How Idaho's marching band replaced Yale's for March Madness - ESPN

SPOKANE, Wash. — A week ago, the idea that 29 members of the University of Idaho pep band would become dedicated supporters of the Yale Bulldogs men's basketball team would have been too preposterous to consider.

Yet, here they are.

With Yale's band unable to travel to Spokane this week for the NCAA men's basketball tournament due to previous travel plans with the university on spring break, the Vandal Marching Band emerged from the bullpen. It is calling themselves the «Vandogs.»

Idaho band director Spencer Martin learned of Yale's plight on Sunday, shortly after the field was announced, and was asked if either the Idaho band could step in as a temporary Yale band or if there was a high school band up to the task. He immediately sent a message to members of his band, asking if there was interest in filling in on Friday — and, in the unlikely event Yale beat the fourth-seeded Auburn Tigers, again on Sunday.

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The response was swift and decisive: Of course, the band wanted to experience the tournament firsthand. Martin went to work on the instrumentation — determining what mix of instruments would be included — and other logistics such as what Yale sheet music needed to be obtained and which traditions would be beneficial to understand.

«You have a spreadsheet of all your band members, and so when they're limited, you really have to kind of overload on brass and percussion and things like that just for sound power and things like that,» Martin told ESPN. «It just worked out. We had a good number of trumpets and trombones and tubas and percussion. Got some saxophones in there. You have to be selective, sadly, because if you could bring everybody, that'd be cool, but you can't.»