Good morning, and thanks for spending part of your day with Extra Points.

When I was working on creating Athletic Director Simulator 3000, I listened to a lot of college fight songs. I knew I wanted to use many of them in the game, but I knew I couldn’t just plug all of them into the game. I needed to better understand which ones would sound best when converted to an 8-bit audio setting, which ones would be least likely to get me sued, and most importantly, which ones were great fight songs.

Everyone has different tastes, and just about everybody has a soft spot in their heart for ol’ Alma Mate, but there seems to be a surprising consensus around which fight songs are “the best.” A typical Google search, from American Songwriter to NFL.com to Reddit to a gazillion other websites, tends to mention the same handful of songs near the top.

Notre Dame. Alabama. Tennessee. Wisconsin. Army. Navy. Michigan.

And you know what? I get it. Despite being a Son of Columbus, even I have to admit…this song is a certified banger.

But why is it a banger? There are hundreds and hundreds of college fight songs…why do many people seem to agree that the same list of ~15ish or so are the best ones?

I have a little bit of a musical background, but I played the drums, so questions about Music Theory, Arrangements, or Counting Higher Than Four are above my pay grade. I think I know a good fight song when I hear it…but I’m not sure why.

So I asked an expert.

Dr. Carrie Allen Tipton is a musician and music historian who currently teaches at Vanderbilt. She also just finished a book on the history of SEC fight songs, called From Dixie To Rocky Top (which you can purchase here, and use promo code 15PRE to get a 40% off discount), and has written extensively on music, history, and cultural issues in the South.

I asked her if the reason there tends to be a consensus around the ‘best’ fight songs is more about marketing, branding, and inertia, rather than any particular musical special sauce.

She told me there may be some truth to that. “These songs are generally very familiar to fans. They’re typically songs attached to large, national brands that have enjoyed decades of regular national broadcasts. These schools also tend to have big marching bands and big stadiums, which creates a different kind of spectacle.”

Before Oklahoma v Board of Regents in 1984, the NCAA tightly controlled the broadcasts of college football games, so one couldn’t just flip on the TV and watch San Jose State or Toledo whenever they wanted….but Notre Dame, Michigan, Ohio State, Alabama, etc. were going to get at least one national broadcast each season.

Tipton also added that even before TV, fans would get exposure to those fight songs through the radio, through movies, and sometimes even from dance bands, glee clubs, or cover groups. You didn’t need access to network television to know what the Notre Dame Victory March sounded like. It was probably going to be harder for you to learn Wyoming’s Ragtime Cowboy Joe, no matter how hard that song goes.

Speaking of songs that use the phrase ‘syncopated gaiter’, what impact do the lyrics have on how good a fight song is?

The funny thing about college fight songs is that the lyrics to many of them absolutely suck. If you write down words like ‘Victory’, ‘Fight’, ‘Win’ and maybe some unintelligible nonsense words that sounded good in 1908, and then pull them out of a hat, there’s a good chance you’ll accidentally write a fight song that already exists.

But they’re not all like that. Consider Georgia Tech’s Ramblin’ Wreck:

Is the song catchy? Sure. But the song also includes multiple references to hard alcohol, shouts out Georgia Tech’s academic focus, and tells their rival to go to hell. That’s perfect!

Dr. Tipton told me that “originally, and especially in the South, the lyrics to fight songs were much more important. They were songs sung by glee clubs and performed by smaller dance bands, rather than full marching bands. But as marching bands grew larger and more prominent, the lyrical prominence faded.” That’s probably just as well, since again, there are a lot more fight songs that read like this:

BOR-ING.

Dr.Tipton did agree that many of the best, or at least, most recognizable songs, have lyrics that tie into specific institutional or regional identities, like Georgia Tech and bragging about drinking and being an engineer.

The top example of this idea, to me, is with Tennessee and Rocky Top. Consider this passage:

Excuse me…is this a fight song about murdering federal ATF agents?!? Or at the very least, about the importance of not snooping around other people’s moonshine?

