[[quoteright:280:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Blue_Mountain_State_Season_1_Episode_8_2900.png]]
[[caption-width-right:280:Gimme a hell... gimme a yeah! Stand up right now!]]
Creator/SpikeTV once decided to bring its viewers a smart, social drama focusing on young men and their lives, loves and losses in the hallowed halls of their first university... Yeah, it wasn't possible to read that with a straight face.

''Blue Mountain State'' premiered in January of 2010, and was created and executive produced by the makers of ''Series/TheSarahSilvermanProgram'' and ''Series/ItsAlwaysSunnyInPhiladelphia''. It focuses on three freshmen from three very different backgrounds who find a common bond in having to deal with the WackyFratboyHijinx of BMS: Alex Moran (played by Darin Brooks) is a second-string QB who [[SecondPlaceIsForWinners enjoys all of the perks]] of being on the football team with less pain and suffering, Craig Shilo (Sam Jones III) is a phenomenal RB with an overcontrolling girlfriend who hopes to ride him to wealth and fame and Sammy Cacciatore (Chris Romano, a.k.a. "Romanski") is Alex's roommate who cons his way into the team's mascot position in hopes of scoring with the cheerleaders.

Together, they find themselves enjoying the constant boozing, partying and sexing while dealing with other staples of college life. Staples like a transgender prostitute, a pocket pussy, drugs, strip clubs, studying for midterms and more. If you're looking for a big-honkin' caricature of college life, this might be the show.

Season Two introduces some more named characters into the cast, like Radon Randell, the freshman QB from Detroit who admits he used to be in prison and quickly becomes the Goats' new starter, and [=MaryJo=], Sammy's promiscuous sister who joins the BMS cheerleading squad in hopes of someday banging Alex.

In 2012, the show was not renewed for a fourth season. However, in 2014, the show's cast and creative team started a Kickstarter fund in order to make a movie to serve as the GrandFinale, which was released on Creator/{{Netflix}} on February 2, 2016.

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!!This show provides examples of...

* AllGaysArePromiscuous: Mary Jo in Season Three.
* AllWomenAreLustful: Most of the women onscreen are only too happy to make out with the nearest girl, run around in nothing but panties and a bra, and get in the pants of the star football players and coaches, regardless of whether or not they already have a partner.
* ArtisticLicenseHistory: InUniverse, Thad's video tribute to the life of Coach Daniels, where he plays all the characters including Daniels at 5 years old and Daniels' mother, an Italian butter churner.
-->'''Alex:''' (to Daniels) Is any of this even close to being true?\\
'''Coach Daniels:''' I was born in New Jersey and my mother was a secretary.
* ArtisticLicenseSports: In the show's universe, John Elway and Terrell Owens are BMS alumni. In real life, Elway attended Stanford while Owens attended the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga.
* AssShove: In the movie, in order to treat Harmon of heat exhaustion, a doctor has to "cool down his core" with an ice rod that goes up his rectum. The other players are both horrified and disgusted by this act and Marty tells the film crew not to record it.
** However, when the assistant coach suffers the same fate, Marty suggests using two ice rods and gleefully asks the film crew if they're still recording.
* TheBabyTrap: A creepy stalker named Ron, who desperately wants a son to watch and play football with but ended up with five girls instead, steals a condom full of Alex's semen and threatens to impregnate his daughter with it unless he keeps dating her. Alex and Thad get the condom back, and as a form of karma, Sammy gets Ron's daughter impregnated instead, much to his displeasure since it's clear he finds Sammy annoying.
** In another episode, Thad stops Alex and a girl as they are on their way to have sex and demands to see the condom. The girl hands it to him and Thad pours beer into it; to Alex's horror the beer sprays out of the condom from multiple holes she poked into it. The girl then grabs onto him and implores him "Put a baby in me!"
* BadOlBadger: The titular mascot of Overland University from "The Badger". Thad kidnaps the badger so he can eat his testicles as part of a prank, but accidentally lets him loose and he goes around attacking tailgating students and eats the second Billy the Goat. Because Thad failed in his mission, he is forced to improvise and eat the goat's testicles instead at the end of the episode.
