Interesting idea from The Athletic(subscriber only so didn't link). The FCS and G5 make a permeant move to spring

It's an interesting idea given the talk of folding athletic departments and dropping down to FCS.

Just quick thoughts:

Pros -
New TV deal with more money
grow local fan base(no competition)
Saturday games
better weather
real chance at a championship

Cons-
lost tradition
No big name games

I know a large chunk of fans will immediately hate this idea, but maybe given the negative outlook of maybe dropping to FCS or moving to Spring, the spring idea is worth consideration.

Fall weather is better than spring weather.
DeKalb Avg Temp
Mar 36 | Apr 48 | May 59
Nov 38 | Oct 51 | Sep 64
(The season would have to start in late February too)

Increased tv revenues are highly unlikely. Viewers in the spring are watching March Madness, The Masters, the Stanley Cup playoffs, and the NBA playoffs. The competition is less in the fall - just P5 college football plus MLB Playoffs (as NFL doesn’t conflict with college).

More importantly, tv deals are based on demand. The demand isn’t there to watch most G5 brands - no matter where it’s placed on the calendar. Demand to watch G5 brands doesn’t arrive until there’s a David vs Goliath pull, which wouldn’t exist with no P5’s to play.

(07-19-2020 12:27 AM)IWokeUpLikeThis Wrote:  Fall weather is better than spring weather.
DeKalb Avg Temp
Mar 36 | Apr 48 | May 59
Nov 38 | Oct 51 | Sep 64
(The season would have to start in late February too)

Increased tv revenues are highly unlikely. Viewers in the spring are watching March Madness, The Masters, the Stanley Cup playoffs, and the NBA playoffs. The competition is less in the fall - just P5 college football plus MLB Playoffs (as NFL doesn’t conflict with college).

More importantly, tv deals are based on demand. The demand isn’t there to watch most G5 brands - no matter where it’s placed on the calendar. Demand to watch G5 brands doesn’t arrive until there’s a David vs Goliath pull, which wouldn’t exist with no P5’s to play.

Spring? Don’t forget all the rain/snow, too. Of course, sitting in Huskie Stadium in a driving rain storm will be a novel experience!

(07-19-2020 12:27 AM)IWokeUpLikeThis Wrote:  Fall weather is better than spring weather.
DeKalb Avg Temp
Mar 36 | Apr 48 | May 59
Nov 38 | Oct 51 | Sep 64
(The season would have to start in late February too)

Increased tv revenues are highly unlikely. Viewers in the spring are watching March Madness, The Masters, the Stanley Cup playoffs, and the NBA playoffs. The competition is less in the fall - just P5 college football plus MLB Playoffs (as NFL doesn’t conflict with college).

More importantly, tv deals are based on demand. The demand isn’t there to watch most G5 brands - no matter where it’s placed on the calendar. Demand to watch G5 brands doesn’t arrive until there’s a David vs Goliath pull, which wouldn’t exist with no P5’s to play.

Agreed. And regarding tv deals, G5 probably benefits by being lumped in with rest of the football universe in the fall. Break away from that and it just become a niche sport head-scratcher. As you noted, those months coincide with major sports finals (NCAA, NHL, NBA) but also the start up of MLB, NASCAR and, as you pointed out, the first major on the golf schedule. Typical/general sports fans are seasonally-minded and are in the mood to watch the season appropriate sport.

Not only that, but getting people out of the house in those early spring games would be brutal. I coached HS baseball in the Chicago area for a number of years and I can promise you, games in March and April are BRUTAL. In the fall, you go from warm temps to cool with a crispness in the air. In the spring, you are praying for it to warm up and because everything is just thawing out.

Go to an April game in Wrigley Field and you will 100% freeze your arse off.

(07-19-2020 12:27 AM)IWokeUpLikeThis Wrote:  Fall weather is better than spring weather.
DeKalb Avg Temp
Mar 36 | Apr 48 | May 59
Nov 38 | Oct 51 | Sep 64
(The season would have to start in late February too)

Increased tv revenues are highly unlikely. Viewers in the spring are watching March Madness, The Masters, the Stanley Cup playoffs, and the NBA playoffs. The competition is less in the fall - just P5 college football plus MLB Playoffs (as NFL doesn’t conflict with college).

