It’s spreading. The fans want to Gold-out Memorial for the nationally televised Michigan State game. What is a Gold Out? Put simply, everyone wears as much gold or yellow as possible, creating a statement of unity and intimidation through a flood of color. The athletic department is already on board and a coordinator has been assigned with the marketing. The only problem is getting the word out to the fans.
You can check out the entire thread that started it all. You can also see the response from the athletic department:
http://mbd.scout.com/mb.aspx?s=166&f=1419#s=166&f=1419&t=2470026
Here’s what a complete Gold Out would theoretically look like (thanks gobears15):
Why not a Blue Out?
So why not just do our normal thing, the Blue Out? After all, the student section always dresses in dark blue. The short answer is that dark blue doesn’t have the impact that other bright colors do. This is why Penn State started the White Out for big games. Dark blue doesn’t look like it’s done on purpose, especially on TV!!
Take a look at the following picture of the 2006 Oregon game. The student section is wearing all dark blue; however, how distinct is it from the Oregon section right next to it? Does it look like our fans are ‘united’ here? Well, they 'sorta' look united. Did the press ever mention after this game how cool the fans looked in all blue?
Here are some other examples of color floods using bright colors:
Penn State - the original "White Out"
The Vols - you know what this looks like. This should change the mind for anyone biased towards a Blue Out vs a Gold Out:
Texas Longhorns - this flood really looks great on TV:
Oregon Ducks - they Yellow Out for ESPN Gameday:
Oregon State when the Trojans come to town:
Michigan State - Even the Spartans do the White Out when big teams come to town:
Texas AM - Now this is frickn impressive:
THE BOTTOM LINE
Most of us hate wearing Gold and probably don't own many Gold colored items. However, this is about unity and which color makes the most impact on TV. Is it worth spending $10 on a Gold t-shirt? Hell yeah. And if we want ABC/ESPN to pick up more of our games, we need to think about how good our fans look on TV. Lets do this, lets Gold Out Memorial! Pass it on.