The University of Michigan's Crisler Center is one of basketball's spectacles in the Big Ten Conference. U-M's student section, the Maize Rage, floods the gates of the arena two hours before tip-off wearing all maize in support of their team. 

However, the Crisler Center lacks in one specific category compared to other major programs around the country: noise. The sections across from the Maize Rage are eerily quiet and rarely rise to their feet to urge on the team. At times during the 2022 season, fans have booed the Maize Rage due to the students requesting their part in cheering and getting out of their seats. The Maize Rage is allocated the bleacher seats on the sideline from baseline to baseline with one extra section that is adjacent to the band. In the upper bowl, students fill almost every seat for premium home games across a few sections. The voices of these students are going to waste because they do not feel obligated to stand during the action due to their location. Michigan's top basketball rival, Michigan State, has seating for their students that wraps completely around the lower bowl, sending their students into a ruckus when a big basket is made. When this happens at Michigan, the students are sent into a frenzy but the other fans straight across remain promptly in their seats. 

The University of Michigan fight song rings the lyric "the leaders and the best". However, Michigan is currently not close to being the leader when it comes to bringing an intimidating atmosphere at the Crisler Center. Management for the Maize Rage is tired of being bashed on social media and by opponents that call our venues "quiet". There needs to be a change to truly make Michigan one of the leaders and best. The student-athletes appreciate and back the ideas of the Maize Rage to bring a stronger student presence to games like foes in the Big Ten. 

The Maize Rage asked Jace Howard, son of Michigan Basketball’s Head Coach and current player, what a stronger student presence in the lower bowl would mean for the team. His response was, “I know that if we expand the Maize Rage in the lower bowl at Crisler that it will not only bring more energy, but it will also give us players an advantage over our opponents with an increase in noise and energy that we will have behind us during games.” Howard and other teammates, such as former Big Ten Freshman of the Year and current leading scorer, Hunter Dickinson, have taken to social media to voice their opinions on the expansion including using the hashtag #ExpandtheMaizeRage. 

This petition is to earn signatures to prove to the University of Michigan Athletic Department that the Maize Rage needs to be expanded to allow more students into the lower bowl and to get a seat at the table when it comes to making this decision. Leaders of the Maize Rage Organization have a number of ideas that they'd like to present to the athletic department about where the extra seating should be. Fans, students, and athletes have wanted change but has never demanded it until now. Along with a tweak in the ticketing strategy for students, Michigan Basketball will earn the atmosphere that rivals the best beginning in the 2022-2023 season. The goal is to make the Crisler Center one of the toughest environments to play in the whole country and we are determined to do so.