Photo courtesy of BYU marching band
Welcome back for the second of 13 installments where we rank all 130 FBS fight songs!
BACKGROUND
Fight songs are one of, if not, the best parts of college athletics. Everyone knows their favorite university’s fight song.
Each week, 10 teams will be covered, starting with No. 130, and ending with the No. 1 fight song. This is designed to carry fans past the midway point of the darkness that is the FBS offseason.
This is perhaps the most subjective ranking list you’ll read all offseason. Any and all feedback can be directed to @CJOlson2000 on Twitter — whether it be positive or negative. But also remember that this is one man’s opinions on fight songs.
Also, even the worst fight songs are still enjoyable; they just are worse than their contemporaries.
This took close to eight hours to complete, and that’s before turning it into 13 weekly articles. If someone is upset and feels so inclined, they’re welcome to listen and then grade all 130 FBS fight songs. It could be made into a weekly activity that’s updated as articles are published.
Lastly, there’s a possibility that the wrong song was used. Sorry, if the wrong song was considered for a team and it negatively impacted their ranking.
CRITERIA CONSIDERED
There were three factors considered for each team’s fight song.
1. FLOW
Did the song flow from beginning to end in a smooth way? This was given a weight of 25%.
The average flow score was 6.7016.
2. CROWD FACTOR
Is the crowd getting into it? Fight songs are designed to engage the crowd and get the crowd going, because this is the purpose of a fight song; this was given a 50% weight.
The average crowd factor score was 6.7137.
3. NOSTALGIA/FEEL-GOOD FACTOR
How much does this trigger the nostalgia of someone who put thousands of hours into NCAA football video games back when they had fight songs in the main menu?
Some teams newer to FBS do have a little bit of a disadvantage here. To make up for that, there is also a ‘feel-good factor’ incorporated. Fight songs should give listeners a great feeling, hence the reason for this category.
It’s fairly self-explanatory, but also the most subjective of the categories. This was given a 25% weight.
The average nostalgia/feel-good score was 6.8189.
The average overall score was 6.7370.
As a disclaimer, this final category was where biases shone through the most. For the first two categories, an attempt to be as unbiased as possible was made.
To avoid ties as best as possible, each factor’s score is given to four decimal places. Even with that, there was coincidentally two ties.
AUTHOR’S NOTE: Lyrics and vocals were not considered unless it dominates the song and is what is predominantly coming across for a brief section. To remain uniform across the board, vocals and lyrics were only considered for these brief sections instead of for the full song.
PREVIOUS ARTICLES
If you’re interested in reading the rankings revealed so far without going through individual articles, that can found here.
Let’s get back to the rankings!
120. Old Dominion
| Flow | Crowd Factor | Nostalgia/Feel Good | Overall | |
| Rating | 4.2110 | 4.9731 | 5.0143 | 4.7929 |
| Rank (Conf.) | 124/130 (12/14) | 120/130 (11/14) | 112/130 (12/14) | 120/130 (11/14) |
Not really a fan of this one. It’s fine, but it’s just that. Old Dominion fans probably take pride in it, but it’s just not all that engaging or memorable.
119. Utah
| Flow | Crowd Factor | Nostalgia/Feel Good | Overall | |
| Rating | 4.7585 | 5.0001 | 5.0401 | 4.9497 |
| Rank (Conf.) | 120/130 (12/12) | 119/130 (12/12) | 110/130 (11/12) | 119/130 (12/12) |
Once the song gets to 37 seconds, we hit the good stuff. The ending is great, but that’s a slow beginning. Some great high points, but just too inconsistent to rate higher.
118. Liberty
| Flow | Crowd Factor | Nostalgia/Feel Good | Overall | |
| Rating | 5.5510 | 5.0251 | 4.8895 | 5.1227 |
| Rank (Conf.) | 106/130 (6/7) | 116/130 (6/7) | 114/130 (6/7) | 118/130 (7/7) |
Could’ve stopped at a minute without the extra “Go L-U’s” because it felt like it had hit a natural stopping point. Otherwise, it was a little basic and repetitive. Overall, a little underwhelming in terms of overall excitement.
