<p>Top universities with real, competent marching bands are rare. The Ivies tend to have scatter bands, which are satirical parodies of marching bands and tend to do Saturday Night Live-type versions of halftime shows. On the one hand, DUMB performs at ACC games which (in most other years) are big-time games, but the fact that their uniforms are t-shirts makes me suspicious.</p>
<p>It depends what you mean by serious.</p>
<p>We only have rehearsals two days a week for two hours, so we aren't competitive at all. So if an elite marching band means a lot to you... shy away from Duke.</p>
<p>The Duke marching band wears full traditional uniforms (but they do wear baseball caps). Check out the pictures on the Duke band website.</p>
<p>You have to be in the marching band during football season to qualify for the basketball pep band. The pep band wears long sleeve jerseys.</p>
<p>We are serious in wanting to put a good show on the field and pump up the fans (especially the Cameron Crazies when we play their favorites like “Everytime” and “Rock Lobster”). We wear rugbies at indoor games (basketball and volleyball) and full uniforms at football games (unless we’re allowed to take off the jackets during the third quarter of particularly warm games).</p>