More importantly, tv deals are based on demand. The demand isn’t there to watch most G5 brands - no matter where it’s placed on the calendar. Demand to watch G5 brands doesn’t arrive until there’s a David vs Goliath pull, which wouldn’t exist with no P5’s to play.

Fall weather is the best for football. It is football. Thing is, NIU often only gets 1 game in September because of the money games. And while the seasons are almost identical weather wise, you’ll often be playing October and November games at night. The temperature drops considerably when the sun goes down. So March at 1pm will on average be much warmer than November at 6pm.

I’m pretty confident in an increase in TV revenue. No chance the networks don’t make new, better deals with all the G5 conferences. 1-2 million people tuned into watch the XFL. 2 million viewers for an FCS playoff game. (Stanley cup playoff average is 1.5 million). The biggest G5 names would draw way more than that. More interest because there would be rankings and also gambling. Football is king and by a wide margin.

March madness would be tough. All the gambling and brackets. The G5 would have to schedule half of their off weeks the first week. Then the other half the next. I’ll take my chances against hockey. Anything south of the Mason Dixon line is watching football. The masters biggest day by far is sunday. Though even Saturday would outdraw college football. But you can still have Thursday and Friday night games to yourself.


It’s in no way ideal. I’m just asking....if competing with the P5 is gonna ruin your athletic program is this a better move than going to the FCS? You stay above FCS status but drop below FBS status(which is kinda where we are if you’re honest with yourself)

Currently, the lead promotions on the NIU football Twitter site are future non-conference opponents beginning in 2021, and promoting the "Stack the Pack" for 2021.

https://twitter.com/NIU_Football

(07-19-2020 12:27 AM)IWokeUpLikeThis Wrote:  Fall weather is better than spring weather.
DeKalb Avg Temp
Mar 36 | Apr 48 | May 59
Nov 38 | Oct 51 | Sep 64
(The season would have to start in late February too)

Increased tv revenues are highly unlikely. Viewers in the spring are watching March Madness, The Masters, the Stanley Cup playoffs, and the NBA playoffs. The competition is less in the fall - just P5 college football plus MLB Playoffs (as NFL doesn’t conflict with college).

More importantly, tv deals are based on demand. The demand isn’t there to watch most G5 brands - no matter where it’s placed on the calendar. Demand to watch G5 brands doesn’t arrive until there’s a David vs Goliath pull, which wouldn’t exist with no P5’s to play.

Agree. The 2020 season is a writeoff. Lost over $1 million from Iowa etc., saved $400k with no URI game. MAC season too expensive by itself. So have a regular spring runup, "normal" 2021 season and hopefully a good one. Plan, build and do both well. A manufactured spring season isn't worth it.

Things like the masters, NHL and NBA are on one channel. You have cbs,nbc,abc,fox, ESPN and fox sports net ALL of which show college football in the fall simultaneously. There’s 20 million viewers on Saturday afternoon watching college football. Last years masters Saturday, the highest rated in a long time because of Tiger Woods, had 8 million. That’s 12 million viewers the other networks are salivating over. NBA playoffs get around 4-6 million. NHL playoffs does worse than most good college games. Those networks not showing golf or basketball would love to have top level G5 games to air. The only thing the G5 can’t compete with on TV is the P5 and NFL.

(07-19-2020 10:37 AM)Rabid Squirrel Wrote:  I’m pretty confident in an increase in TV revenue. No chance the networks don’t make new, better deals with all the G5 conferences. 1-2 million people tuned into watch the XFL. 2 million viewers for an FCS playoff game. (Stanley cup playoff average is 1.5 million). The biggest G5 names would draw way more than that. More interest because there would be rankings and also gambling. Football is king and by a wide margin.

March madness would be tough. All the gambling and brackets. The G5 would have to schedule half of their off weeks the first week. Then the other half the next. I’ll take my chances against hockey. Anything south of the Mason Dixon line is watching football. The masters biggest day by far is sunday. Though even Saturday would outdraw college football. But you can still have Thursday and Friday night games to yourself.

(07-19-2020 04:02 PM)Rabid Squirrel Wrote:  Things like the masters, NHL and NBA are on one channel. You have cbs,nbc,abc,fox, ESPN and fox sports net ALL of which show college football in the fall simultaneously. There’s 20 million viewers on Saturday afternoon watching college football. Last years masters Saturday, the highest rated in a long time because of Tiger Woods, had 8 million. That’s 12 million viewers the other networks are salivating over. NBA playoffs get around 4-6 million. NHL playoffs does worse than most good college games. Those networks not showing golf or basketball would love to have top level G5 games to air. The only thing the G5 can’t compete with on TV is the P5 and NFL.

