(01-01-2021 02:30 PM)bullet Wrote:  

(01-01-2021 02:06 PM)whittx Wrote:  It depends. If you live in a place where G5 team is local, you have at least heard of some of them. Still, it's not like it's easy to find their stuff on the shelves of national chains in town.

Well in Houston, you have about an equal amount of Texas and Texas A&M stuff, but a good bit of Houston stuff as well. Some Rice, LSU and Baylor.

In Atlanta, you see Georgia, Georgia Tech and a bunch of the SEC schools, especially Alabama and Auburn. Not much Georgia State or Georgia Southern.

The UCF stuff in Orlando and USF stuff can be found in Tampa fairly easily, but not outside the immediate vicinity of those towns. Tough to find a lot of ODU stuff amongst the UVA and VaTech stuff around Norfolk, though.

I think there is a decent awareness of App State and ECU in various parts of North Carolina. Both have a history of strong history of winning, whether recent or more historically against NC ACC teams. They get a fair amount of interviews on Raleigh and Charlotte radio.

But there is less awareness of those schools' leagues. It's particularly surprising how little awareness there is of a league with Navy, Cincinnati, UCF, ECU (in NC's own backyard), Houston, and others.

(01-01-2021 02:30 PM)bullet Wrote:  

(01-01-2021 02:06 PM)whittx Wrote:  It depends. If you live in a place where G5 team is local, you have at least heard of some of them. Still, it's not like it's easy to find their stuff on the shelves of national chains in town.

Well in Houston, you have about an equal amount of Texas and Texas A&M stuff, but a good bit of Houston stuff as well. Some Rice, LSU and Baylor.

In Atlanta, you see Georgia, Georgia Tech and a bunch of the SEC schools, especially Alabama and Auburn. Not much Georgia State or Georgia Southern.

My experience in the ATL metro is that people know G5 schools because they are buy games in most instances, but aren’t aware of the existence said programs lead.

(01-01-2021 03:53 PM)Michael in Raleigh Wrote:  I think there is a decent awareness of App State and ECU in various parts of North Carolina. Both have a history of strong history of winning, whether recent or more historically against NC ACC teams. They get a fair amount of interviews on Raleigh and Charlotte radio.

But there is less awareness of those schools' leagues. It's particularly surprising how little awareness there is of a league with Navy, Cincinnati, UCF, ECU (in NC's own backyard), Houston, and others.

And if you're ODU, it's worse, since none of your traditional rivals are in your conference.

It depends where you are.

In the Eastern and Central time zones, the casual fan is aware of the surrounding G5 schools but unfortunately, they get shadowed by the bigger P5 flagships and land grants. Unless you’re an alumni or have a child attending said school, it mostly goes unnoticed unless they have a special season in football or basketball.

In the Mountain and Pacific time zones, there’s quite a few G5 flagship and land grants. There’s also G5 schools where they are the only game in town and generate fan and media interest. San Diego, Las Vegas, Fresno, Boise, Reno, Albuquerque, El Paso and Honolulu are large to medium sized metro areas where the local G5 rules. Salt Lake City could be on the list with BYU and Utah State nearby but with Utah now in the Pac-12, it’s no longer a pure G5 market. The same applies to Denver with Colorado State and Wyoming (that’s where most of its grads move) but Denver is a pro sports market and even Colorado is shadowed by the NFL.

Here in DFW when it comes to college sports, it’s Texas, Oklahoma, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, TCU, Baylor and Oklahoma State in that order with SMU and North Texas getting the crumbs. I don’t live that far from SMU and once you’re in Arlington, Plano or Garland, it’s like SMU doesn’t exist. I give them credit for trying to label themselves as “Dallas team” but as I’ve said for the longest time, SMU has a perception issue whereas TCU was able to get Fort Worth behind way before they joined the Big XII. UNT has a bigger enrollment and grads here but they’re not a passionate fan base. That could change if they ever become a Marshall type of program so there’s potential there.

(01-01-2021 03:53 PM)Michael in Raleigh Wrote:  I think there is a decent awareness of App State and ECU in various parts of North Carolina. Both have a history of strong history of winning, whether recent or more historically against NC ACC teams. They get a fair amount of interviews on Raleigh and Charlotte radio.

But there is less awareness of those schools' leagues. It's particularly surprising how little awareness there is of a league with Navy, Cincinnati, UCF, ECU (in NC's own backyard), Houston, and others.

It’d be surprising (actually shocking) if the AAC was widely known with casual fans as it’s the youngest FBS conference. I’m sure college football fans in NC know Navy plays football...associating them with the AAC is another story and takes time. Heck, some of my family members in IL still forget Nebraska is in the B1G. Around these parts, football fans know UCF is in the AAC...due to Finebaum and the Champ claim... rather more infamous than famous though

(01-01-2021 12:30 PM)IWokeUpLikeThis Wrote:  

(01-01-2021 12:00 PM)quo vadis Wrote:  

(01-01-2021 10:20 AM)Michael in Raleigh Wrote:  Does anyone else experience this lack of awareness about the G5? I have a feeling this relative us representative of a lot of fans of P5 schools.

