(01-06-2018 10:29 AM)quo vadis Wrote:  But ... how do those cultural considerations bear on the fact that our fan base is solid and our program thrives with no cares about how LSU is doing? If it doesn't matter to us, why should it matter to Arkansas State?

Each school has what I'd call base and incremental support in terms of their market; base is the number of fans you'd have if the team turned into cellar dwellers, had no star players or coaches, removed promotional activity, etc. and were basically left with die-hards, parents, and band. You acquire incremental support when you win and do all those things, draw unusually interesting home opponents, get indifferent alumni and students to show up because it's 'the event,' and so on.

Southern's base is pretty firm at that level of fan support because there's a lot of local pride in HBCUs from what I know of them, but it's unlikely they'll ever improve it to where at least 10K fans will show up literally every game because not a ton of people with zero connection to Southern will be interested with LSU down the road, and in that sense they are hurting you. Now if Southern is winning then you start drawing some incremental support because people like to watch good football, but a few bad seasons and they're gone. This is relevant is because the same phenomenon happens with the G5, who are missing out on improving their long-term base and short-term incremental because of the perception that their team is not a national power with no shot at the playoff. On the other hand, someone like Tennessee or Nebraska can keep up a high base from the brand they've built over time as the state's flagship even if they have a crap team with no real shot at the CFP in the near future either.

Would USF suddenly sell out every game if the AAC got an auto-bid? Probably not, but if they did then you can bet that if the championship was USF-Memphis this year you would've filled up Raymond James Stadium because it'd be a shot at football's version of the Big Dance. Look at the low-major basketball tourneys played in packed high-school looking gyms for the kind of passion that's inspired by March Madness, except for football you condense it to a season one-third of the length.