Yeah, I think I can see why that would be more memorable than Rah Rah Rah for Dear Old State.

Dr.Tipton delighted in reminding my idiot Yankee self that well actually, Rocky Top wasn’t even written until the late 1960s, and wasn’t wildly adopted by the Tennessee marching band until the 1970s. It also isn’t even technically the school fight song. The real one was stolen from Yale.

The fact that I thought Rocky Top was some beloved local staple from the early 20th century also speaks to what Dr.Tipton believes makes such an effective fight song. “The best ones deeply speak to a sense of memory and nostalgia.” Rocky Top sounds like it was written in 1911. That’s a credit to the songwriters.

What about this music itself?

Dr. Tipton told me she didn’t think there was any particular connection between key and fight song ‘effectiveness’, and that many great fight songs do vary a bit musically.

She did, however, stress the importance of an immediate, clearly defined, theme, or at least, a key musical phrase. “A fight song has to grab you from the very beginning,” she told me. Many of the ‘best’ fight songs, she said, clearly define an immediate phrase, and then tweak it slightly, perhaps moving the phrase up a few notes.

Consider say, The Victors.

You do not need to be a musical genius to plunk out that melody on a piano or sing along…and you can see how the pitch shifts up after Val-iant into the second Hail, right? Same rhythm, same phrase. The Notre Dame Victory March kind of does this too.

Remember, added Dr. Tipton, that during a football game, the band might not be able to play the entire fight song…the arrangement will need to be cut up and rearranged, and the band might only have time to play one or two phrases. The best songs, and best arrangements, will allow the crowd to ‘get’ the song without needing to hear the full 90 seconds.

Essentially…can you boil down the fight song into like, a Tweet-length musical phrase?

I’m sure there are plenty of other schools that have banger fight songs that fly under the radar

Dr. Tipton specifically singled out Tennessee State, and after listening to it, I have to agree:

But I’m sure that many of you, in the comments, my inbox and in my Twitter mentions, will highlight many other great ones we’re forgetting about.

At the end of the day, I think Dr. Tipton is right…the best fight songs aren’t just well arranged, but they specifically convey a sense of place, a sense of nostalgia, and connection. When I hear On Wisconsin, I’m not just appreciating the arrangement, I’m remembering all the times I spent eating ice cream with my mom at the Memorial Union Terrace when she was finishing her Ph.D. When I hear Carmen Ohio, for just a moment, my brain transports me back to college, when I’m ringing the Victory Bell at Ohio Stadium with my APO brothers. I’m sure you have similar stories.

That’s what makes all of these songs great, even if the lyrics are usually pretty stupid.

But please, don’t tell anybody in Columbus that I said nice things about The Victors.

Hey, speaking of Athletic Director Simulator 3000, you can play the game if you’re a D1.classroom partner or a premium Extra Points subscriber. The game asks you to respond to realistic scenarios that actual ADs have to navigate, all while balancing a budget, political support, and a Directors’ Cup ranking. The game is updated weekly and is lots of fun.

A premium sub gets you access to the game, our updated FOIA directory, AND four newsletters a week. For eight bucks, that’s a hell of a deal, in my humble opinion.

This edition of Extra Points is brought to you in part by Press Hook:

Is anyone using Press Hook yet?

If you haven’t heard of it, it’s designed as a platform to connect journalists looking for story sources with brands who want to showcase their products and experts. It also offers a suite of helpful workflow tools. Journalists can search by product and category, and participating brands get exposure and affiliate opportunities — so it’s designed as a win-win for everyone!

Give it a try — use promo code SWAP50 for 50% off your first 3 months.

If you’d like to buy ads on Extra Points OR in ADS3000, good news! They’re affordable, and we have openings this season. Drop me a line at sales@extrapointsmb.com. If you have news tips, I’m at Compliance@ExtraPointsMB.com. Otherwise, I’m at Matt@Extrapointsmb.com, @MattBrownEP on Twitter, @ExtraPointsMB on Instagram, and @MattBrown on Bluesky