* BackForTheFinale: Craig and Radon both return for the movie.
* BecomingTheMask: In "Piss Test", Sammy decides that because people treat him better as the BMS mascot than as himself, he would wear the costume the whole time. However, near the end of the episode, the costume became so grotesque from overuse that no one wanted to be near him anymore.
* BingeMontage: Many times throughout the show, especially during beer pong.
* BlackAndNerdy: Radon in "Nerds," though he is not actually one himself.
* BreakTheHaughty: Thad in season three when he is suspended from the team.
* BreakoutCharacter: Thad started off as nothing more than the arrogant team captain who acts as an antagonist to Alex, Craig, and Sammy. He quickly became the most popular character on the show and by season two, he became the most focused character aside from Alex.
* BrilliantButLazy: Alex is very much this: he's one of the most intelligent of the main cast and certainly smart enough to keep up with Mary Jo (who's at BMS on a full academic scholarship), but he's so damned ''lazy'' that he uses his intelligence to avoid doing any work.
* TheBroCode: Alex invokes this in order to get Thad to keep quiet about [[spoiler:Alex banging Coach Daniel's ex-wife]]. However, Thad becomes confused since he considers both Alex and [[spoiler:Daniels]] his bros.
* BrotherSisterIncest: Sammy and Mary Jo have shades of this. They're half-siblings though.
* TheCallKnowsWhereYouLive: Sometimes, despite Alex's best efforts to stay off the field, the universe conspires to make him start at QB during crucial games. Eventually he just accepts it.
* TheCameo:
** Bill Romanowski ("The Fingering").
** Brian Bosworth ("Born Again").
** MMA fighter Chuck Lidell and ESPN's Dan Patrick ("Trap Game").
* CaptainErsatz: Zigzagged. Blue Mountain State is stated to participate in the NCAA and real life schools such as Georgia Tech and Penn State are mentioned. However, BMS, their conference, and all the teams they play are fictional.
* ClingyJealousGirl: Denise.
* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: [[spoiler: Thad after he received a concussion in Season 3.]]
* ColdTurkeysAreEverywhere:
** Sammy tries to avoid getting a boner in "Midterms" after [[YouDoNOTWantToKnow an incident with a razor]], so as karma would have it, the girls start actively teasing him, which only makes the situation worse.
** The majority of the Goats in "Piss Test" initially try this to pass an upcoming drug test instead of the painful-looking "oil change" method that Thad advocates. They can't even last one day.
** The entire team in "Born Again" tries to go celibate under their coach's orders. Unfortunately, the Goats end up destroying a church's volunteer team by playing full-contact in a ''touch football game for charity''.
* CountryMouse:
** Harmon.
** Alex, who is from Wyoming, averts this trope.
* CurbStompBattle: [[spoiler:The Goats are on the receiving end of one of these in the national championship game against Blackwell in season 3, due to the NCAA banning Coach Daniels and most of the team's starters from participating because of rules violations.]]
* DeadpanSnarker: Alex and sometimes Mary Jo, who usually are able to snark at Sammy or Thad depending on the situation.
* DeanBitterman: Dean Simon can apply, because although the football team does bring in a lot of recognition for Blue Mountain State, they also bring a lot of negative publicity and destruction to the school as an academic institution. Then again, he's perfectly willing to claim credit for things he had nothing to do with.
* DeconstructiveParody:
** Thad is one of the typical JerkJock with TestosteronePoisoning. At first glance, his actions and behavior are not that much out of the ordinary for the character type, but as the show goes on Thad pushes it further and further to the point where his actions are questioned by the rest of the football players and it becomes clear that that he's not a case of toxic masculinity, but is actually ''dangerously insane''.
