Tell us about how CUSA allegiance has fared with your fans versus your SBC past so far? Helped? Hurt? Too early to tell? Trending up/down?

(11-05-2013 10:20 PM)PirateTreasureNC Wrote:  Tell us about how CUSA allegiance has fared with your fans versus your SBC past so far? Helped? Hurt? Too early to tell? Trending up/down?

Up-- esp. after the way we were treated by Karl "Marx" Benson last bowl season.

Crowd-wise, not so much in football.

We shall see, in hoops and baseball.

We were ready to take the next step. We had won the All Sports Trophy something like 7 of the past 10 years (even if you had removed all of our track and cross country points).

(11-05-2013 10:31 PM)KAjunRaider Wrote:  

(11-05-2013 10:20 PM)PirateTreasureNC Wrote:  Tell us about how CUSA allegiance has fared with your fans versus your SBC past so far? Helped? Hurt? Too early to tell? Trending up/down?

Up-- esp. after the way we were treated by Karl "Marx" Benson last bowl season.

Crowd-wise, not so much in football.

We shall see, in hoops and baseball.

We were ready to take the next step. We had won the All Sports Trophy something like 7 of the past 10 years (even if you had removed all of our track and cross country points).

Home slate or performance based for the under achieving attendance?

As a WAC convert, have nothing to add, except to say good thread idea.

(11-05-2013 10:35 PM)forerunner Wrote:  As a WAC convert, have nothing to add, except to say good thread idea.

Well, with one year in the WAC....


What is different?

Actually, wasn't La Tech a WAC school too?

playing more Texas teams is nice

(11-05-2013 10:50 PM)PirateTreasureNC Wrote:  

(11-05-2013 10:35 PM)forerunner Wrote:  As a WAC convert, have nothing to add, except to say good thread idea.

Well, with one year in the WAC....


What is different?

Actually, wasn't La Tech a WAC school too?

We went from having a team ranked in the top 25 some last year to this years team so it will probably take a few years to figure out whether or not we see a spike in attendance. I like the fact that I can make a few road games when we play schools in the eastern division living in Huntsville.

(11-05-2013 11:03 PM)winston70 Wrote:  

(11-05-2013 10:50 PM)PirateTreasureNC Wrote:  

(11-05-2013 10:35 PM)forerunner Wrote:  As a WAC convert, have nothing to add, except to say good thread idea.

Well, with one year in the WAC....


What is different?

Actually, wasn't La Tech a WAC school too?

We went from having a team ranked in the top 25 some last year to this years team so it will probably take a few years to figure out whether or not we see a spike in attendance. I like the fact that I can make a few road games when we play schools in the eastern division living in Huntsville.

Yeah, La Tech having a tough go of it this year.

(11-05-2013 10:33 PM)PirateTreasureNC Wrote:  

(11-05-2013 10:31 PM)KAjunRaider Wrote:  

(11-05-2013 10:20 PM)PirateTreasureNC Wrote:  Tell us about how CUSA allegiance has fared with your fans versus your SBC past so far? Helped? Hurt? Too early to tell? Trending up/down?

Up-- esp. after the way we were treated by Karl "Marx" Benson last bowl season.

Crowd-wise, not so much in football.

We shall see, in hoops and baseball.

We were ready to take the next step. We had won the All Sports Trophy something like 7 of the past 10 years (even if you had removed all of our track and cross country points).

Home slate or performance based for the under achieving attendance?

Haven't really figured that one out yet.

It is not the home opponents. That has mostly been an upgrade, although Western Ky. usually drew well -- although Western never brought as many as ECU or Marshall.

I thought when WKU was left behind in Nov, MTSU fans was sticking out their chest on how much excitement there was and how much improved the crowds would be in football? Is this not the case, can WKU not expect any attend. increase in football with conf. move? Will be anxiously awaiting reports on MTSU basketball crowds this season as well...

(11-05-2013 11:14 PM)WKUFan518 Wrote:  I thought when WKU was left behind in Nov, MTSU fans was sticking out their chest on how much excitement there was and how much improved the crowds would be in football? Is this not the case, can WKU not expect any attend. increase in football with conf. move? Will be anxiously awaiting reports on MTSU basketball crowds this season as well...

Attendance is up, just not as much as we had hoped.

Season tickets were up quite a bit.

People around here find a reason "not" to go. Cold weather, weeknight game, etc. We do play a "boring" brand of football, but the end of the games are pretty exciting (-;

I think here we are more of a "hybrid" fanbase-- half hoops, half football. Our men's hoops has finally come back around-- we were more-so of a hoops school in my era growing up here in Murfreesboro, until one James "Boots" Donnelly showed up.

