He has Toledo at 44, so I expect NIU to be following somewhere close to that since most previews just group the MAC schools all together.
Interesting quote from the preview "Toledo has the brightest future of any MAC school, NIU included". Hard to argue with that considering what they have done with scheduling and the impact its had on recruiting.

http://cdn.viglink.com/api/click?format=...5815997078

Preseason projections are fun but at the end of the day they are meaningless. The MAC West is going to be a war this year with NIU, Toledo and BSU in the mix.

With the talent level in the MAC it is a shame that many shools including NIU do not sell out all or most of their home games. Maybe Frazier has some tricks up his sleeve that can help boost attendance. He is coming in with a great attitude and he does have a quality program to sell.

(07-23-2013 09:51 AM)bikechuck Wrote:  Preseason projections are fun but at the end of the day they are meaningless. The MAC West is going to be a war this year with NIU, Toledo and BSU in the mix.

With the talent level in the MAC it is a shame that many shools including NIU do not sell out all or most of their home games. Maybe Frazier has some tricks up his sleeve that can help boost attendance. He is coming in with a great attitude and he does have a quality program to sell.

It will take some time, the ESPN deal severely handicaps what he can do along with the scheduling disasters of Compher. He is behind the 8 ball much like Coach Montgomery, but I agree, if anyone can turn it around, it sounds like he can given enough time.

(07-23-2013 09:57 AM)MaddDawgz02 Wrote:  

(07-23-2013 09:51 AM)bikechuck Wrote:  Preseason projections are fun but at the end of the day they are meaningless. The MAC West is going to be a war this year with NIU, Toledo and BSU in the mix.

With the talent level in the MAC it is a shame that many shools including NIU do not sell out all or most of their home games. Maybe Frazier has some tricks up his sleeve that can help boost attendance. He is coming in with a great attitude and he does have a quality program to sell.

It will take some time, the ESPN deal severely handicaps what he can do along with the scheduling disasters of Compher. He is behind the 8 ball much like Coach Montgomery, but I agree, if anyone can turn it around, it sounds like he can given enough time.

The attendance problems are disappointingly consistent across all of the schools in the MAC conference. Until and unless the students and the alums from these schools begin attending the games in bigger numbers the conference will continue to struggle.

The problem is bigger than Jeff Compher. I agree he did not improve our scheduling but he had to operate within a budget and it is not an easy equation. Perhaps Frazier will be able to leverage some of his relationships and improve things going forward. I do agree with you that it will take time and it will not improve overnight.

(07-23-2013 12:29 PM)bikechuck Wrote:  

(07-23-2013 09:57 AM)MaddDawgz02 Wrote:  

(07-23-2013 09:51 AM)bikechuck Wrote:  Preseason projections are fun but at the end of the day they are meaningless. The MAC West is going to be a war this year with NIU, Toledo and BSU in the mix.

With the talent level in the MAC it is a shame that many shools including NIU do not sell out all or most of their home games. Maybe Frazier has some tricks up his sleeve that can help boost attendance. He is coming in with a great attitude and he does have a quality program to sell.

It will take some time, the ESPN deal severely handicaps what he can do along with the scheduling disasters of Compher. He is behind the 8 ball much like Coach Montgomery, but I agree, if anyone can turn it around, it sounds like he can given enough time.

The attendance problems are disappointingly consistent across all of the schools in the MAC conference. Until and unless the students and the alums from these schools begin attending the games in bigger numbers the conference will continue to struggle.

The problem is bigger than Jeff Compher. I agree he did not improve our scheduling but he had to operate within a budget and it is not an easy equation. Perhaps Frazier will be able to leverage some of his relationships and improve things going forward. I do agree with you that it will take time and it will not improve overnight.

Compher is the main reason though we are in this situation. Like its taking Montgomery to dig out of the disaster he was left by Patton, we cant expect Frazier to undo all the damage Compher caused to our fanbase overnight.

Love this line: "Simply put, the Rockets are a tremendous team with the misfortune of spending the past three seasons in a division with one of the top non-automatically qualifying programs in the country."