** The episode "Pay for Play" is one for the movie ''Film/{{Rudy}}''. The Rudy {{expy}}, Bodie James, is part of the Goats' practice squad but wants to dress for one of their games, as in the film. Unlike the film, Bodie is not TheDeterminator who gives a full effort to help the team and make up for his size and athletic shortcomings, but an egotistical, spoiled JerkAss who puts the starters at risk of injury with his UnnecessaryRoughness and is only kept on the squad because [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections his father is a booster who donates large sums of money to the program]]. In the end, after Bodie and his father threaten to tell the media that the Goats have been receiving unauthorized deals and gifts from agents (which is Sammy's fault for leaving a paper trail) unless Bodie is put on the team, Alex gets the idea to make it look like Bodie was the one receiving the gifts and deals, which results in him getting suspended and his father kicked out of the booster club.
* DeconstructedTrope: The RuleOfFunny only lasts for a certain amount of time, [[spoiler: as the team's indiscretions finally catch up with them at the end of season three and the program gets in serious trouble with the NCAA. They are spared the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_penalty_(NCAA) death penalty]] but Coach Daniels and most of the team's starters are prohibited from playing in the national championship game against Blackwell, who proceeds to [[CurbStompBattle curbstomp the depleted Goats team.]]]]
* DeliberatelyBadExample: Inverted. To demonstrate how much trouble BMS is in with the NCAA, the agent initially shows Coach Daniels the University of Miami's[[note]]A team notorious for their historical controversies and rules infractions.[[/note]] file folder, before taking out the Goats' ''much larger'' folder.
* DepravedBisexual: [[spoiler:Denise.]]
* DidNotThinkThisThrough: In "Riot", as Coach Daniels, Dean Simon, and Debra hide out while the fans are rioting on campus, Dean Simon questions how it could have occurred because he took several steps to prevent it, like cutting off alcohol sales at halftime. Coach Daniels angrily points out that this action was what caused the riot, as cutting off the fans' alcohol consumption at halftime resulted in them being drunk enough to riot instead of being so drunk that they would pass out.
* DumbJock: Literally the entire team, to the point where some are borderline illiterate. Even Alex, probably the smartest, is more of a GuileHero and pretty BookDumb (although it's implied that this is more out of laziness than any actual stupidity).
* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: The pilot depicts the Goats practicing and playing in an indoor football stadium[[note]]Montreal's Olympic Stadium[[/note]]. Every episode thereafter has the team practicing on a separate outdoor field with shots of the stadium showing it to also be outdoors.
* EmbarrassingNickname: Both Alex and Thad have one. Alex's is "Couch" because the girl to whom he lost his virginity spread the rumor that he had sex with the couch instead. Thad's is Thad because he had a lisp when he was a child and so said "I'm really sad" as "I'm really thad". His actual name is [[spoiler: Kevin]].
* EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep:
** "The Cougar." Her real name is Pauline.
** Aside from Alex and Craig, all the football players call Sammy "Mascot".
* ExperimentedInCollege: Season Three sees Mary Jo enter her "college lesbian" phase, much to Alex's displeasure.
* FailureIsTheOnlyOption: In "Superstition", Sammy is looked down upon by the cheerleaders for having no real future due to not officially enrolling in Blue Mountain State. To prove everyone wrong, he officially enrolls and signs up for a full academic scholarship, but to his dismay, he learns that this means he won't have time to participate in the spirit squad. Realizing that he's a loser either way, Sammy drops the scholarship and resumes his role as mascot.
* {{Fanservice}}: Read the description again if you need more details.
* {{FanDisservice}}: In the Pilot, Thad punishes Alex, Sammy and Craig during initiation by forcing them to run from end zone to end zone in nothing but jockstraps [[ToiletHumour with Oreo cookies wedged between their cheeks]].
* GayBravado / ArmoredClosetGay: Thad, who insists there is nothing homosexual about the team's strange hazing rituals.
* GirlOnGirlIsHot: Occurs of a lot, but as of Season Three this seems to be Mary Jo's entire M.O.
