While nothing beats marching on Kyle Field at halftime of the game, the Aggie Band WILL still conduct their drill on Kyle Field during the week and have the drill videotaped. The drill will then be broadcast on the Jumbotron at halftime of the game on Saturday.

It definitely isn't the same for the Aggie Band as marching in front of thousands of fans at halftime of the game, but it does still give our cadets - especially the seniors - the opportunity to still practice and perform their halftime drills and have them shown to the fans at the game. We will also show the drill on our social media sites at halftime, so that many more at home can see the drill as well.

Coronavirus has forced us to make many changes this year, and this is another adjustment we will have to make based on the SEC's ruling concerning bands on the field during the game. Our cadets have faced this adversity with a positive attitude, and instead of giving up, have found ways to circumvent the challenges that COVID-19 has thrown at them. This option still gives the Aggie Band the chance to march and perform, and have their performances viewed by thousands, if not millions. It certainly beats the alternative of NO performances at all.

Thanks for your love and support of our Corps. Beat the Hell Outta Vanderbilt! AND COVID-19!!

I hope my response was not taken in the wrong light.

As I said on a different forum, I understand the decision. 2020 is what it is.


The FTAB stepping off , marching to Kyle, half time... that's the highlight of my football weekend and the main reason I travel to Aggieland for games - the rest, I can watch on TV. Oh, and the tailgaiting. Can't be duplicated at home.

Sigh

Just wanted to clarify my previous remark.

I'm glad that the SEC is at least allowing football, unlike the conferences who are "much smarter" - Ivy League, Pac12, B1G, etc. But, the decision about no band halftime performances is ridiculous.

I admire Texas A&M's innovation to do the performance separately, video record it and play it back at halftime. Yeah, it's not the same but, it is better than nothing.

It's tragic that the Class of 2021 has already played their last halftime performance in front of a crowd and they didn't even know it at the time. It's tragic that the class of 2024 isn't going to get that morale boost of the first home game and performing in front of roaring crowds, especially on the back of having their Senior Year in HS ruined by COVID-19.

During the past few years, particularly since the Kyle Field renovation (with the increased bandwidth), I've really enjoyed having multiple BQ buddies, family members and friends livestream the halftime performances. Since they're seated all over the stadium, I get different feeds that I can switch between. Especially if somebody's iPhone overheats or something like that.

So, without consideration for whatever University restrictions might be in place (in other words, I don't know if this is even possible), here are my suggestions for how to make this prior recording concept the best it can be.

1 - Record it at the same time of day that the regular performance would be
So, if it's a 7pm Saturday night kickoff, record the performance around 8:30pm - 9:00pm on Friday night. That way the lighting and the atmospheric conditions are the same. I know, lighting costs money but a lot of times the lights are already on anyway.

2 - Make it realistic

• Have blackbelts look down for the five minutes or so prior to the drill.
• Maybe toss an errant football through the band ranks.
• Only permit the band to execute the drill 1 time.

3 - Allow "fans" in the stands for the performance
How many fans would possibly show up for a Band performance on Friday night? I'm guessing that number would be at least 500-1,000 if it was limited to just friends, family (WAGS - wives and girlfriends). It might be 2,000 "fans" if you forced The Corps to attend. It could be in the range of 2,500-3,000 if you combined Friends, Family, Corps. Conceptually, there might be some freshmen non-reg HS band nerds who might want to watch.

If you had 3,000 "fans" show up for a Friday night Aggie Band halftime performance in a 100,000 seat stadium, they could easily socially distance themselves. You could issue tickets or somebody could spend a few minutes to write an app to electronically distribute "fans" as they show up.

The security and health screening could be similar to everything else we see going on between airports and stadiums. You could have one entrance, one exit and only allow one-way traffic around the stadium.

I'll be happy to see the Aggie Band march under any conditions.
Hopefully it will be a scenario where they can perform in front of an audience. Whether that audience consists of friends and family, other Corps members, or random members of the public who have some sort of tickets and assigned seats.

If we can't do a small crowd of real people in the stands, hopefully we can at least do cardboard cutouts and pipe in crowd noise like what MLB is doing.

It wouldn't really feel like a game day Aggie Band performance without the "oohs and aahs" in response to the Bugle Rank flourish, the simultaneous crowd grunts of the tuba turns and of course the loud Whoops during Johnny, Noble Men and forming the Block T.