(04-27-2017 08:57 AM)bigredmachine Wrote: Laugh if you must, but if we were in the MVC, basketball and all other sports but football would benefit, attendance would go up, etc.. Now, being independent in football would be a big challenge, but not as much as you might think. Accept the fact that our enrollment is down and attendance at home is and will be miserable. Why not load up the schedule for the next 10 years with 7 or 8 road games per year with big payoffs for each? Hell, we only play 2 home Saturday games now. Don't schedule any Div. 2 games. As much as possible, play P5 opponents. If possible, play a game at Soldier Field every year. Maybe play a game at Wrigley or Guaranteed Rate. Granted, it would be challenging, but doing this might raise our profile enough to be like BYU.
Yes we must laugh.
Seriously name one sport beyond football or men's / women's basketball where you think there's a benefit and a noticeable increase in attendance if those sports were in the MVC instead of the MAC? Soccer, volleyball, softball, baseball, etc. Perhaps NIU vs. ISU, Bradley or Loyola because of proximity, but Indiana State, Missouri State, Drake, Evansville, etc. will not "benefit" or increase attendance in other sports.
If you don't remember (or didn't live through our previous time as an independent, followed by joining the Big West briefly for football), then you especially have no clue as to how difficult being an independent would be. You want "7 or 8 road games for big pay-offs;" do you seriously want to ruin our football program further? Aside from removing the incentive to at least play for a conference title, earn all-conference, belong to a group that has bowl ties (even if some of those are poor at least they exist), we can spend more money with the team physicians who will have to treat the players for getting beat up week after week.
The answer isn't to "accept the fact enrollment is down and attendance at home is miserable." Long term solution is to get enrollment up and short term solution is to adjust thinking, spending, etc., to what we have. We need an administration committed to getting home game attendance back to what it once was. Start by not continually asking for money, but earning respect and donations with customer service and appreciation; all the little things that can be controlled (efficiency in the ticket office, concessions, parking, etc.). Work on getting attendance up for games beyond the home opener and Homecoming with smarter scheduling (none of this three or four straight on the road in September and October). And that means growing a pair to get other members to stand up to the MAC commissioner and say less ESPN-dictated games plus non-existent November weekends!!
Stop this insane notion of playing games regularly at Soldier Field, GRP, Wrigley, Arlington, etc. Those are gimmicks that ultimately do not grow the fan base in Huskie Stadium. Aside from Iowa, Wisconsin to a lesser extent, there are few opponents who can make such occasional gimmick games financially worth it.
You want to sell our soul, then offer Indiana, Purdue, Minnesota, Rutgers, Iowa State, or Kansas a 2-for-1, 3-for-1 to get them to DeKalb. None of them travel with the kind of numbers that would necessitate anything other than uncovering the tarps in the top fifth of the East side stands.
Last but not least, you do realize BYU is the subject of football conference expansion talks. Otherwise provide the link to all the articles being written about the many schools contemplating going independent.