* GottaPassTheClass: The episode "Midterms" has Alex and several of his teammates threatened with being kicked off the football team because of their poor grades and [=GPAs=] (Alex has a 1.6 GPA, Thad has 1.7, and Harmon has ''0.5'') unless they pass an upcoming midterm. All of them refuse to study, Thad especially because Shiloh is forced to tutor them as he has a high GPA, but Alex finds a way around it by hanging out with the professor's elderly mother and [[DirtyOldWoman secretly performing sexual activities for her]] in exchange for an A-. The other guys do the same, until they're caught and forced to take the test anyway. That is until they come [[ZanyScheme up with a plan]] to blackmail the professor into giving them all Cs by not only threatening to tell the staff that he gives his female students passing grades in exchange for sexual favors but by also threatening to post a live video of the guys having sex with his mother all over campus, to which he breaks down and obliges to.
* GroinAttack: Frequently used.
** In "Pocket Pussy", Alex is forced to undergo the Tijuana Tooth Pull after Thad accuses him of stealing his prized possession. It turns out it was Craig.
** In "Midterms", Sammy accidentally cuts his penis while manscaping, resulting in him getting stitches on his penis. He is told he cannot have an erection until it fully heals. Guess what happens to him throughout the episode.
** In "Piss Test", Thad suggests that the team do something called an oil change to pass the drug test which involves sticking a catheter up the penis, draining out all the tainted piss, and pumping the bladder full of clean urine. Since none of the team wants to do it, they try other methods to pass the test such as staying sober or using fake penises full of clean urine. Unfortunately for them, Thad sabotages all their attempts so they have no choice but to go with the oil change.
* HaveIMentionedIAmHeterosexualToday: Thad.
* HeManWomanHater: Ron the stalker in "Ransom" never wanted a daughter, yet he ended up with five of them. He wanted a son to watch and play football with. And then there's his comments about how "girls can't throw footballs or appreciate Film/TheThreeStooges" or how his daughters are so beautiful, they don't need to pick up a book.
* HomoeroticSubtext: Frequent with Thad, especially in some of his more sadistic moments. Forcing the freshmen to shave each other while he watches, running a race in jockstraps with Oreo's clenched in their buttocks, threatening Alex in bed in the middle of the night, the "oil change"... Plus the entire "Dick Pics" episode. The list is extensive, and the trope is often played for laughs.
* HookersAndBlow: Thad (and later Alex) both do a line off the stomach of a co-ed. Thad especially has a propensity towards cocaine, getting in trouble between Season 2 and Season 3 on account of drug charges, spawning [[https://31.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mb04ioIEbP1qjzk4ko1_400.gif this gif]].
* HopeSpot: In "Death Penalty", it initially seems that Alex has managed to get the NCAA off the team's back by pointing out to the investigators that giving BMS the death penalty would cost them hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue. But then they hold a press conference and announce BMS will be punished by having Coach Daniels, Alex, Thad, and most of the starters suspended from the national championship game.
* HypocriticalHumor: Blackwell's players tell the media that their win against [[spoiler: a BMS team with most of the starters and coaches suspended]] should not be questioned because they played by the NCAA's rules, unlike BMS. In the next scene we see them, they're drinking and snorting cocaine, exactly what got BMS in trouble with [[spoiler:the NCAA.]]
* ICallHimMrHappy:
** Coach Daniels named his penis Ernicio. His ex-wife named her vagina Michelle Branch.
** Thad named his pocket pussy Oxana.
* ICantBelieveItsNotHeroin: Recipients of ice rod therapy describe it as better than any drug they've ever taken.
* [[IHaveYourWife I Have Your Mother]]: In "Midterms," Alex offers not to spread video of the professor's mother [[spoiler:having sex with some members of the football team]] in exchange for a C grade.
* IMeantToDoThat: Harmo, sick of Thad's relentless abuse about his kicking abilities, has the team tie Thad to the crossbar of the goal and repeatedly kicks field goals at him until Thad meekly admits he can kick. He then tries to claim that bullying Harmon was just his way of motivating him and this was all part of his plan, and Harmon kicks a ball right at his nuts.
* ImplausibleDeniability: Denise claims that she is a virgin, moments after [[spoiler: Craig saw a video of her having sex with another guy]].
* IntoxicationEnsues: Craig in "The Legend of the Golden Arm." After challenging his high-school rival to a sprint to impress Denise, he looks in [[spoiler:Thad's room for steroids]] to give himself an edge and accidentally injects himself with [[spoiler:rabies. [[ICantBelieveItsNotHeroin Not rabies vaccine, but actual rabies!]]]]