117. BYU
| Flow | Crowd Factor | Nostalgia/Feel Good | Overall | |
| Rating | 5.8911 | 4.8831 | 4.9276 | 5.1462 |
| Rank (Conf.) | 97/130 (4/7) | 122/130 (7/7) | 113/130 (5/7) | 117/130 (6/7) |
Not the worst. It’s fairly average as far as a fight song goes. Solid flow, so it scores well there. But as for the rest, it feels almost like a high school fight song which is a minor knock against it.
116. Akron
| Flow | Crowd Factor | Nostalgia/Feel Good | Overall | |
| Rating | 5.2231 | 5.0013 | 5.4431 | 5.1672 |
| Rank (Conf.) | 110/130 (8/12) | 118/130 (10/12) | 105/130 (8/12) | 116/130 (9/12) |
The bridge in the middle really ruins this one. Otherwise, it’s got a great melody.
It’s probably noticeable that a main theme of the fight songs in the 111-120 range is that they’re unmemorable. This one falls in that category.
115. Duke
| Flow | Crowd Factor | Nostalgia/Feel Good | Overall | |
| Rating | 6.2893 | 5.2364 | 4.3489 | 5.1672 |
| Rank (Conf.) | 82/130 (10/14) | 113/130 (13/14) | 121/130 (13/14) | 115/130 (13/14) |
This one is just not all that catchy. Fairly middle-of-the-road. The good news is that there are no noticeable downsides to it.
114. Stanford
| Flow | Crowd Factor | Nostalgia/Feel Good | Overall | |
| Rating | 5.2774 | 5.8181 | 4.2399 | 5.2884 |
| Rank (Conf.) | 109/130 (11/12) | 104/130 (9/12) | 122/130 (12/12) | 114/130 (11/12) |
What a weird fight song. This one is definitely not what comes to mind when someone says “college fight song.” Call us old-fashioned, but this isn’t it.
113. Bowling Green
| Flow | Crowd Factor | Nostalgia/Feel Good | Overall | |
| Rating | 4.8351 | 5.5589 | 5.3114 | 5.3161 |
| Rank (Conf.) | 119/130 (9/12) | 108/130 (8/12) | 108/130 (9/12) | 113/130 (8/12) |
The beginning almost feels like the end, which is off-putting. Most of the band is great in this one, and it’s one of the most ‘hummable’ songs.
But there’s this one horn that’s off doing its own thing, and we really don’t care for that. It’s distracting from what’s otherwise a a great song deserving of being in the top half.
112. Wake Forest
| Flow | Crowd Factor | Nostalgia/Feel Good | Overall | |
| Rating | 3.1884 | 7.1454 | 3.8996 | 5.3447 |
| Rank (Conf.) | 130/130 (14/14) | 45/130 (5/14) | 125/130 (14/14) | 112/130 (12/14) |
From 34 seconds to 47 seconds, the song decides to stop making any sort of sense. It’s hard to know what to make of it, but we do dislike it.
At some points, there is the thought of “oh, this has potential,” and then the song changes where it’s headed before you can be fully on board. Fight songs should not keep listeners on their toes.
The upbeat energy scores very well on crowd factor. That’s really the only thing keeping Wake Forest from being at the bottom.
111. South Florida
| Flow | Crowd Factor | Nostalgia/Feel Good | Overall | |
| Rating | 5.1182 | 5.8335 | 4.8490 | 5.4086 |
| Rank (Conf.) | 111/130 (8/11) | 102/130 (7/11) | 118/130 (9/11) | 111/130 (9/11) |
START LISTENING AT 1:03 FOR USF
It was difficult to find USF’s fight song without lyrics being sung, so this was the best that could be done. This user’s rankings had no impact on these.
There’s certainly a whole lot of cymbals. Not sure if it’s a good thing or a bad thing, but it certainly is a thing. Similar to its rivals in UCF, this suffers from a level of plainness and forgettability.
Still to come: 110 more FBS teams
Come back every Wednesday to figure out who are the next 10 on the list.
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