Buck That!’s 2026 promotional photoshoot for the Midwest ICCA. Credit: Sandra Fu | Managing Photo Editor
The International Championship of Collegiate A Capella is not merely a “Pitch Perfect” plotline — it is entirely real, and Ohio State’s Buck That! a capella team is dominating the competition.?
Buck That!, one of Ohio State’s competitive men’s a capella groups, have advanced to the semifinals in the 2026 Midwest International Championship of Collegiate A Capella. Their performance will take place at 7 p.m. Saturday in Indianapolis at Warren Central High School.?
“It can be very intimidating when you step onto the stage because you’ve been rehearsing for months, but this is your one shot,” said Rae Watters, president of Buck That! and a second-year graduate student in design.?
Buck That! rose to TikTok stardom in Oct. 2025 when a video of their surprise birthday dorm performance — of Jeremih’s “Birthday Sex” — went viral, amassing 5.4 million likes and 25.9 million views.?
More viral performances of the same nature followed, with another video totaling 2.4 million likes and one receiving 1.8 million likes.
Garret Travers, a fourth-year in journalism and political science, music director for Buck That! and former Lantern reporter, said the group was not the first collegiate a capella team to participate in the surprise performance trend.?
“Back in maybe mid-September or early October [2025], someone had sent us a video, and they’re like, ‘Hey, I just saw this at Indiana [University]. Can you guys come sing to my friend for her birthday?’” Travers said. “At first, we were kind of unsure. We were like, ‘The nature of the song is very forward,’ with some of the themes of the song. So it took a little bit of convincing, but after a while, we ended up deciding to do it.”?
However, their participation in the TikTok trend — which went on to become a routine gig for the group — was not the largest part of their year.?
Watters said the team’s efforts to prepare for the ICCA started in April 2025, when they selected the songs they would perform at the competition.?
“We need to know what the songs are going to be as we’re getting into the season, so in the summer, we pick those songs to sort of solidify what our story is going to be and what the message of our set is going to look like,” Watters said. “Then in the fall, we’re focusing on growing our companionship and our musicianship as a group in preparation for ICCA.”?
The team performs the same set of songs for every round of the ICCA. This year’s lineup, for their set titled, “Liberate,” includes “Won’t Take Me Alive” by Dirty Honey, “Blood Sweat & Tears” by Sheryl Lee Ralph, “epiphany” by Taylor Swift and “Nobody’s Soldier” by Hozier, Watters said.?
“It takes so long to craft something for a competition set,” Watters said. “It is the one thing that you’re carrying with you throughout the entire experience.”?
This spring, Watters said the team has been preparing for the competition by focusing on the finer details of their performance.?
“We sort of jump into the grueling effort of preparing for competition, where we have a little bit more rehearsals every week,” Watters said. “We’re focusing a lot on the musicality, telling the story of the set and bringing in choreography. So, it really is a gradual effort that takes a very long time and a lot of commitment from everyone.”?
Since their participation in the TikTok trend, birthday-themed for-hire performances have become a regular part of the group’s schedule, Travers said. Through this, he said the group has also been able to make a profit off the large-scale demand.?
For an in-person surprise performance, the group charges $100, putting their earnings towards their ICCA participation.?
“There’s a pretty hefty fee to apply for ICCA,” Travers said. “Then from there — travel fees and making sure all of those logistics work out.”?
On stage, Watters said in this year’s performance, the group is honing in on their themes of arrival and liberation — representing the idea of fighting back against hatred and hardship.?
“Before we stepped on the stage, we were just hungry, we were ready and we were excited,” Watter said. “It can feel like an out-of-body, like, your spirit leaving you experience when you step out there on the stage lights. But I think this time around, I’m very proud to say that we were all feeling excited.”?
Both on and off stage, the connections between the members of Buck That! are stronger than ever, Watters said.?
“We’ve been sort of building up our camaraderie throughout this entire year, and we’ve been through a lot together,” Watters said. “We’ve gone on trips, we’ve performed at invitationals, we’ve run around campus doing silly performances for others — it’s brought great joy, but it’s also brought great hardship.”?
Despite 2025 having been one of the group’s most transformational years, its members always stood strong within their brotherhood.?
“Not only are we very great friends, but we can also rely on each other when things get hard,” Watters said. “I would describe our bond as being vulnerable. I think that for us, it needs to be that way for the set that we’re performing and for competition.”
Watters said this is not only an achievement for Buck That!, but for the Ohio State music community as a whole. Along with Buck That!, The Ohio State of Mind, Ohio State’s all-gender a capella group, have also advanced to the semifinals Saturday.
“It’s just another win and another celebration for Ohio State music groups,” Watters said. “I think it’s just awesome to be able to bring attention to a capella and to voice and to music at Ohio State. We, in Buck That!, believe that voice is a form of liberation. Voice is a powerful tool to be able to do good in the world, and so to see music groups, and specifically for us vocal groups, getting that recognition and that push forward in making it to semifinals, it’s really special.”?
In recognizing Buck That!’s success throughout the year, Travers echoed this thought.?
“It’s been such a privilege as a group to have experienced this,” Travers said. “We feel so lucky.”?
Both this achievement within the ICCA and their impact within the Ohio State community have made a lasting mark on their group’s ideology, Watters said.?
“We are always trying to infuse passion and story and art into everything that we do, and I think that the student-run organizations at Ohio State are just so powerful and deserve recognition and support, always,” Watters said.?
Tickets for the ICCA Midwest semifinals can be purchased online for a discounted student rate of $22.95, including fees. For more information on Buck That!, or to view their performance videos, visit their website.?
