(05-07-2013 04:44 PM)The4thOption Wrote: Ok, show of hands: Who actually read all of this?
thanks for being willing to have a discussion on a topic VS tweeting about it
here lets use the NFL as an example again....I think that we can all pretty much agree that with a few exceptions NFL teams are in the major markets in the USA and with 32 NFL teams VS 124 NCAA teams that means with a very few exceptions about 90+ NCAA teams will be in markets smaller than NFL markets and the few that are not in markets that are smaller than NFL markets might be going directly up against the NFL for hotel rooms and for facilities to host a game in
it is my opinion as well that with a few exceptions like the dallas Cowboys and Green Bay the vast majority of NFL fans that come to NFL games and even playoff games are local fans....I don't think a ton of people are traveling all over California to see the Chargers or the Raiders or even the 49s....most are coming right from the local major metro area
it is also my opinion that since the vast majority of college teams are in metro areas that are much smaller than NFL metro areas and teams that have stadiums larger than NFL teams like UT, the other UT, Michigan, Alabama, LSU and on and on they have fans that are coming in from out of town and as you get further west of the Mississippi and I-35 (an area that still has a huge number of college football teams and major college teams) the distance driven to see those games increases....and even in places like Arkansas, Oklahoma, Alabama, South Carolina and on and on where states are smaller and the population is still more dense people will drive a long way to see a game and many want to stay over night
that gets us back to the NFL that in my opinion draws more local fans in a metro area with many more hotels and much larger infrastructure.....and the NFL every year year in and year out books blocks of rooms in EVERY NFL city for ALL playoff dates that are possible because they have to have those rooms.....even in NYC the NFL has blocks of rooms for if the Jets make the playoffs or if the Giants win the playoffs AND for if both make the playoffs and they book those rooms at least a year in advance and pay to have them held open and do not release them until it is guaranteed that particular teams will not make the playoffs in
the reason they do that is because they know that the "free market" is not going to just hold rooms open on the off chance the local NFL team makes the playoffs and they are not only going to not hold those rooms open the are going to be actively trying to market those rooms to anyone and everyone that might take one
if the NFL has to do it in major metro areas with massive infrastructure in place and IMO many more local fans right in town filling the stands then it would be impossible that the NCAA (and networks ect) would be able to NOT do that in places that are 200K or less in size.....it makes no sense why would the NFL do so if they did not have to.....well because they do have to or they run the risk of not having available rooms when a particular team makes the playoffs and then it becomes a nightmare to coordinate things
next the idea that the beer trucks and restaurants ect can just have some food ready.....in a city like Tuscaloosa that is pretty large in size (200K metro area) for a college town and you have a 100K stadium even if 20K fans come in from out of town and stay for longer than the game that is still increasing your population by 10% for over 24 hours...restaurants and distributors with "just in time" systems in place are not going to be willing to sit on provisions for a 10% increase in population on the off chance they get a playoff game and getting all that in place in a weeks time is not that simple.....and I think that only 20K fans wanting to stay over night is probably on the low side it is probably more like 40K+ and that is ones staying over night....others still want to eat out, get gas, snacks, beer and on and on
hell look how hard it is with the entire US government, FEMA, the National Guard and the like to get some damn water to places 24/48/72 hours after a major storm that they KNEW was going to hit somewhere for a week or more ahead of time....they did not know where it was going to hit, but they knew it was going to hit somewhere and they can't even get ice and water to them in a timely fashion with the entire US government trying to get it done and "emergency" agencies that have nothing to do day in and day out but sit around and wait for something to happen then take forever to get the crap to people
next the students....the last game UT (Texas) played in 2012 was Dec 1st it happened to be a road game, but it easily could have been a home game....finals for fall 2012 for UT started on the 12th of Dec...so the first round of playoffs would be taking place at the earliest on the 8th of Dec.....how many universities and how many students are going to want to be called in to work out of the blue to serve people coming in for playoff games
Finals for KU started Monday the 10th.....finals is when college students QUIT their day jobs so they can study, because they are going to move home anyway, or because they are going to be graduating.....do universities really want students having to work and university personnel having to work and be deployed and the disruption that comes from hosting a regular season game much less a last minute playoff game that you have a week to prepare for....no....that will be students saying "I quit" in mass if they have not already quit
and if you have a second round of playoffs a week later after finals have ended that is when students move home and the dorms close....are you going to have dorms close and students move out and hold fall graduation the same weekend that you host another playoff game with only a weeks notice
