Since you claim to have been "exposed" to Big 10 bands for "20 years" (a claim I find hard to believe, since they suck all on their own in your opinion - I can't imagine you'd watch them), you must know all about the 5th quarter. More people stay and watch that, each and every home game, than attend the annual DCI championship. The audience is there to watch the band. Your typical college marching band probably practices 2 1/2 hours per day, maybe 5 days a week, and puts on a new show each home game. And the members are full time students. Based on the time they have available to put into it, they do a pretty fine job. A typical drum corps show of today, played at a typical major college halftime, would probably be (1) ignored because it's so incredibly boring, or (2) laughed out of the stadium. I'm sure the prancing and emoting, not to mention the amps and electronics, would be mocked and ridiculed. These two mediums don't go together. Critiquing a college marching band performance through a drum corps performance lens is ridiculous. HOWEVER, you can look to how college marching bands do in reaching their audiences, vs. how drum corps do in reaching theirs. My claim is that these Big 10 marching bands know what their identities are, know their audiences better and perform to them better than drum corps do to their audiences. I think drum corps today don't really know what their identities are, who their audiences are, why they exist, or what the end game is. I have had kids both in drum corps and in college marching bands, and appreciate each for what they are individually. You cannot judge one against the other. It's apples-to-oranges.