I've been saying this for two years now, hopefully Benson will work it out. This guy makes a great point for my stance.

(02-21-2012 08:11 PM)Miami (Oh) Yeah ! Wrote:  Are any of these non-aq conference TV deals of any real significance anyways?

I think the average non-aq budget is around $25 million. So all other things equal, CUSA in the past (no way to tell if new TV deal is more or less) earned $1 million more per school than lets say the Sun Belt or MAC. If you factor in extra travel that a CUSA team must spend out of that $1 million, does that extra few hundred thousand provide any real significance toward your program? Sun Belt school has $25 million budget and CUSA school has $25.5 million budget?

An AQ school will make $20 Million extra, that is significant and allows them to build their programs in a significant way.

But all the non-aq conference schools are making peanuts in comparison and even in comparison to themselves. I for one am happy with the extra exposure the MAC ESPN deal gets us. I live in California and because the MAC mid-week games are the only show in town on Wednesday night and ESPN is a basic cable channel (no need for a sports package like CBSSports) I know that every sports bar and casual football fan will be watching. And I can say because of this, more people on the west coast are getting to know MAC teams than years past without the deal.

Given the choice of seeing my team play on an expanded cable sports package cable channel on Saturday when everybody else is focused on Stanford vs Southern Cal on a mainstream TV channel or having my team being the only show in town on a mainstream TV channel, you can keep the couple extra thousand dollars and I'll take the increased ratings.

It's good to have those midweek games to be the center of attention, I'm not sure I want to be a midweek league. Saturdays are we're college footballs heart is, that's when the fan and student experience really is at its best. I don't know what the happy median would be.

A poster brought up a good counter-point. I really don't want to attend games on a weeknight

it's certainly not about the fans in the stands, its about building a national brand. no one team would play every game mid-week, I suspect everyone would play a couple that way. the loss of a couple of Saturday evening events would be replaced with unmatched exposure we currently don't have by playing on the same day as everyone else.

we have GOT to get our product out there guys. don't be so selfish as to ignore the benfits of this because you want the traditional gameday experience every home game. I love Troy in the fall, but I'd gladly give it up for two Troy games on ESPN national coverage. I still get to see my team, just from the couch...AND I share that game with America.

I would be all for it teams would play what one Weekday game a year? People see things like this and start going oh no then I won't be able to drive down for the weekend but miss the big picture.

TV deals are what gets you money. When you have money you can start having the Troy vs Alabama State games at home instead of Troy @ #1 Florida with SEC refs for the first or second game of the season.

And heck it's more than likely to be a huge draw in teams like Troy's case because your not having a game at the same time Alabama or Auburn is playing which does kill our attendance. And it's not just us just watch how UNT does if they start playing games the same time as Big 12 TCU now.

Maybe after awhile, but in South's case where we're still building community support I'd rather have as many weekend games as possible. Just my opinion as it relates to USA. After a school feels like it has reached its potential with respect to that then sure, branch out nationally, but if you can't get the home crowd to give a $#%!, you aren't going to get Jethro B. Footballfan to either.

The proof is there, just look at all the bowls with empty stadiums. No crowd as no excitement. And here's the real kicker. Guys, we are talking about kids playing this game, for our enjoyment. It's more fun for them to play in front of a full house, it's more fun for the students, it's more fun for the fans.

Midweek games yes, but on a limited amount.

OK, well South is in a different position than the rest of us. Yall are still building your program, the rest of us have been playing for some time. Let's see what the fans of those programs think.

I like South I don't really see you guys as a rival opposed to just another conference mate. But your missing the big picture still. It's understandable that south is building up the community support however, TV money gives you the ability to play more games at home and schedule ones that can be easier to win.

But here is how you cheat to get support from the community. The chance of you guys having a sellout conference games is very, very slim. The way you boost attendance is by having AQ teams come into town. Those are the kind of games that excites the city and draws large crowds. Your Sun Belt attendance will most likely be between 13-20k unless your having a really good season. So playing one conference game on a weekday is not going to hurt it any way.

Now I can see South having some well attended games like when ULL or Troy comes into town or a really good conference opponent. But ESPN televise Non AQ conference games on weekdays not early season OOC games unless they are schools like USC or Texas.

Sure, one is fine. Not sure if I misunderstood the OP but it sounded like he meant to imply most of our games should be weekday games. We already have played a game or two a season on week nights.

Man, when Troy travels to Mobile...you can expect a massive crowd. It'll be an easy roadtrip (and win ) for our fans.

We've already got schedules for Navy and Miss State to come to Mobile. When those hit the schedule over the next few years our attendance will get a boost.

Don't get me wrong, I understand the need for our conference to have midweek games, doesn't mean I have to like it.. I just don't want it to become norm for any of our teams.

The biggest way to get notice, quicker then being on ESPN on a thur night is to win your non-conference games. When we, as a conference, start doing that, we will gain the attention of a larger audience.

Navy and Miss State, really? We have them coming to Troy THIS season. that's pretty cool we both have 'em on the home schedule.

Yes I agree

(02-21-2012 11:35 PM)Burn the Horse Wrote:  Man, when Troy travels to Mobile...you can expect a massive crowd. It'll be an easy roadtrip (and win ) for our fans.

I expect a good crowd for this game. It'll should be exciting with some good energy.

I agree Usajags.

(02-21-2012 11:34 PM)Tiguar Wrote:  Sure, one is fine. Not sure if I misunderstood the OP but it sounded like he meant to imply most of our games should be weekday games. We already have played a game or two a season on week nights.

See that I would hate also but this is the beauty of conferences. Were looking at what 10-14 football members in this conference say we signed a weekday deal with ESPN and NBCSPORTS. ESPN already has a Mac deal so we would get maybe four games? It could be like Troy vs ULL on Espn one week. FAU vs FIU on ESPN. UTSA vs UNT on NBC Sports. South vs Bowling green on ESPN like towards the end of the season.

No team has more than one weekend game a season and the teams alternate every season. Gives a huge boost in conference revenue.

(02-21-2012 11:49 PM)Usajags Wrote:  

(02-21-2012 11:35 PM)Burn the Horse Wrote:  Man, when Troy travels to Mobile...you can expect a massive crowd. It'll be an easy roadtrip (and win ) for our fans.

I expect a good crowd for this game. It'll should be exciting with some good energy.

I hope we can take UAB off the schedule and start a in state rivalry with you guys instead. The UAB game just does not have the spark to be considered a rivalry.

That's another thing, if the NCAA was really interested in leveling the playing field, and this would really piss off the big schools, set a max of 6 home games a year, with 7 every third year. That would force the bigger schools to do more away games and may result in better non conference games throughout college football because some schools will not want to travel to some smaller schools. But should result in bringing in some of the bigger schools.

(02-21-2012 11:54 PM)TrojanCampaign Wrote:  

(02-21-2012 11:49 PM)Usajags Wrote:  

(02-21-2012 11:35 PM)Burn the Horse Wrote:  Man, when Troy travels to Mobile...you can expect a massive crowd. It'll be an easy roadtrip (and win ) for our fans.

I expect a good crowd for this game. It'll should be exciting with some good energy.

I hope we can take UAB off the schedule and start a in state rivalry with you guys instead. The UAB game just does not have the spark to be considered a rivalry.

End the season with this game with the conference on the line and the rivalry will be born.