NHL playoffs outdraw G5 football by quite a bit.

G5/FCS football produced 17 games in 2019 with 1M+ viewers.
https://www.sportsmediawatch.com/college...v-ratings/
2.95M - ABC 11/2 SMU/Memphis
2.88M - ABC 12/7 Memphis/Cincinnati
2.69M - ABC 1/11 NDSU/JMU
2.51M - ABC 11/29 Cincinnati/Memphis
1.99M - ABC 12/21 SMU/FAU
1.76M - ESPN 11/29 USF/UCF
1.74M - ESPN 12/14 NDSU/ISU
1.74M - ESPN 1/4 Tulane/Southern Miss
1.45M - ESPN 1/6 Louisiana/MiamiU
1.44M - ESPN 10/4 UCF/Cincinnati
1.38M - ESPN2 9/6 Marshall/Boise
1.36M - ESPN 1/3 Nevada/Ohio
1.29M - ESPN 12/30 WKU/WMU
1.25M - ESPN2 12/20 USU/Kent
1.18M - ESPN 11/9 Boise/Wyoming
1.15M - ESPN 12/23 UCF/Marshall
1.03M - ESPN 9/19 Houston/Tulane

Stanley Cup Playoffs highest rated game was 8.72M with an average of 1.5M in 87 games. Their 87-game average would’ve ranked 9th for all G5/FCS games throughout the entire season.

If you take the top 50 SCP/G5/FCS games from 2019, 42 were NHL Playoffs and 8 were G5/FCS games.

And that’s with the bulk of hockey being on NBCSN, a rarely accessed channel by the casual sports fan. If you flipped those hockey games to ESPN/2 and G5/FCS to NBCSN, that gap would escalate.

(07-19-2020 07:13 PM)IWokeUpLikeThis Wrote:  

(07-19-2020 10:37 AM)Rabid Squirrel Wrote:  I’m pretty confident in an increase in TV revenue. No chance the networks don’t make new, better deals with all the G5 conferences. 1-2 million people tuned into watch the XFL. 2 million viewers for an FCS playoff game. (Stanley cup playoff average is 1.5 million). The biggest G5 names would draw way more than that. More interest because there would be rankings and also gambling. Football is king and by a wide margin.

March madness would be tough. All the gambling and brackets. The G5 would have to schedule half of their off weeks the first week. Then the other half the next. I’ll take my chances against hockey. Anything south of the Mason Dixon line is watching football. The masters biggest day by far is sunday. Though even Saturday would outdraw college football. But you can still have Thursday and Friday night games to yourself.

(07-19-2020 04:02 PM)Rabid Squirrel Wrote:  Things like the masters, NHL and NBA are on one channel. You have cbs,nbc,abc,fox, ESPN and fox sports net ALL of which show college football in the fall simultaneously. There’s 20 million viewers on Saturday afternoon watching college football. Last years masters Saturday, the highest rated in a long time because of Tiger Woods, had 8 million. That’s 12 million viewers the other networks are salivating over. NBA playoffs get around 4-6 million. NHL playoffs does worse than most good college games. Those networks not showing golf or basketball would love to have top level G5 games to air. The only thing the G5 can’t compete with on TV is the P5 and NFL.

NHL playoffs outdraw G5 football by quite a bit.

G5/FCS football produced 17 games in 2019 with 1M+ viewers.
https://www.sportsmediawatch.com/college...v-ratings/
2.95M - ABC 11/2 SMU/Memphis
2.88M - ABC 12/7 Memphis/Cincinnati
2.69M - ABC 1/11 NDSU/JMU
2.51M - ABC 11/29 Cincinnati/Memphis
1.99M - ABC 12/21 SMU/FAU
1.76M - ESPN 11/29 USF/UCF
1.74M - ESPN 12/14 NDSU/ISU
1.74M - ESPN 1/4 Tulane/Southern Miss
1.45M - ESPN 1/6 Louisiana/MiamiU
1.44M - ESPN 10/4 UCF/Cincinnati
1.38M - ESPN2 9/6 Marshall/Boise
1.36M - ESPN 1/3 Nevada/Ohio
1.29M - ESPN 12/30 WKU/WMU
1.25M - ESPN2 12/20 USU/Kent
1.18M - ESPN 11/9 Boise/Wyoming
1.15M - ESPN 12/23 UCF/Marshall
1.03M - ESPN 9/19 Houston/Tulane

Stanley Cup Playoffs highest rated game was 8.72M with an average of 1.5M in 87 games. Their 87-game average would’ve ranked 9th for all G5/FCS games throughout the entire season.