** Everyone in "Drug Olympics". After Thad is done distributing the drugs, the next time the camera is in the Goat House, the entire team is either passed out or having ''really'' bad trips. The next morning, Coach Daniels tries to get them to play a scrimmage game, which goes as well as you'd expect.
* ItTastesLikeFeet: The football players describe Thad's pocket pussy like this, saying it feels like banging a waterfall and a chocolate souffle. When one player describes it as like having sex with a silk bag full of puppy ears, Craig asks how he could possibly know what that feels like.
* JerkAss: You'd have an easier time trying to locate someone on the show that ISN'T one. The only remotely likeable current character is Alex, who while having somewhat of a sleazy vibe, does tend to show he has a heart and common sense on occasion.
* JerkassHasAPoint: Head cheerleaders Kate and Kara act as [[AlphaBitch Alpha Bitches]] to Mary Jo and refuse to let her do anything but shake her pom poms, but they have every reason to do this considering Mary Jo frequently shows up to practice drunk and screws up whenever they give her something else to do.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold:
** While the rest of the team treat their nerds rather poorly, Radon is ''ecstatic'' to meet his and treats him really well, drinking with him and letting him sleep it off in his bed. When Sammy's prank results in the guy becoming comatose, Radon sides with the rest of the nerds during their strike and plays board games with them.
** Craig in the first season seems to be the most sensitive member of the team. While everyone else enjoys getting drunk often and having sex with random girls, Craig is usually the one who stays out of trouble and remains loyal to his girlfriend.[[spoiler:Until he finds out that Denise was cheating on him.]]
* LargeHam: Thad.
* LaserGuidedKarma: The karma that BMS has been building up over three seasons [[spoiler:ends up being so heavy on the negative end, they lose the national championship game in the third season]].
* LikeASonToMe:
** The premise of "Ransom," where a creepy obsessive fan tries to offer one of his daughters to Alex in hopes that [[spoiler:they'll produce a football-playing grandson because all his children were girls]].
** The relationship Thad seems to have with coach Marty. [[spoiler:Or at least that's what Thad likes to think.]]
** Pretty much the way coach Marty relates to the entire team. He doesn't really seem to have anyone else to care for since his son is a selfish jerk.
* LoopholeAbuse: [[spoiler:Alex, once again showing off his BrilliantButLazy tendency, manages to save BMS from getting the death penalty with the help of Sammy by explaining to the NCAA that giving the football program the death penalty would cost them hundreds of millions of dollars of tax-free money. Unfortunately, while this does save BMS from the death penalty, the NCAA still punishes them by suspending the star players and coaches indefinitely until further notice. And they do this with smiles on their faces during a live press conference, knowing that the football team is watching.]]
* LooseLips: Thad is guilty of this [[spoiler:and in "Death Penalty", this is what gets the Goats in trouble with the NCAA. To be fair, he didn't know that the college student he was talking to was an NCAA agent in disguise and wearing a wire]].
* MushroomSamba: "Drug Olympics" and "Vision Quest."
** In "Trap Game", Sammy eats a bunch of decades old candy that results in him thinking he's seeing professional MMA fighter Chuck Liddell.
* NerdyBully: Sammy, under the impression that being the mascot makes him one of the jocks, mocks and attempts to prank the school's nerds. The football players have no interest in him joining them, if only because they need the nerds to keep doing their schoolwork for them.
** In "Nerds", Radon and the other nerds explain to Sam that he's no jock, pointing out his small physique, lack of athleticism, how he does his own homework, rarely gets laid, is unconcerned with personal hygiene and has no sense of style. As if that wasn't bad enough, as Radon points out, when he revealed that he caused the homework strike in the first place, the BMS captains sold him out. Finally accepting he's a nerd, he enlists the nerds and Radon to help pull off a prank to get back at the jocks.
* NeverMyFault: Thad always tries to shift the blame when his antics cause problems. Ironically, he accuses Alex of having this problem when the latter rightfully points out how their predicament is his fault and nicknames Alex "Mr. BlameGame".