My wife is a worldly woman, she has lived most of her life in Washington DC, Chicago, and Tokyo.

I did a test along these lines with her a year or two ago when I was trying to get her in to college football, which she has no interest in. I asked her if she knew about or was aware of UCF in any way and she said "no"**. After explaining what "UCF" stands for, where it is, etc. she still drew a blank.

To test her knowledge of P5, I asked her if she had ever heard of Purdue. She instantly responded with "everyone has heard of Purdue" and gave me a look like I had asked her if she'd ever heard of McDonald's or Mercedes Benz. And that's Purdue, not Ohio State.

There is a big awareness gap out there among the masses.

** In fairness, she was completely unaware of USF, my school, when we met either.

What does your wife do during the season when you watch every college football game on your multiple tv’s? Has this improved her knowledge of teams?

She goes to the mall and spends my money, LOL. Then she asks if the games are over so can we watch something together on Netflix.

But she does love the NFL, so we have that on Sundays.

I wouldn’t take any of this personally. The average sports viewer likely can’t name all schools in the Big Ten or SEC correctly, much less the G5 leagues. Heck - try quizzing the average sports fan on the divisional alignments in even the NFL, MLB and NBA without Googling it and a lot of them will run into mental blocks. We’re obsessive here about this stuff (as would make sense on a conference realignment forum), but most sports fans just see the teams and the games without much thought to their conferences. The average sports fan sees the “big sports schools” like Alabama, Ohio State and Notre Dame and the “small sports schools” (which may largely be G5 teams, but also include P5 schools like Northwestern and Wake Forest).

(01-01-2021 06:03 PM)Frank the Tank Wrote:  I wouldn’t take any of this personally. The average sports viewer likely can’t name all schools in the Big Ten or SEC correctly, much less the G5 leagues. Heck - try quizzing the average sports fan on the divisional alignments in even the NFL, MLB and NBA without Googling it and a lot of them will run into mental blocks. We’re obsessive here about this stuff (as would make sense on a conference realignment forum), but most sports fans just see the teams and the games without much thought to their conferences. The average sports fan sees the “big sports schools” like Alabama, Ohio State and Notre Dame and the “small sports schools” (which may largely be G5 teams, but also include P5 schools like Northwestern and Wake Forest).

This is so true. My dad is very much into sports. Loves watching it all. If I were to ask him which conference UTSA was in he'd probably say the Sun Belt simply because he knows they're TXSTs rival. He probably couldnt tell you which conference SMU or Houston are in even though he thinks highly of those programs.

(01-01-2021 06:03 PM)Frank the Tank Wrote:  I wouldn’t take any of this personally. The average sports viewer likely can’t name all schools in the Big Ten or SEC correctly, much less the G5 leagues. Heck - try quizzing the average sports fan on the divisional alignments in even the NFL, MLB and NBA without Googling it and a lot of them will run into mental blocks. We’re obsessive here about this stuff (as would make sense on a conference realignment forum), but most sports fans just see the teams and the games without much thought to their conferences. The average sports fan sees the “big sports schools” like Alabama, Ohio State and Notre Dame and the “small sports schools” (which may largely be G5 teams, but also include P5 schools like Northwestern and Wake Forest).

Correct. I said it in another thread the other day, but I still run into people who think UC plays in what was the Big East circa 2005-2011 or mix up teams in the ACC and SEC. The casual fan (who makes up a lot more people than us die-hards) aren't that bright outside their own team and the obvious giant programs.

In my world it’s Louisville and Kentucky. The Kentucky side of the family laughs at ACC football. The Louisville side of the family laughs at SEC basketball.

It doesn’t matter what the game is Louisville fans want to beat Kentucky, Kentucky fans want to beat Louisville.

Many Louisville fans root for Cincinnati and Memphis because of our old ties. Kentucky fans just root for The SEC. Most Kentucky fans are Alabama fans during football season and Kentucky fans during basketball season.

I have noticed that SEC fans are more aware of G5 teams than fans in other power leagues. SEC fans are just more knowledgeable about the sport in general.

Non-power schools with big alumni bases like Dayton and Illinois State and Ohio and Wichita aren't the #1 school in their area, but they are pretty well known and respected within their states. Schools with smaller alumni bases, like Bradley or Northern Illinois or Ball State, aren't very well respected even within their own cities.

There are also a few G5 teams that are far & away the #1 most popular team in their area. Probably the only ones that are #1 in a region with over 1 million people are San Diego State, Cincinnati, UConn, Memphis, and Hawai'i.

Other than Hawai'i, the other four (as well as Louisville) originally became popular because of their basketball success and because they were P5-like institutions. They were really similar to Indiana or Kansas in that they were in major basketball conferences in the 1980s but didn't invest much in football. Unlike Indiana & Kansas, they weren't in major football conferences so they were left behind when football success became more important.

(01-01-2021 10:38 PM)Captain Bearcat Wrote:  I have noticed that SEC fans are more aware of G5 teams than fans in other power leagues. SEC fans are just more knowledgeable about the sport in general.

