I'm curious about Troy's schedule. They host App, GS, StAte, and South next year. Every single one of those could be a midweek game. Is there a cap for the number of midweek games a team can host in a season? What if Troy hosted 3? I don't see the league allowing them to host 4.

Most Sun Belt teams usually have one weekday home game for ESPN.

Troy only had one last season (vs. Georgia State on ESPNU). We had two in 2017 (vs. Idaho on ESPNU, vs. South Alabama on ESPN2). We had only one in 2016 (vs. Ark State on ESPNU).

It's not Troy's choice anyway. It's part of the deal with ESPN. But I'm sure there is some sort of agreement that was made between the SBC and ESPN when it comes to making sure a team isn't having most of its home games on a weekday. ESPN tried to get Troy to move the Boise State game this past season to a weeknight by offering Troy a slot on primetime ESPN, but Troy deferred because of the anticipation of a record crowd on a weekend.

I can almost assure you that the Troy vs. USA game will be a weekday game on an ESPN channel. It's been chosen for ESPN2/ESPNU for the past 4 years, I don't see that changing.

2 would be the most you’d get saddled with


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(02-12-2019 11:06 PM)CardinalBlackTrojan Wrote:  Most Sun Belt teams usually have one weekday home game for ESPN.

Troy only had one last season (vs. Georgia State on ESPNU). We had two in 2017 (vs. Idaho on ESPNU, vs. South Alabama on ESPN2). We had only one in 2016 (vs. Ark State on ESPNU).

It's not Troy's choice anyway. It's part of the deal with ESPN. But I'm sure there is some sort of agreement that was made between the SBC and ESPN when it comes to making sure a team isn't having most of its home games on a weekday. ESPN tried to get Troy to move the Boise State game this past season to a weeknight by offering Troy a slot on primetime ESPN, but Troy deferred because of the anticipation of a record crowd on a weekend.

I can almost assure you that the Troy vs. USA game will be a weekday game on an ESPN channel. It's been chosen for ESPN2/ESPNU for the past 4 years, I don't see that changing.

I agree about the South game. I'm okay with South being weekday at Home but hate it when it's away. I'd also say a possible Black Friday game if we are home that weekend. Especially if that's App or Southern.

I thought a team couldn't get more than 2. I hope the Troy South game won't be a midweek game. I'm hoping to make the trip, not sure if I'm going if it is midweek.

Any idea why we must wait till March 1 to get the full schedule? Just wondering if this a Sunbelt thing or do the other G5 schools have this problem.

GS @ App, USA @ Troy, and ULL @ Ark State are all basically locks for weekday games

(02-13-2019 10:39 AM)kevinwmsn Wrote:  I thought a team couldn't get more than 2. I hope the Troy South game won't be a midweek game. I'm hoping to make the trip, not sure if I'm going if it is midweek.

Any idea why we must wait till March 1 to get the full schedule? Just wondering if this a Sunbelt thing or do the other G5 schools have this problem.

It's a Sun Belt thing, and it's because we have to wait on ESPN to figure out what scraps they have that they can give us and then which matchups they want to give those scraps to, then the SBC has to build our schedules around that.

(02-13-2019 10:39 AM)kevinwmsn Wrote:  I hope the Troy South game won't be a midweek game. I'm hoping to make the trip, not sure if I'm going if it is midweek.

I think both Troy and USA are liking the weekday game because 1.) It's starting to become a tradition to send students by the busloads. You won't have near as many students on a Saturday since a portion of them go back home on the weekends. 2.) There are still a lot of alumni/fans that are making it to the weekday matchup. 3.) I think both schools like having the rivalry nationally televised.

The attendance shows that even for a weekday matchup, the fans show up. It's been one of the highest attended Sun Belt games every year:

2018: 25,878
2017: 25,211
2016: 30,837
2015: 22,873

Imagine the attendance if USA and Troy were both having stellar seasons...

(02-13-2019 12:08 PM)CardinalBlackTrojan Wrote:  

(02-13-2019 10:39 AM)kevinwmsn Wrote:  I hope the Troy South game won't be a midweek game. I'm hoping to make the trip, not sure if I'm going if it is midweek.

I think both Troy and USA are liking the weekday game because 1.) It's starting to become a tradition to send students by the busloads. You won't have near as many students on a Saturday since a portion of them go back home on the weekends. 2.) There are still a lot of alumni/fans that are making it to the weekday matchup. 3.) I think both schools like having the rivalry nationally televised.

The attendance shows that even for a weekday matchup, the fans show up. It's been one of the highest attended Sun Belt games every year:

2018: 25,878
2017: 25,211
2016: 30,837
2015: 22,873

Imagine the attendance if USA and Troy were both having stellar seasons...

It's a necessary evil but I hate mid-week games at GS. They are usually good match ups and I usually can't make the game. On the other hand as a fan of college football in general I love having mid-week games on TV to watch.

I think no SBC team should be forced to host more that two mid-week games.

In most years the good teams will wind up with two games, one home and one away. Every now and then someone gets hosed with two midweek home games, but that’s not the rule.


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If there is a cap, it is one of the best kept secrets in the league.

Personally I think there should be one, no more than three mid-week games in a rolling two year period.
If ESPN wants to show three from a school in 2019, fine but they can't have hosted a mid-week in 2018 and can't host a mid-week in 2020.

(02-13-2019 10:40 AM)TrueBlueDrew Wrote:  GS @ App, USA @ Troy, and ULL @ Ark State are all basically locks for weekday games

If I had to bet on 3:

1. GS @ App (the one game that has been moved to a weekday every season since 2014).
2. South @ Troy (televised 4 of the last 5 seasons).
3. UL @ GS (because there seems to be a rule that we have to have at least one weekday home game a season and our home conference slate is UL, Coastal, ULM, and Georgia State)

We need to lobby hard for Friday night games. The NFL destroys all Thursday games.

I don't want Friday night games, that would hurt attendance around here. Friday night is for the high schools.

I don't think the attendance for Troy-South matchup would go up much if both were good. South is moving into 25,000 seat stadium in 2020 and Troy's tops out at 30,402.

I hope no team gets no more than 1 midweek home game.

The only team we can play on a weeknight and still draw well is App State. Anybody else and Paulson is a cricket fest. I don't mind playing other teams on the road on weeknights, but I think non-App home games hurt us more than they help us. I've never seen Paulson emptier during a game than the Tuesday night we played Ark State. It was sad and embarrassing for TV.

(02-14-2019 10:30 AM)kevinwmsn Wrote:  I don't want Friday night games, that would hurt attendance around here. Friday night is for the high schools.

I don't think the attendance for Troy-South matchup would go up much if both were good. South is moving into 25,000 seat stadium in 2020 and Troy's tops out at 30,402.

I hope no team gets no more than 1 midweek home game.

One of the big reasons to be on TV is so recruits can see you. Friday night games sort of sink that.

In 2015 we tried to fight hard to not get our home opener game vs Toledo on tv Friday night but we were given no choice from my understanding (crowd ended up being not as bad as I thought but I think it could’ve been much better had it been held on Saturday)

Our home opener in 2012 was on a Friday against Baylor, and it set the attendance record for the stadium. A lot of the high school games moved to Saturday so that people could go to both. Then again that was after beating a ranked Arkansas and going to OT with Auburn both on the road, so not exactly a typical season.

There needs to be a rule that no one hosts more than one midweek home game.

I don't mind hosting one with a midweek away game.

We had a run of hosting 2 midweek home games when we entered the conference and it murdered our home schedule with how imbalanced it was. I think in 2016 that we didn't play on Saturday again after September until December. That was rough.