OK, here we go again.....right?
13 DI-A institutions received letters from the NCAA because they were below 15K last year. They were warned of possible sanctions if they are below 15K again this year.
6 MAC schools, plus Temple, means that 7 of the 13 are from the MAC. That's not good folks.
Bowling Green and Akron were on the list, as well as Temple, Buffalo, Eastern Michigan, Kent State, and Ball State.
http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/1%2C1249%...%2C00.html
Im betting thats not going to be an issue for Ball State anymore...New Stadium and finally a marquee player, not just for us but for the MAC as well...thats all I'll say about that.
I'm very concerned about Kent State, Eastern Michigan, and Bowling Green.
BG does have Wisconsin, but even if they have 30K they will still have to do decent in the other games. They do host Miami at the end of the season, but weather could be a factor. They do not host Toledo this year. Their other home games are something like KSU, Akron, and Buffalo.....or something close to that.
If they only average 10K for the games outside of Wisconsin, and 30K for that game, they will average 14K for the season. Hopefully they will have more like 35K for Wisconsin and near 15K average for the rest.
There should be no excuses for the attendence to be so low.
Tulsa (4k total students) averaged 23k at the games last year.
Shame on the MAC and AD's for not marketing. Either the schools are lazy or the administration needs to be fired and make room for new blood. I saw where Kent State have put their marketing program together for this year. Lets see what happens.
Mongoose777 Wrote:There should be no excuses for the attendence to be so low.
Tulsa (4k total students) averaged 23k at the games last year.
Shame on the MAC and AD's for not marketing. Either the schools are lazy or the administration needs to be fired and make room for new blood.
Just guessing, but maybe it has a little bit to do with the fact that there are 8 Division I-A universities in the state of Ohio and the largest one averages over 100K per game and would average 200K per game if their stadium was big enough.
Bowling Green is a 20 minute drive from UT. We compete for fans in the same metropolitan area.
Akron and Kent State are not very far from each other either.
And to be honest, some of the Ohio MAC teams have been losing for a long time. People don't go to their games because they lose and there is that Ohio State team that is usually a Top 10 team.
Eastern Michigan is just minutes from Michigan's stadium. They can't compete with that, yet they try. If EMU started winning more games their attendance would be better, but probably never great because of Michigan.
I really think one of the things that hurts the MAC the most attendance-wise is that half of the MAC is in the state of Ohio and there are too many I-A schools in Ohio.
How on earth does BG, a perennial contender, and Akron- THE MAC CHAMPION not make 15K at home!?
Another note-
Those @ssholes had the nerve to send a letter to Tulane.
.......a team that played not one home game.
The Knight Time Wrote:Another note-
Those @ssholes had the nerve to send a letter to Tulane.
.......a team that played not one home game.
There is no limit to the insanity referred to as the NCAA.
Although I have spoken loudly and often that attendance should not be the criteria for being D-1a or not, I would not call the NCAA dumb for some attendance requirement. I believe that a program is D-1a if it decides to fully fund the maximum allowed grants for players. That is a spending requirement.
Now, 15,000 is a reasonable requirement that every program should achieve. If I were an University Pres or Trustee, the AD would have that as a job requirement. That really is a low number. As the NCAA, I would say that no team could qualify for post season play without meeting that attendance minimum.
With the above, the financial and administrative commitments rule where a program will play. If butts in the seats are not important, and a college wishes to subsidize a program to the hilt, go ahead, be stupid.
Akron lost 20-0 mid-season to Army. There best opportunity for a draw late in the season was in a blizzard. They really did not think they were going to win the league until the last week of the season. Unfortunately, Akron drew like a .500 team plus the bad luck of the weather. Once they did win the MAC East, they got great support. I expect them to have a few thousand boost this year.
=>Answer to all attendance issues:
Tell them there will be punch and pie! More people will come if they think there is going to be punch and pie.
rocketfootball Wrote:I'm very concerned about ... Bowling Green.
I'm not.
The game in CLE will produce a very large crowd.
WHAT I am worried about is a natural phenomen called SOMEONE(S) HAS (have) to lose.
Not all 12 MAC teams can have good conference records (it is simply math - every game produces one win and one loss).
EACH of the 12 teams can't say... "If WE win we'll be okay".
That is hardly a CONFERENCE strategy.
The MAC needs to figure out how a team with a 2 - 6 conference record is going to draw good crowds the last month of the season.
My guess is that MOST of the MAC team, faced with a gun to their head, will come throug, BUT will ALL 7 do it???
I'm not really worried this season b/c our first three home games are Minnesota, Akron, and Toledo.
Minnesota should draw well. Akron will draw well, and Toledo is HC, plus they are good and we haven't played them in a while. I think our numbers should be good at least through those first three.
Schadenfreude Wrote:rocketfootball Wrote:I'm very concerned about ... Bowling Green.
I'm not.
I'm glad you're confident. Looking at the BG message board it looks like BG fans are pretty split between fans that are worried and fans that aren't.
So it shouldn't be surprising if someone from another school is worried about your attendance if half of your own fans are concerned about it.
The Knight Time Wrote:Another note-
Those @ssholes had the nerve to send a letter to Tulane.
.......a team that played not one home game.
You have got to be f-n kidding me!?
mollautt Wrote:=>Answer to all attendance issues:
Tell them there will be punch and pie! More people will come if they think there is going to be punch and pie.
I also find that if you promise a "FREE HAT", you'll get most of the community behind you.
GFlash68 Wrote:Although I have spoken loudly and often that attendance should not be the criteria for being D-1a or not, I would not call the NCAA dumb for some attendance requirement. I believe that a program is D-1a if it decides to fully fund the maximum allowed grants for players. That is a spending requirement.
Now, 15,000 is a reasonable requirement that every program should achieve. If I were an University Pres or Trustee, the AD would have that as a job requirement. That really is a low number. As the NCAA, I would say that no team could qualify for post season play without meeting that attendance minimum.
With the above, the financial and administrative commitments rule where a program will play. If butts in the seats are not important, and a college wishes to subsidize a program to the hilt, go ahead, be stupid.
I agree whole-heartedly. Does the NCAA really want to gut the MAC as a football conference by decertifying up to half of it's schools? Especially when the MAC has been one of the stable conferences. An NCAA that wants to create the chaos that permeates the Big East and CUSA in the Midwest is not worthy of governing collegiate sports.
rocketfootball Wrote:Schadenfreude Wrote:rocketfootball Wrote:I'm very concerned about ... Bowling Green.
I'm not.
I'm glad you're confident. Looking at the BG message board it looks like BG fans are pretty split between fans that are worried and fans that aren't.
So it shouldn't be surprising if someone from another school is worried about your attendance if half of your own fans are concerned about it.
If Bowling Green doesn't clear the bar this year, send me a hat. I'll eat it.