Nah. It's probably because they play more G5 teams (and FCS teams) than anyone else. They need cupcakes to play the week before rivalry games.

(01-01-2021 10:43 PM)schmolik Wrote:  

(01-01-2021 10:38 PM)Captain Bearcat Wrote:  I have noticed that SEC fans are more aware of G5 teams than fans in other power leagues. SEC fans are just more knowledgeable about the sport in general.

Nah. It's probably because they play more G5 teams (and FCS teams) than anyone else. They need cupcakes to play the week before rivalry games.

I noticed it when UC was in the Big East - SEC fans respected UC's back-to-back Big East titles more than Big Ten fans, Pac-10 fans, and ACC fans.

Where I live, U of Houston is the third team behind UT and A&M, or perhaps fourth behind UT, A&M, and LSU. People that aren't UH fans know that they play major college football, but aren't in the Big 12 or SEC. They aren't that familiar with the AAC. They just know UH isn't in the Big 12 or SEC. They know UT is in the Big 12, and that A&M plays Alabama and LSU instead of UT now.

People I come in contact with know Rice is a very prestigious school, and they know they have a football team. They couldn't tell you what conference that they're in, or who they play. If they're old enough, they remember when Rice used to play Texas.

The Northeast is really all about pro sports. State College and Syracuse are probably the only cities where college sports would have more interest than pro sports. The rest of the region is pretty much a college sports wasteland, where college basketball probably is more popular than college football.
The average P5 fan could list of the local P5 schools and knows about Army and Navy. Army and Navy are the most popular G5's because military vets will root for their branch of service without actually ever attended the academy. Then there is a huge drop-off to the other G5 schools. Which is really just Temple. Buffalo is closer to Cleveland than any of the big Eastern markets and most P5 fans couldn't give a **** about UConn or UMass football.
Outside of the P5, Big East basketball probably takes second in level of interest, followed by a big drop-off to the A-10 and G5 football.

Southern California here, and the main reason I know about P5 is because of colored turf. I've been a Boise State fan for many years, but a few years ago found out about CCU and EMU turfs, so I started watching them. And I love USF's chrome helmets! Otherwise they don't make too much noise here. It's all Pac 12 (yawn). I proudly wore my CCU shirt this season and no one noticed that I know of.

(01-01-2021 11:37 PM)mikeinsec127 Wrote:  The Northeast is really all about pro sports. State College and Syracuse are probably the only cities where college sports would have more interest than pro sports. The rest of the region is pretty much a college sports wasteland, where college basketball probably is more popular than college football.
The average P5 fan could list of the local P5 schools and knows about Army and Navy. Army and Navy are the most popular G5's because military vets will root for their branch of service without actually ever attended the academy. Then there is a huge drop-off to the other G5 schools. Which is really just Temple. Buffalo is closer to Cleveland than any of the big Eastern markets and most P5 fans couldn't give a **** about UConn or UMass football.
Outside of the P5, Big East basketball probably takes second in level of interest, followed by a big drop-off to the A-10 and G5 football.

And even with UB, it has taken 20 years of being in D1 to get any attention outside of the immediate vicinity of Buffalo. The biggest thing, though, is that with every P5 and on TV, it has killed live attendance at places like Cornell and many of the D3 schools in the NE.

(01-01-2021 02:30 PM)bullet Wrote:  

(01-01-2021 02:06 PM)whittx Wrote:  It depends. If you live in a place where G5 team is local, you have at least heard of some of them. Still, it's not like it's easy to find their stuff on the shelves of national chains in town.

Well in Houston, you have about an equal amount of Texas and Texas A&M stuff, but a good bit of Houston stuff as well. Some Rice, LSU and Baylor.

In Atlanta, you see Georgia, Georgia Tech and a bunch of the SEC schools, especially Alabama and Auburn. Not much Georgia State or Georgia Southern.

Sometimes this amazes me. My daughter is considering attending Coastal Carolina so we went to Conway/Myrtle Beach to visit the area and school. Coastal's campus is magnificent and I was impressed but when we tried to find some Coastal Merchandise for her to bring back home we didn't find any in Conway or Myrtle Beach but Clemson, UNC, and USC stuff was everywhere. I finally tracked down a person who could point me to the one store in town that sold it. Keep in mind this was prior to Coastal's run this season.

(01-01-2021 03:53 PM)Michael in Raleigh Wrote:  I think there is a decent awareness of App State and ECU in various parts of North Carolina. Both have a history of strong history of winning, whether recent or more historically against NC ACC teams. They get a fair amount of interviews on Raleigh and Charlotte radio.

But there is less awareness of those schools' leagues. It's particularly surprising how little awareness there is of a league with Navy, Cincinnati, UCF, ECU (in NC's own backyard), Houston, and others.

I feel your pain Michael. The number of UNC and NC State fans I talk to who still think ECU is in C-USA or that App State is still 1-AA (because they still use that term, for crying out loud) is mind-blowing. Appalachian State has played in 6 straight bowl games and they still think they are FCS. It's mind numbing.