Fantastic article. We should all email the author asking for more.
Great column... except this part:
Quote:In Kalamazoo, it is pitiful how the fans only seem to show up for the opener and when Central is at Western. If the Broncos fans don't start filling the seats, Western never will be able to afford Cubit and what the open market could warrant for his services. Jones seems pretty content at Central, and has an athletic department willing to market the program.
Through Week 9, WMU has an average home attendance of 22,054 and CMU is at 23,295 (and that's with the rivalry game in the books). In D1A college football terms, that gap is equivalent to the width of one electron.
We had 20K for both Ohio and EMU, which were neither openers nor games against CMU.
And if a BCS school comes calling, no MAC school will be able to afford to keep its coach. No matter how "content" Jones seems at Central, he isn't going to turn down a higher-profile school willing to triple his salary.
Motown Bronco Wrote:Great column... except this part:
Quote:In Kalamazoo, it is pitiful how the fans only seem to show up for the opener and when Central is at Western. If the Broncos fans don't start filling the seats, Western never will be able to afford Cubit and what the open market could warrant for his services. Jones seems pretty content at Central, and has an athletic department willing to market the program.
Through Week 9, WMU has an average home attendance of 22,054 and CMU is at 23,295 (and that's with the rivalry game in the books). In D1A college football terms, that gap is equivalent to the width of one electron.
We had 20K for both Ohio and EMU, which were neither openers nor games against CMU.
And if a BCS school comes calling, no MAC school will be able to afford to keep its coach. No matter how "content" Jones seems at Central, he isn't going to turn down a higher-profile school willing to triple his salary.
WMU is averaging less thn 19,000 a game. Did you forget your last home game against Illinois? What about Sat vs Toledo?
Motown Bronco Wrote:Great column... except this part:
Quote:In Kalamazoo, it is pitiful how the fans only seem to show up for the opener and when Central is at Western. If the Broncos fans don't start filling the seats, Western never will be able to afford Cubit and what the open market could warrant for his services. Jones seems pretty content at Central, and has an athletic department willing to market the program.
Through Week 9, WMU has an average home attendance of 22,054 and CMU is at 23,295 (and that's with the rivalry game in the books). In D1A college football terms, that gap is equivalent to the width of one electron.
We had 20K for both Ohio and EMU, which were neither openers nor games against CMU.
And if a BCS school comes calling, no MAC school will be able to afford to keep its coach. No matter how "content" Jones seems at Central, he isn't going to turn down a higher-profile school willing to triple his salary.
After the Iowa road win last season, I think WMU only pulled 12K for the final home game. Although this article gave Western EMU numbers for that game.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_Wester...tball_team
With few exceptions, such as rivalry games and division title "clinchers", games across the MAC in mid-November are always on the low side. Unless the weather is brutal Saturday, I would think our numbers would be higher this year (much better record) than last year's season-ending game.
I was just pointing out Huge's fallacy in saying that WMU fans only show up for season openers and when we host CMU. Those are always the biggies, of course, but we pulled in good numbers (relatively speaking) for the EMU and Ohio games which disproves that point.
And to think that Jones can't be lured away by big-time bucks is just pure naivety on his part. I remember Brian Kelly telling the media how "content" he was at CMU just a matter of days before announcing his departure.
But that's just a minor quibble in an otherwise good column.
Arrohead Wrote:WMU is averaging less thn 19,000 a game. Did you forget your last home game against Illinois?
26,262 vs. Northern Illinois
19,768 vs. Tennessee Tech
20,133 vs. Ohio
19,917 vs. Eastern Michigan
12,865 vs. Illinois (in somewhere not called Kalamazoo)
98,945 Total
19,789 Average 
The official books will include Illinois as a home contest, so I agree it's fair game. Likewise, it'll also be fair game when we include the 50-60K figure in next year's MSU game in Detroit, of course.
http://blog.mlive.com/hugeblog/2008/11/m...tball.html
This guy sure knows how to piss off Big Ten fans, and I'm loving every minute of it.
In the past, the mAC was looked upon by Big Ten fans as a harmless little conference that was nice enough to help bigger teams pad their schedules with a win in return for a little money. Now we're threatening to take over, and they don't like that one bit.
You really haven't made it big until you have a large group dedicated to hating you.
wtf? Just leave the threads alone.
When it's the same topic, there is no need to have separate threads.
BSU attendance numbers are never accurate. 20,692 was the average before the 14,373 vs. NIU. However, there are many complaints on our message board (bsufans.com) about the counts being low due to lack of turnstiles. They don't require students to have tickets, just flash an ID to get in. They come in hordes so the ladies that have the clickers can't possibly count them all. In addition, ticket scanners often jam so they just let people in without scanning the tickets. I'd say there were 25,000 at the Navy game. The entire place was full and tons more were standing because there were not seats left. But they announced attendance at around 23,000 and change....
DocBluez Wrote:When it's the same topic, there is no need to have separate threads.
Different discussions happen on different threads. It's not the topic, it's the content. There's no need to combine them and confuse people.
What is the MAC's overall record against the Big Ten this year? 4 wins is hardly cause for chest thumping.
Add, mostly away games, a few near misses especially @ Minny and Purdue.
BobcatFan Wrote:What is the MAC's overall record against the Big Ten this year? 4 wins is hardly cause for chest thumping.
4 - 7 (.364)
Keep in mind, the B10 was probably favored to win all 11 games. Some of those losses were also very close (NIU vs. Minn, CMU vs. Purdue, Miami vs. UM) but a loss is a loss.
I count 4-9 with 1 MAC home game and 1 neutral game (unless I'm missing some more neutral site games).
Akron at Wisconsin: L 38-17
Minnesota at BGSU: L 42-17
Temple at Penn St: L 45-3
Miami at Michigan: L 16-6
Ohio at Ohio St: L 26-14
Ohio at Northwestern: L 16-8
Ball St at Indiana: W 42-20
CMU at Purdue: L 32-25
CMU at Indiana: W 37-34
WMU vs Illinois: W 23-17
NIU at Minnesota: L 31-27
Toledo at Michigan: W 13-10
EMU at Michigan St: L 42-10
notauser Wrote:Keep in mind, the B10 was probably favored to win all 11 games. Some of those losses were also very close (NIU vs. Minn, CMU vs. Purdue, Miami vs. UM) but a loss is a loss.
If you want to give us credit for close losses, then you've got to acknowledge the fact that three of our four wins were also very close.
thegeneral's point about the location of the games is a strong one. I just don't think a 4-9 record signals the start of a major revolution, though.