* NewOldFlame: Coach's ex-wife Debra.
* NoodleIncident: "...and that's the reason I can't get the smell of catnip off of my anal beads."
* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: Travis, the starting QB in Season 1, is a send up of Tim Tebow, particularly with his Christian beliefs.
* NotCheatingUnlessYouGetCaught: Whether it's a NCAA-sanctioned drug test or even simple homework, most of the Goats players will do whatever they can to avoid honest work.
* OfferingsToTheGods: In "Riot", a horde of drunk rioters try to hang Sammy as a form of ritualistic sacrifice. And apparently, they did it before.
* OfCourseImNotAVirgin: [[spoiler:Denise]], after Craig stumbles upon a sex tape she made.
* OnlySaneMan: Alex and Craig switch off on this trope depending on the episode.
* OpposingSportsTeam: Inverted. Though the rival Overland University team wears black and kidnaps their goat as a prank, they seem relatively benign compared to the things the designated protagonists do to their opponents, let alone each other. Played straight with Blackwell.
* OutGambitted: In "Death Penalty," Alex figures he's gotten the NCAA off their backs by pointing out the money the organization would lose giving a team about to compete in the national championship game the worst punishment ever. They agree and will dispense something to "save face," which Alex figures some fine. At the press conference, [[spoiler: Alex and everyone else watches in horror as the NCAA rep (with a wicked smirk on his face) announces that BMS will not get the death penalty...but ''every single starting player and coach'' is suspended for national championship game.]]
* APartyAlsoKnownAsAnOrgy: Every single Goathouse party is full of .
* PitySex: While trapped in the Goat House [[ItMakesSenseInContext by a bunch of rioters who want to kill Sammy]] he tries to convince the cheerleading team to sleep with him. The head cheerleader says that if they do it, it would only be out of pity and he says he wouldn't have it any other way.
* ProfessionalSlacker:
** Alex, to the point where he actually fights to keep his second-string job when he is in danger of becoming the starter ("Rivalry Weekend") or dropping to third-string ("There's Only One Second Best").
---> Coach Daniels (to Alex): ''"Y'know, this is the fire I've been looking for from you! I was hoping it would be for the starting job, but ehhh..."''\\
Craig (to Alex): ''"You work so hard at being lazy it's almost inspiring."''
** Alex and Radon both try joining the BMS hockey team to avoid having to take the otherwise mandatory offseason football workout. Unfortunately, their work ethic rubs off on the hockey team, which leads to them having to work even harder just so they can make the hockey team and not start for them at the same time.
** Alex's ultimate goal in life is not to go pro but to become a high school gym teacher like his dad [[spoiler:At least until "The Peak" when he realizes he could make it to the NFL and do well if he applies himself.]]
* PsychopathicManchild: Almost all of the main characters have shades of this trope, but Thad takes the cake over everyone else.
* PutOnABus:
** [[spoiler:Craig]] in Season Two is {{Handwaved}} as having transferred out of BMS, considering the actor playing him was arrested by the DEA for [[http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/world/smallville-star-in-drug-bust/story-e6frfkui-1225789800489 intending to sell large quantities of oxycodone]].
** The actor playing Radon Randell won't be appearing in Season Three for similar reasons. They both return in the movie.
* RuleOfFunny: Let's just say that the real NCAA would not be too happy with BMS' program. The tail end of Season 3 addresses this, as the program does get into trouble with the NCAA.
* ScreamsLikeALittleGirl: Thad screams in a higher pitch more suited for a teenage girl than a twentysomething football player.
* ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney
* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: Alex when the team, Mary Jo and Coach Daniels gang up on him when they are all in the drunk tank.
* SexInASharedRoom: In the pilot episode, Alex Moran ends up having sex with a a coed. His best friend Sammy is also in the room, masturbating to the whole thing.
** When Alex gets bumped down to third string, the rest of special teams are all packed into the same room of the Goat House, some of them making out ''on top of'' other drunk third stringers.
* SexDrugsAndRockAndRoll: The Goats' use their fame to live like this, just swap out rock for football. The Goat House is regularly the host of massive parties with copious amounts of drugs, sex and other hedonistic indulgences.
