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I am not trying to start an argument, but I was curious to see what MAC fans thought of this issue.
I am surprise that no one has posted any comments. Over half of the MAC teams (8) comprise the bottom 15 positions from 106 to the last place of 119. The school at 119 averaged only 6810 per game.
well i guess my friends at northern Illinois are using a different set of books...
victory engineer Wrote:well i guess my friends at northern Illinois are using a different set of books...

Those figures do not include the game at Soldier Field, technically a home game for NIU. They list 5 home games for NIU not the 6 that inlcudes the game at Soldier Field.
BobL Wrote:
victory engineer Wrote:well i guess my friends at northern Illinois are using a different set of books...

Those figures do not include the game at Soldier Field, technically a home game for NIU. They list 5 home games for NIU not the 6 that inlcudes the game at Soldier Field.

The game at Soldier Field and other games played a "neutral" site are listed at the bottom of the list as separate games. Since these games are listed separately, who knows how the NCAA views the games.
Flat Tire 2 Wrote:I am not trying to start an argument, but I was curious to see what MAC fans thought of this issue.
I am surprise that no one has posted any comments. Over half of the MAC teams (8) comprise the bottom 15 positions from 106 to the last place of 119. The school at 119 averaged only 6810 per game.

MAC fans accept that our attendance will never be great. There are many reasons for it including one which we can't change (i.e., weather).

Some conferences, such as your conference, C-USA, benefit from more favorable weather.

[Quite frankly, I'm not thrilled about seeing a MAC game in person after say mid-October].

Maybe attendance affects perception and affects recruiting (probably marginally) but still the bottom line is that the MAC plays competitive FB with conferences outside the BCS.

When I started following MAC FB, the season ended the 2nd Saturday in November. Now it ends the Saturday after the 4th Thursday in November.

And for those who missed it, the Big Ten will in '08 play 12 games within 13 weeks (one bye week). The BT will end up the Saturday after T'giving, like the MAC.
victory engineer Wrote:well i guess my friends at northern Illinois are using a different set of books...

So how does Temple plan on keeping their attendance up since they won't be able to sell 3-game packs to Penn State fans next year?
Flat Tire 2 Wrote:Since these games are listed separately, who knows how the NCAA views the games.

They are always listed seperately, but if the NCAA is trying to determine whether a program averaged 15,000 or more, they do look at such non campus games.
might add one tangent note:

Sure the weather in some MAC cities (e.g., Buffalo, Mt. Pleasant, K'zoo, DeKalb, Akron, etc.) can be pretty tough late in the season and during practices for bowl games.

Most MAC teams have or will have in a few years, indoor practice facilities so if the team is practicing in mid-December at least it can be indoors.

As a result, the weather will really be an issue for late season GAMES.

Unfortunately, MAC schools don't have domed stadia ala Syracuse, Minnesota, Idaho, etc.
Looks like WMU leads the MAC at about 19500. Akron should challenge for that position if/when the new stadium opens in Sept. 09. I'm a little surprised Marshall still draws 30000...I guess they're still reliving their glory days as MAC champs and top 25 rankings.
Zipfanatik Wrote:Looks like WMU leads the MAC at about 19500. Akron should challenge for that position if/when the new stadium opens in Sept. 09. I'm a little surprised Marshall still draws 30000...I guess they're still reliving their glory days as MAC champs and top 25 rankings.

Playing WVU at home helped out with that some. I think i read that a lot of WVU fans were buying Marshall season tickets so they could get tickets to the WVU at Marshall game.
I think there are several reasons why we (Marshall) are still outdrawing what we did while we were in the MAC...

First, while we did only post three wins this year (and all in the last five games) with some frustrating endings, we're still an entertaining football team to watch. 7 of our 8 conference games (including our two road games at the west division's co-division champs) were all one possession games or definite wins with less than a minute to play. Our games against two ranked teams didn't get our of hand until the very end. While our record wasn't great, the games were still entertaining.

Second, for the most part people realize our roster situation. We only lose three senior starters (plus a kicker)from this year and will likely start only a couple of seniors next year. Hindsight being 20-20, our '03 and '04 recruiting classes were absolutely terrible. We fielded a team that's largely freshmen and sophomores this year. As Snyder has been quoted as saying, this is his first year recruiting at Marshall that he gets to recruit to build depth, not to plug immediate glaring holes. The only position question mark the next two years is the quarterback position. For the next two years, we largely return the team that at the end of this season thumped then-division leader ECU and stood toe-to-toe on the road against the two best west division teams, so I think people largely realize we aren't that far away from being back to a bowl team and near the top our our league.

Third, our OOC and home schedules are vastly improving. We have new long-term deals and our OOC schedule the next four years includes healthy doses of WVU, Virginia Tech, Miami of Florida, Cincinnati, and Ohio (all of which do come to Huntington in the next four seasons). Our average attendance when up a little over 2,000 this year (6 home games), so that probably shows you the impact of the WVU game.

The next two years will tell the tale, but in 2008 and 2009, Marshall football should be returning back to its winning ways.
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