Reading the article, it sounds like nothing prevents the band from doing all the things they used to do except perform at the football games. It also sounds like they are funded by the university to run around and prank others, which seems legitimate for the university to not shed any tears when the band drops the ball on its funding request. I’m sure it’s a fun tradition, but it also sounds potentially quite annoying depending on who the target of the joke is, and you can still have fun/ be annoying on campus without direct university funding.
It probably says a lot more about me than I want it to, but I was in a Big 10 marching band and didn't really care about the performances. I mean, it was enjoyable, but I might have done it even if we did all the same long rehearsals of the performances (we memorized the drill and music for ~7 shows a season) and then just went to the games as a pep band.