are you expecting the university to hold the dorms open a week longer and put off graduation for a week on the off chance that they make the second round of the on campus playoffs....that sounds highly financially profitable and very popular for graduating students and their families and I don't think most students are going to hang around on the off chance they get called in for their hotel or restaurant or club or Cstore job because of the second round of the playoffs....and most are not going to hang out on the off chance there is a game they can go to either......which means less workers.....less students to fill the stands....and more people from out of town needed to fill the stands while the student workers are all heading out of town and leaving their jobs
to me at least that sounds like people getting bad hotel service, bad restaurant service, waiting in huge lines, and generally saying "I will just watch on TV next time"
generally campus police, campus administrators, and others take the semester breaks as a time for vacations just like students.....do you tell your campus police and administration no vacations for this period of time because we MIGHT host a play off game....do you tell them that every year and then you have to keep them around and on call (even if unpaid) on the off chance you host a playoff game
and that is at LARGE universities with major stadiums like UT and the other UT and Alabama.....those schools have no interest in that logistical nightmare.....hosting a play off game potentially the week before and the week after finals
and for smaller schools and schools in smaller towns it just gets worse....students either trying to actually study for finals or students trying to get out of town and not staying for a game or for their work a day college job while they need more fans than usual to show up on short notice to understaffed and under provisioned venues.....not interested and if the tried it after the horrible fan experience the reaction will be not interested I will stay home and watch on TV.....which defeats the purpose of having it on campus....and again do you expect students the weekend before or the weekend after to be able to travel for a game in a destination venue.....do you actually expect student athletes (most don't go pro) to play a game before and after finals week and for professors to be OK with that delay and inconvenience as well even if the administration was dumb enough to agree with it
and many alumni have kids that are students....that is how the whole breed 100,000 fans thing works....so parents (alumni) are not going to want to travel to a destination playoff game without their kids because their kids are either about to start finals or they are moving out of their dorm after finals......I know for a fact that campus gets crazy on move in and move out day for the dorms even in the Fall semester when students are mostly only going home for winter break and not fully moving out so trying to fit all that in along with a trip to Orlando or Tempe is not going to work for many families/alumni/students
if that type of thing worked then there would not be a week or two week break between the end of the season and bowl games (much less over a month for some) the bowl games would just start the next week
here look at the attendance for the 2012 Big 10 Championship with Nebraska one of the most storied and followed football programs in the country VS Wisconsin
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_Big_T...nship_Game
41,260...played at a neutral site in a major city....not very impressive and it was on Dec 1st so probably a week before students at those school had fall finals
the year before it was 64,152
here look at the ACC games
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ACC_Championship_Game
under 28K in 2008....under 45K in 2009.....Jacksonville declined to bid on the game any longer after those years and even in 2012 under 65K....so then you start adding in finals for college students the next week.....families with high school students and younger with end of the semester testing.....and you are going to see terrible neutral site attendance for "playoff" games featuring some small conference team VS some major conference team
here is what the PAC 12 is pulling off
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific-12_...nship_Game
under 60K in 2011 and under 32K in 2012 when played ON CAMPUS at the stadium of the top team
so again the concept that neutral site OR on campus games will be major draws for playoff games or that they will be easy to pull off successfully is not proven by the numbers because the PAC, ACC, and Big 10 all have horrible numbers to show and only the SEC has decent numbers....and that is with both the on campus and the neutral site methods in play with the ACC, Big 10 and PAC 12....for something that should have some type of meaning like a conference championship since winning that gets you a BCS game automatically
so between the fact that the NFL in the largest markets in the USA has to block hotel rooms a year or more in advance for playoffs, most college teams would be hosting a potential game on short notice either days before or just after finals when students will either not want to work (and will be willing to quit) or they will be packing up and leaving and have already quit and graduations will be taking place, students will be moving out and not available to fill the stands and help to serve the needed increase in people from out of town to come in on short notice and fill the stands and from the available figures dealing with both neutral site and on campus championship games I am of the opinion that trying to have a number of playoff games that will accommodate 16 teams would be a disaster and an extremely poor draw for live fans, a massive inconvenience for students and out of town fans and the university and something that would become a big failure just like some of these CCGs are proving to be and they are not even during or just after finals they are actually often just before dead week