* ShareTheMalePain: Done by the entire team after Thad demonstrates an "oil change", which is feeding a tube through your urethra to empty your bladder, then inserting drug-free urine back in.
* ShoutOut: Many BMS episodes are either modeled after a specific genre of movie or mirror scenes from well known movies.
** The scene where Alex and Thad take back the former's semen from Ron in "Ransom" pays homage to ''Film/TheSilenceOfTheLambs''.
** The climactic scene in "Nerds" pays homage to ''Film/InglouriousBasterds''.
** The subplot of "Pay for Play" is a parody of the movie ''Film/{{Rudy}}''.
** The climactic scene in "The Fingering" is a parody of the movie ''Film/TheUsualSuspects''.
** The end of "Fun Facts" is a spoof of the ending of ''Film/TheGodfather''.
** Thad's concussion symptoms in "The c-word" resemble the symptoms from Leonard's anterograde amnesia in the movie Memento.
** The subplot of that episode with Sammy being trapped under weights is an homage to ''Film/OneHundredAndTwentySevenHours''.
** Season 2 finale "Riot" is played in the style of a zombie movie.
* SnootySports: "LAX" introduces BMS Lacrosse, which is a radical departure from BMS football's lifestyle. The members all wear sport coats and ties when not playing, their fathers are all insanely wealthy old-money types, and their house is a mansion with more high society gatherings in comparison to the football house's more casual frat-style parties.
%%* TheStoner: Harmon.
* TakeThat: "The Death Penalty" calls out the NCAA for making millions of tax free dollars at the expense of the athletes who are forced to abide by their ridiculous and, often times arbitrary, rules to be able to play.
* TestosteronePoisoning: Whether this trope is being [[RatedMForManly played painfully straight]] throughout the show or parodied into oblivion is debatable. Case in point; Thad. And how.
* TheyreCalledPersonalIssuesForAReason: In "Drunk Tank," some of the team talk about their issues with each other while under the influence.
--> Larry: "I once told Thad a secret and he told my dad the next day..."\\
[[NoIndoorVoice Thad]]: "HOW IS BEING IMPOTENT A SECRET LARRY?"
* TookALevelInBadass:
** Harmon after getting advice from a psychic regarding Thad's constant teasing about his failure as a placekicker.
** Both Harmon and Donnie were third string players--meaning ''dead last'' in the ranking order — in Season 1. By Season 3, they're both starters.
* TruthInTelevision: The "cream cheese" rule imposed by the NCAA that Alex complains about was in fact a [[https://www.athleticscholarships.net/2012/10/04/how-ncaa-banned-cream-cheese.htm real rule]] at the time.
* TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture: Coach mentions to Alex in the episode "Bowl Game" in the first season that winning the bowl game would get him one win closer to Joe Paterno's record for most wins by a coach in Division 1 football. At the time of the airing, Joe Pa had not reached the record yet and he had not stopped coaching.
* UnreliableNarrator: The first episode of Season 2, "The Fingering" is full of this as Thad is interrogating everyone on the team to figure out who fingered his asshole in a dog-pile during practice. Each segment of the story is told by a different teammate, and many contain glaring inconsistencies or embellishments (Alex and Thad claim that Daniels said different things, Donnie's segment features him being massaged by hot girls in the locker room, Larry portrays Thad as admiring of him, etc.) Hilariously, Thad's version is the most outlandish.
* WhamEpisode: [[spoiler:"The Death Penalty." The NCAA ''finally'' investigates Blue Mountain State and has no shortage of rule violations. BMS does manage to avoid the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_penalty_(NCAA) death penalty]] but Coach Daniels and most of the starters are suspended from the national championship game, which the depleted BMS team loses. [[CurbStompBattle By a lot.]]]]
* WhereTheHellIsSpringfield: The location of Blue Mountain State is never specified, with varying clues placing it anywhere from the East Coast to Tennessee.
* YouAreBetterThanYouThinkYouAre: Thanks to Coach Daniels, Alex realizes this at the end of "The Peak".
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