Cowbells are sometimes popular noisemakers at sporting events, despite attempts to suppress them. While different sports teams seem to have their own story explaining the use of cowbells at their games, it is unlikely that so many teams across varying levels of sports and geographical regions would not have a common cultural reason for the practice. Although the origin of cowbell noisemakers is unclear, the most plausible explanation has to do with early baseball. Baseball games in the 19th Century were often played in cow pastures, as American society was agrarian-based at the time. Cowbells were easily found or taken from around the necks of cows in the pasture and were utilized as noisemakers. The tradition naturally grew to be common practice at various sporting events, not just baseball. In the United States, they are most closely identified with the Columbus Clippers minor league baseball team in Ohio and Mississippi State University, whose football fans once smuggled in cowbells by the thousands despite a ban on artificial noisemakers by its conference, the Southeastern Conference. SEC guidelines were changed in 2010 to permit limited cowbell use at Mississippi State football games, and again in 2014 to permit cowbells to be freely rung at any time except between the time that the offensive center is over the football until the play is whistled dead. Elsewhere in college football, the cowbell can be found at Penn State and Michigan football games, where it is played with a particular rhythm and accompanying chant.