(11-05-2013 11:14 PM)WKUFan518 Wrote:  I thought when WKU was left behind in Nov, MTSU fans was sticking out their chest on how much excitement there was and how much improved the crowds would be in football? Is this not the case, can WKU not expect any attend. increase in football with conf. move? Will be anxiously awaiting reports on MTSU basketball crowds this season as well...

No, we were sticking out our chests because we will actually get to go to a bowl game (and not get screwed) this year unlike Western.

Honestly, attendance has been mediocre from my vantage point. We usually have one Power 5 team at home per year, and that wasn't the case this year, so there's that. The ECU crowd was a huge disappointment, but other than that it's been about where I thought it would be. We've never had back to back winning seasons in our FBS history, so I look forward to seeing what a little momentum does for us next season.

Honestly being in a conference with like minded schools without shoestring budgets and redneck recruiting loopholes has been a nice change of pace. Basketball is going to be a blast, that is for sure.

A lot of perks. First and foremost we will be in a bowl barring a total collapse. Second, I have dvr full of games because we are actually on real tv not the ocho. Attendance has been a little disapointing but not the end of the world. If we finish like we should and have back to back 8 win seasons attendance will pick up. Especially with some of the home games we have on future schedules.

Not just because we are winning, but the move has been great for North Texas. The Texas teams are a big boost and casual fans have at least heard of some of the teams in the East. The games on TV are superior broadcast to what we got in the Belt - and of course there are more of them.

Like Rice last Thursday, I can't wait to see how many Miners show up in Denton this weekend. We just never saw that in the Belt.

Slam dunk improvement for us.

I think for odu it will be great. While most schools in the caa are closer we have history with a ton of sbc schools. I think the basketballl history will carry over.

Heck, I think we got something like $200k to change our C-USA game to a weeknight. I don't think we got a dime from the SBC.

We led the SBC in attendance for men's hoops the past couple of years, and our season ticket sales are waaay up from what I hear (for men- and slightly for the women).

I'd rather have wins than good attendance, however. There should not be many bottom feeders in C-USA basketball, so wins will be harder to come by.

Love it - more TV games and getting to travel to my first ever road game was a great experience. It's nice to have other Texas schools in your conference so others around the office know something about your program.

(11-05-2013 11:13 PM)KAjunRaider Wrote:  Haven't really figured that one out yet.

It is not the home opponents. That has mostly been an upgrade, although Western Ky. usually drew well -- although Western never brought as many as ECU or Marshall.

Maybe true but in all fairness, WKU only played at MT twice after we transitioned to FBS. The first game in 2009 was in the middle of our 20+ game losing streak and the 2011 game was after an 0-4 start....who knew that win at MT would start a 7-1 finish to the year? I'm confident, when WKU and MT are both winning at the same time, the travel between the two will be immense.....if it's a Saturday game. Thank the good Lord there will not be anymore Tuesday night games. ugh

(11-05-2013 10:50 PM)PirateTreasureNC Wrote:  

(11-05-2013 10:35 PM)forerunner Wrote:  As a WAC convert, have nothing to add, except to say good thread idea.

Well, with one year in the WAC....


What is different?

Actually, wasn't La Tech a WAC school too?

Yes, they were. For UTSA, attendance is about the same, but perception is up around San Antonio. And now that we're winning again, I think we see a small boost and keep our #2 attendance spot behind only y'all (ECU).

The sports fans are mostly aware that we've upgraded to C-USA, and the non-sports fans are like, "I heard there's good football now or something?" And maybe it seems silly, but in Year 3 we're very grateful for even that level of recognition. I think C-USA has helped. San Antonio fans are Southern-minded. So when someone asks "who'd y'all play last week?" and we can answer "Tulsa" instead of "San Jose State," we get approving nods.

As far as La Tech, I think we'll have their number this year, but I expect a good back-and-forth between the two universities in the years to come. Hopefully they have not forgotten so quickly how nice it is to have a regional opponent like UTSA.

(11-06-2013 12:13 AM)WKUApollo Wrote:  

(11-05-2013 11:13 PM)KAjunRaider Wrote:  Haven't really figured that one out yet.

It is not the home opponents. That has mostly been an upgrade, although Western Ky. usually drew well -- although Western never brought as many as ECU or Marshall.

Maybe true but in all fairness, WKU only played at MT twice after we transitioned to FBS. The first game in 2009 was in the middle of our 20+ game losing streak and the 2011 game was after an 0-4 start....who knew that win at MT would start a 7-1 finish to the year? I'm confident, when WKU and MT are both winning at the same time, the travel between the two will be immense.....if it's a Saturday game. Thank the good Lord there will not be anymore Tuesday night games. ugh

I look forward to the day where this game is a guaranteed sell out for the home team.... would love for it to get big enough to move it to LP Field every year and split the gate between the schools. Both of our stadiums capacities combined could fit in LP so it would be like we both have an extra home game every year financially. I don't see a downside to this.