Editor's note: While Rice's visit to No. 24 Stanford is inconsequential in the College Football Playoff race, it is a meeting between two programs with inventive and irreverent student bands. The Rice MOB will not travel for the game, but it will mark the final regular-season performance for the Stanford band.

Below is a brief look at what makes each band unique and, at times, controversial.

All it took was a reference to the online dating site FarmersOnly.com and a simulation of cow tipping. And with that, the Stanford band -- as it often tends to do -- drew the crowd reaction it was looking for during its halftime performance at the 2016 Rose Bowl against Iowa.

“There’s nothing more empowering than leaving a football field to boos from thousands of people,” said Peter Adelson, last season’s drum major. “As an organization that is completely focused on not taking itself or other things so seriously, it is validating to see a response that is so vitriolic, that takes us so seriously and that finds such great offense in what is in the end entertainment -- not life or death -- something that is out there for good-natured fun. We as the band are happy to have these memories of angering a whole state. ... It’s another line on the Wikipedia page.”

The Stanford band is known for its irreverence, so the list of "controversial actions" on its Wikipedia page may be seen as something of a gold standard to constantly amend. If a performance draws enough ire to make that cut, the band generally considers it a job well done.

“We try to exemplify positive energy,” Adelson said. “These are people who are very intelligent working on plenty of interesting things, able to juggle classes, research and being a member of the band. Halftime shows are one of the fundamental truths of what the Stanford band tries to be: An organization that always brings positive energy and irreverence for arbitrary traditions into its performances. That’s something that makes it unique.”

Perhaps the most controversial item on the Stanford band’s résumé wasn’t planned, and it came during one of the legendary plays in college football history. Thinking the 1982 Big Game was over, band members prematurely ran onto the field at California’s Memorial Stadium. That turned out to be a grave miscalculation, as trombone player Gary Tyrrell learned as he was barreled over by Golden Bears returner Kevin Moen as he scored the winning touchdown.

About 20 other incidents, most of them derivatives of halftime shows, have made that online list chronicling the Stanford band’s most well-known exploits.

After a 1990 show criticizing logging of the spotted owl’s habitat in Oregon, the state’s governor issued a decree that the Stanford band not return for several years. Four years later, 19 members skipped field rehearsal in Los Angeles to play The Zombies’ “She’s Not There” outside jury selection of O.J. Simpson’s murder trial in Los Angeles, drawing the ire of Robert Shapiro and the rest of Simpson’s defense team. In-game incidents poking fun at Notre Dame, BYU and USC have -- like the recent Iowa halftime show -- entertained some and offended others.

Tyrrell says controversy was a staple of the band even before he arrived at Stanford.

“It was like a circus came to town when we visited,” Tyrrell said. “Folks were excited by the novelty of this rock 'n' roll band where members were having so much fun. Crowds fed off that.”

In Tyrrell’s day, rival fans came ready to slingshot water balloons and frozen fruit at the band, which responded by enlisting the Stanford lacrosse team to catch fruit and throw it back into the stands. With stadium security much more stringent, only boos rain down now -- but that’s more than enough fuel for the band to continue its antics, irreverent and unpredictable as they may be.

“You can ask 100 different people what the Stanford band is,” Adelson said. “And you’ll get 100 different answers.” -- David Lombardi

The fun, unorthodox style of the Rice MOB (Marching Owl Band, though they never march) can be summed up in the large text that adorns the side of two of the band's bass drums for all to see: "tacky" and "shameless."

"We hope to entertain," Rice MOB director Chuck Throckmorton said. "Sometimes that is making light of our world, opponent, or experience. Sometimes that is shining a light onto something we as a community think needs to be said. All without being intentionally mean or causing the children in the audience to be stressed."

MOB performances are often memorable, usually for comedic reasons. In 2011, when Rice played at Texas, the MOB formed the letters "$EC," alluding to Longhorn rival Texas A&M's move from the Big 12 to the SEC. The performance included a reference to the league as "Satan's Evil Conference," and noted that both conferences improved their average IQ as a result of the move.

Other notable performances included a shot at legal troubles of Longhorn players in the Mack Brown era (which began with the Dragnet theme and "police" chasing a trio of "Longhorns" around the field during the performance), jokes about Johnny Manziel's autograph controversy (they wore white T-shirts with facsimiles of Manziel's autograph on them at Kyle Field) and even a shot at former Rice coach (with a show titled, simply, "Todd Graham's Inferno"). The band's history of making jokes at the opponent's expense goes back decades.

Asked how he would describe the MOB to someone who was unfamiliar with it, drum major Jake Spisak said: "I'd maybe say this: Last year we had a show where we had zombies eat our band director on his podium on the field."

Scatter bands like the MOB can be seen at prestigious academic institutions, which makes a game like Saturday's between Rice and Stanford -- schools that both have such bands -- intriguing.

"The MOB is a place where you can go and turn your brain off for a while, play a lot of music and have fun," Spisak said. "That's really what it's all about."

Unfortunately, the MOB only takes one road trip per season -- which it already took this year -- though Spisak is traveling to Palo Alto and is expected to have a part in Stanford's halftime performance.

While the MOB can be funny, it doesn't shy away from serious issues. When Baylor visited Rice Stadium in September, the MOB did a Title IX-themed show to criticize Baylor for its mishandling of sexual-assault allegations. The band formed a "IX" and a star, in reference to ousted Baylor president Ken Starr.

It drew strong reactions, including an angry Baylor fan who approached the band as it tried to return to the stands (the confrontation was broken up without incident). The band tried to not appear insensitive.

"That was one we definitely wanted to be careful with," Spisak said. "We went back and forth whether or not we should bring it up, because what we didn't want to come off as was making fun of sexual assault or rape. That's not what we wanted to do, and that's why we didn't explicitly mention sexual assault during the show. Ultimately, we made the decision that this is something we should criticize Baylor for: their mishandling of this sexual-assault situation and the administration's response, in particular."

When it comes to approaching serious issues generally, Throckmorton cites a "Bugs Bunny technique. ... Do them in such a way that grown-ups get the intended message, while children see something silly instead."

While the MOB is unafraid of serious commentary, usually the goal is fun. The band comprises mostly students, but MOB alumni or faculty members are welcome to join. Dressed in attire that could be both a nod to a real-life mob and the Blues Brothers -- three-piece suits topped off with fedoras -- and sometimes with unconventional instruments ("For basketball season, we have a harp player," Spisak said. "It's an electric harp"), the MOB is nothing like your run-of-the-mill college band. -- Sam Khan Jr.