You might have seen a tweet that made the rounds last week claiming that Colgate accidentally left a member of its basketball team at the airport before flying to Columbus for its first-round NCAA Tournament game, forcing that player to take an Uber to Ohio.
That wasn't true, but the Raiders did leave someone behind: Their band.
As reported by Mara Stein of The Colgate Maroon-News, Colgate's band for the Raiders' NCAA Tournament game against Tennessee at Nationwide Arena last Friday actually consisted of 29 students from Ohio State's athletic band – and Colgate's actual band members didn't find about the switcheroo until they watched the game on TV.
Members of the Raider Pep Band say they were not invited to play at Friday’s NCAA March Madness game and were instead replaced—without their prior knowledge—by Ohio State University students clad in maroon t-shirts. They also allege that their comments regarding the matter were intentionally deleted by Colgate Athletics on Instagram after the @colgateraiders account posted a photo of the “fake band” to congratulate the Men’s Basketball team and its fans.
Senior Kyle Rhodehouse, who served as the Raider Pep Band’s drum major for two years, said that the Colgate band was never consulted about the possibility of traveling to Columbus, Ohio, where the men’s basketball team played Tennessee on March 22.
“We learned of the ‘fake band’ when we saw shots of drummers on the live CBS coverage of the game, and then again when someone on the cheerleading team [who had attended the game] sent a photo...to one of the Colgate band members,” Rhodehouse said.
TBDBITL's official Twitter account and a member of the Ohio State athletic band, Wesley Roberts, tweeted about their fill-in duty.
Some of our Athletic Band members traded their scarlet for maroon this afternoon at @NationwideArena to fill in as @ColgateMBBs pep band! #GoGate #GoBucks #MarchMadness pic.twitter.com/PRyQHwZirA
— The Ohio State University Marching Band (@TBDBITL) March 22, 2019
I got some good air time today on CBS, playing for the Colgate vs Tennessee March Madness game! Colgate doesn't have a basketball band to send on tournament trips, so they asked the Ohio State band to help out and cheer on their team for them! It was a great game! #MarchMadness pic.twitter.com/j6ZZKBjGEB
— Wesley Roberts (@wesleyjroberts) March 22, 2019
It was an opportunity for members of Ohio State's band who didn't make the trip for the Buckeyes' games in Tulsa to get to participate in the NCAA Tournament, and it isn't an unprecedented practice for schools to rent bands from local universities or high schools for postseason games away from home – especially for smaller schools like Colgate, who don't have nearly as big a budget as Ohio State.
Colgate band members, however, expressed disappointment with the university that they were not afforded the opportunity to travel to the Raiders' first appearance in the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament in 23 years.
A Colgate University spokesperson told the Maroon-News that the pep band's small size (it consists of only 20 members) and inconsistent attendance at home games were reasons why they were not invited, but band director Ryan Rios objected to that characterization.
“If you have an issue with our attendance and that stops us from being able to play at exciting events like the NCAA tournament, a quick heads-up would be appreciated before the fact so that we can discuss and work together to fix that for the next time,” Rios wrote in an email to Vice President and Director of Athletics Nicki Moore.
