr Taylor is on the committee then certain things are just extreme preferences.
Example: NCAT more entertaining nand not as many mistakes if any vs difficulty against JSU. Or contrasts PV and FAMU vs TxSU Ocean of Soul. What does NCAT do better than JSU? Same question for PV and FAMU vs TxSU.

Seeing those performances it has to be pure entertainment. The blow downs and Jsettes now on the field for an entrance won't cut it. But at a few Honda BOTB...the crowd loves the Ocean beat entrance with the Motion hitting the kick on every line. Inconsistencies in judging are huge just like swac refs being really inconsistent. Someone said get your institute to stream. I agree. I don't think ESPN needs to go away but the way these others are fighting tooth and nail to get Jim Crow back...they cannot beat money. Corporations don't ignore money. They'll still segregate but other corporations will just beat them to the punch so they'll have to hold their noses. If you get me good, if not just trust me, I own my own business.
 

ESPN Band of the Year: entertaining/perplexing start​

ATLANTA - The inaugural ESPN "Band of The Year" competition could be described many ways, but the best term may have been "organized chaos." That's to be expected for a first-of-its-kind event that was band competition-meets-football-game-meets corporate-check cashing showcase.

Four HBCU bands filed into the cavernous Mercedes-Benz Stadium in downtown Atlanta looking to bring home one of two national titles. But none of them did.

The inaugural "Band of the Year" winners for both Division I and Division II were not crowned on Friday night. Instead the result will be announced during Saturday's broadcast of its ESPN Events parent event - the Celebration Bowl. That announcement was made after two hours of performances on the field and an endless array of check presentations to the four bands who made it to the turf over dozens of others.

A rumbling of murmurs rolled through the crowd once the announcement that the postponement of the announcement of the winners rolled through the loudspeakers.

Read more at: https://www.charlotteobserver.com/sports/college/article283125208.html#storylink=cpy
 
A&T was the better looking band. A&T was the better sounding band. JSU had a more entertaining show. The right band won that competition.A&T executed their show to near perfection. JSU didn't
 
lilC said:
Auxiliaries are apart of the band. The drum majors...are actually auxiliary, too. In my opinion NCAT shows are very VERY entertaining. Their field sound is typically great and very entertaining. I saw JSU's show. It thought it was solid but there were bad mistakes in the drill on the far left side. If NCAT danced more then that kind of energy gets more of a win....maybe. This same committee had PV and FAMU over TxSU. Considering Mr Taylor is on the committee then certain things are just extreme preferences.
Example: NCAT more entertaining nand not as many mistakes if any vs difficulty against JSU. Or contrasts PV and FAMU vs TxSU Ocean of Soul. What does NCAT do better than JSU? Same question for PV and FAMU vs TxSU.

Seeing those performances it has to be pure entertainment. The blow downs and Jsettes now on the field for an entrance won't cut it. But at a few Honda BOTB...the crowd loves the Ocean beat entrance with the Motion hitting the kick on every line. Inconsistencies in judging are huge just like swac refs being really inconsistent. Someone said get your institute to stream. I agree. I don't think ESPN needs to go away but the way these others are fighting tooth and nail to get Jim Crow back...they cannot beat money. Corporations don't ignore money. They'll still segregate but other corporations will just beat them to the punch so they'll have to hold their noses. If you get me good, if not just trust me, I own my own business.
Click to expand...
How difficult are step 2 drills if 90% of all HBCU bands do them? With that said the 4 pinwheels that JSU did was extremely impressive and the degree of difficulty in A&Ts show was really low.
 
lilC said:
Auxiliaries are apart of the band. The drum majors...are actually auxiliary, too. In my opinion NCAT shows are very VERY entertaining. Their field sound is typically great and very entertaining. I saw JSU's show. It thought it was solid but there were bad mistakes in the drill on the far left side. If NCAT danced more then that kind of energy gets more of a win....maybe. This same committee had PV and FAMU over TxSU. Considering Mr Taylor is on the committee then certain things are just extreme preferences.
Example: NCAT more entertaining nand not as many mistakes if any vs difficulty against JSU. Or contrasts PV and FAMU vs TxSU Ocean of Soul. What does NCAT do better than JSU? Same question for PV and FAMU vs TxSU.

Seeing those performances it has to be pure entertainment. The blow downs and Jsettes now on the field for an entrance won't cut it. But at a few Honda BOTB...the crowd loves the Ocean beat entrance with the Motion hitting the kick on every line. Inconsistencies in judging are huge just like swac refs being really inconsistent. Someone said get your institute to stream. I agree. I don't think ESPN needs to go away but the way these others are fighting tooth and nail to get Jim Crow back...they cannot beat money. Corporations don't ignore money. They'll still segregate but other corporations will just beat them to the punch so they'll have to hold their noses. If you get me good, if not just trust me, I own my own business.
Click to expand...
Venom Skywalker said:
A&T was the better looking band. A&T was the better sounding band. JSU had a more entertaining show. The right band won that competition.A&T executed their show to near perfection. JSU didn't
Click to expand...

I think NCAT really just moved forward, backwards, expanded, and contracted as a group using very simple formations with their instruments facing forward so the sound remained the same. You'd have to view side angle videos to see how off the lines were. Essentially, they didn't march. NCAT is the best HBCU marching band. Here's a PWI marching band. Something ain't right.

View: https://youtu.be/J7E0Bb-7xwU?si=0bwn3FGVQUIsKTr_
 
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I don't think A&T is the best hbcu marching band. I think they did enough to beat JSU Friday night. Without the mistakes I think JSU probably would have won.

I agree with like that It's hard to adjudicate HBCU bands. People don't like FAMU on the field because we meet some traditional standard nor so they like bands like Su and JSU in the stands because of od traditional musical standards. It's always fun to talk about who's better and we probably take it more seriously than it really is but trying to measure with such disperate styles isn't going to leave a lot of people happy. That was a typical A&T show. I would stab myself in the eye if the 100 did a show like that every game.
 
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