If you take the top 50 SCP/G5/FCS games from 2019, 42 were NHL Playoffs and 8 were G5/FCS games.

And that’s with the bulk of hockey being on NBCSN, a rarely accessed channel by the casual sports fan. If you flipped those hockey games to ESPN/2 and G5/FCS to NBCSN, that gap would escalate.

You’re using G5 viewing when competing against the P5 season. The entire point is what happens to G5 viewing when you remove P5 competition.

(07-19-2020 12:27 AM)IWokeUpLikeThis Wrote:  Fall weather is better than spring weather.
DeKalb Avg Temp
Mar 36 | Apr 48 | May 59
Nov 38 | Oct 51 | Sep 64
(The season would have to start in late February too)

Increased tv revenues are highly unlikely. Viewers in the spring are watching March Madness, The Masters, the Stanley Cup playoffs, and the NBA playoffs. The competition is less in the fall - just P5 college football plus MLB Playoffs (as NFL doesn’t conflict with college).

More importantly, tv deals are based on demand. The demand isn’t there to watch most G5 brands - no matter where it’s placed on the calendar. Demand to watch G5 brands doesn’t arrive until there’s a David vs Goliath pull, which wouldn’t exist with no P5’s to play.

I don't disagree but baseball does it in early April and they have to hit balls w bats.

I'd rather go to a football game in February at beginning of season than nighttime game in Nov on Tuesday (or not have any football).

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

(07-19-2020 10:35 AM)Big Red Wrote:  

(07-19-2020 12:27 AM)IWokeUpLikeThis Wrote:  Fall weather is better than spring weather.
DeKalb Avg Temp
Mar 36 | Apr 48 | May 59
Nov 38 | Oct 51 | Sep 64
(The season would have to start in late February too)

Increased tv revenues are highly unlikely. Viewers in the spring are watching March Madness, The Masters, the Stanley Cup playoffs, and the NBA playoffs. The competition is less in the fall - just P5 college football plus MLB Playoffs (as NFL doesn’t conflict with college).

More importantly, tv deals are based on demand. The demand isn’t there to watch most G5 brands - no matter where it’s placed on the calendar. Demand to watch G5 brands doesn’t arrive until there’s a David vs Goliath pull, which wouldn’t exist with no P5’s to play.

Agreed. And regarding tv deals, G5 probably benefits by being lumped in with rest of the football universe in the fall. Break away from that and it just become a niche sport head-scratcher. As you noted, those months coincide with major sports finals (NCAA, NHL, NBA) but also the start up of MLB, NASCAR and, as you pointed out, the first major on the golf schedule. Typical/general sports fans are seasonally-minded and are in the mood to watch the season appropriate sport.

Not only that, but getting people out of the house in those early spring games would be brutal. I coached HS baseball in the Chicago area for a number of years and I can promise you, games in March and April are BRUTAL. In the fall, you go from warm temps to cool with a crispness in the air. In the spring, you are praying for it to warm up and because everything is just thawing out.

Go to an April game in Wrigley Field and you will 100% freeze your arse off.

Oh yeah, frozen field. I didnt think about that.

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

(07-20-2020 09:26 AM)Teamduh Wrote:  

(07-19-2020 10:35 AM)Big Red Wrote:  

(07-19-2020 12:27 AM)IWokeUpLikeThis Wrote:  Fall weather is better than spring weather.
DeKalb Avg Temp
Mar 36 | Apr 48 | May 59
Nov 38 | Oct 51 | Sep 64
(The season would have to start in late February too)

Increased tv revenues are highly unlikely. Viewers in the spring are watching March Madness, The Masters, the Stanley Cup playoffs, and the NBA playoffs. The competition is less in the fall - just P5 college football plus MLB Playoffs (as NFL doesn’t conflict with college).

More importantly, tv deals are based on demand. The demand isn’t there to watch most G5 brands - no matter where it’s placed on the calendar. Demand to watch G5 brands doesn’t arrive until there’s a David vs Goliath pull, which wouldn’t exist with no P5’s to play.

Agreed. And regarding tv deals, G5 probably benefits by being lumped in with rest of the football universe in the fall. Break away from that and it just become a niche sport head-scratcher. As you noted, those months coincide with major sports finals (NCAA, NHL, NBA) but also the start up of MLB, NASCAR and, as you pointed out, the first major on the golf schedule. Typical/general sports fans are seasonally-minded and are in the mood to watch the season appropriate sport.

Not only that, but getting people out of the house in those early spring games would be brutal. I coached HS baseball in the Chicago area for a number of years and I can promise you, games in March and April are BRUTAL. In the fall, you go from warm temps to cool with a crispness in the air. In the spring, you are praying for it to warm up and because everything is just thawing out.

Go to an April game in Wrigley Field and you will 100% freeze your arse off.

Oh yeah, frozen field. I didnt think about that.

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

Man I’ve had some cold games at wrigley. But I’ve always been stuck in the shade and always dressed for baseball, not football. Never worn a snowmobile suit to a cubs game. Maybe no one ever has. And while DeKalb is cold in its own right, that lake effect downtown is bone chilling.

This is a totally off-the-wall question (which will probably garner me some raspberries), but ... how much does Northern NOT spend if there is no 2020 football season, fall or spring?

An answer would no doubt be complicated, since you'd have to calculate the reduced ticket, vendor, etc., income. Then add-subtract the payouts (loss of $1.4 million for not playing Iowa and Maryland, saving $400k not playing URI). Then subtract the travel costs for road games. Then calculate the savings from reduced practices, wear and tear on equipment, etc. Blah, blah, blah through countless factors. Same for going the other way and calculating the cost of a season.

Then there are ongoing costs ... salaries/benefits, utilities, insurance, basic maintenance ... but those are there no matter what, even with pay cuts.

But in any case, I pose the question because the impacts of the Covid-19 crisis are 1) of course, the top priority of health, and 2) financial, both health-related and operational. If you DON'T do something, it has to be cheaper, imo.

Wouldn't it also be advantageous to use this "non-season" to make better plans for 2021? (Note the NIU football Twitter site is already promoting the FBS o-o-c games for 2021.) Why screw that up with an abbreviated spring season? To satisfy a dwindling fan base instead of planning to build that base? Just askin'.

(07-20-2020 02:19 PM)pvk75 Wrote:  This is a totally off-the-wall question (which will probably garner me some raspberries), but ... how much does Northern NOT spend if there is no 2020 football season, fall or spring?

An answer would no doubt be complicated, since you'd have to calculate the reduced ticket, vendor, etc., income. Then add-subtract the payouts (loss of $1.4 million for not playing Iowa and Maryland, saving $400k not playing URI). Then subtract the travel costs for road games. Then calculate the savings from reduced practices, wear and tear on equipment, etc. Blah, blah, blah through countless factors. Same for going the other way and calculating the cost of a season.

Then there are ongoing costs ... salaries/benefits, utilities, insurance, basic maintenance ... but those are there no matter what, even with pay cuts.

But in any case, I pose the question because the impacts of the Covid-19 crisis are 1) of course, the top priority of health, and 2) financial, both health-related and operational. If you DON'T do something, it has to be cheaper, imo.

Wouldn't it also be advantageous to use this "non-season" to make beter plans for 2021? (Note the NIU football Twitter site is already promoting the FBS o-o-c games for 2021.) Why screw that up with an abbreviated spring season? To satisfy a dwindling fan base instead of planning to build that base? Just askin'.

This is just a guess in my part, but I’d imagine on their balance sheet they’ve already invested a majority of the 2020 expenses. Then the season is suppose to recoupe much of that. So they will be stuck in the red for 2020.

Maybe that’s what the “red” and “black” chant really is about? Accounting! We could just yell “profit” - “loss”.

Clever. I like it.

Imo, much of the G5 is going to book red ink this year. The thought is to minimize it by not spending more than necessary, not jam a spring season on top of prep for 2021, and use the time to plan well for next fall. And what do you do if you prep the stadium or make travel arrangements and then have to cancel? More expense.

Just a thought ... how do you count a spring 2021 season as 2020, and not early 2021?