Beyond the P5 universities are moving up and investing in programs.

It's all for one reason, to achieve a pop in alumni support/interest. Pack the stadium , bring the donors in, build the facilities. All of which doesn't happen if a program is not winning.

Step 1: Move to a conference with a national TV deal. Without a consistent TV presence alumni won't carve out time for it.

Step 2: Hire a million dollar coach. Its very important from an alumni pride perspective have a coach that is well paid. A coach who is a good recruiter with charisma.

Step 3: Dominate your conference. This makes you the darling of your conference TV package, amplifying the impact of success.

Its not so much about what conference so long that you are in one, IMO.

Well, you've solved it. I don't know why your not a AD somewhere.

/sarcasm

Incredible insight! I've emailed your post to Sean T. Frazier!

I can list a few schools who have done it.

Football (start drawing 25k+)
Boise State-WAC
Arkansas St-SBC
Marshall-MAC
Cincinnati-Big East

Basketball (start drawing 8k+)
Xavier-A10
VCU-A10
Wichita St-MVC

The combination of winning + increased TV presence did it for them.

It didn't take TV dollars, joining a tougher conference or upgrading academics to do it.

There are schools out there like JMU who thought it was too good for the SBC or UMass who left their football conference to preserve membership in a slightly stronger basketball conference have set their football programs back by doing so.

Coastal by moving to the SBC has put itself in the game. Will it work for Valpo in the Missouri Valley? Conference might be too diluted. But for both institutions those were really important moves.

The move of Xavier, Creighton, Butler to the Big East didn't do as much for their brands as dominating the A10, MVC and Horizon did. Gonzaga built a huge brand in the WCC.

If your an EKU or Belmont you've got to be looking at getting up and out of the OVC to something that will give you national exposure IMO.

(09-04-2017 02:20 AM)IWokeUpLikeThis Wrote:  Incredible insight! I've emailed your post to Sean T. Frazier!

The output of the football pop comes in two forms.

1) 25k plus football attendance with ticket prices pushing $50 dollars.
2) A large roll out of facilities.

This is in comparison to the high FCS level where its 12k/$12 dollar tickets.

NIU's home tickets are $30 for BC, EIU and Kent St. With surcharges and fees maybe $35 dollars. They've rolled out some nice facilities to follow up the winning.

If they don't win this season they need to bring in a higher profile coach to justify higher ticket prices.

Or do what SDSU does, have a fireworks show after the game.

(09-04-2017 12:01 AM)Kittonhead Wrote:  Beyond the P5 universities are moving up and investing in programs.

It's all for one reason, to achieve a pop in alumni support/interest. Pack the stadium , bring the donors in, build the facilities. All of which doesn't happen if a program is not winning.

Step 1: Move to a conference with a national TV deal. Without a consistent TV presence alumni won't carve out time for it.

Step 2: Hire a million dollar coach. Its very important from an alumni pride perspective have a coach that is well paid. A coach who is a good recruiter with charisma.

Step 3: Dominate your conference. This makes you the darling of your conference TV package, amplifying the impact of success.

Its not so much about what conference so long that you are in one, IMO.

Since it's said so much around here, I'll bring it up in this thread too: don't forget to account for CTE, but I guess that would apply more for schools wanting to move up as opposed to just getting an attendance pop

College athletic teams have to be invited to join a conference. Unless you have pics of a conference commissioner and half of the presidents naked and helping a sheep over a fence, this isn't a choice.

You do know coaches are going to cash those checks right?

All types of non-P5 situations.

-Programs stuck in conferences like the Southland or OVC which have to move into a conference with a national TV deal.

-Then you have programs in conferences with a national TV deal that can't compete in those conferences at a level required to draw interest.

-Another category are programs that have already had the pop like Southern Miss or Marshall. They are playing to maintain what they've built through the years.

-Finally programs still on the way up. There are quite a few of those in the SBC and CUSA. We don't know who the powers will be in those conferences 5, 10 years down the road.

Actually, the OP forgot the true first step.

If you're private, just raise tuition which your department receives additional monies, but parents won't know the line item for intercollegiate athletics, or if you're public, generate a campus campaign for the students to raise their own (or future students) fees. Starting with $500+ in free money per each student goes a long way to prolong the con.

You have to build a culture of support.

Very few schools actually have that and even some P5 schools do not.

(09-04-2017 01:47 PM)HeartOfDixie Wrote:  You have to build a culture of support.

Very few schools actually have that and even some P5 schools do not.

This.

Take Notre Dame. They're successful because of their 12,929 students, there's always at least 12,800 of them in the stadium on game day.

(09-04-2017 01:39 PM)Renandpat Wrote:  Actually, the OP forgot the true first step.

If you're private, just raise tuition which your department receives additional monies, but parents won't know the line item for intercollegiate athletics, or if you're public, generate a campus campaign for the students to raise their own (or future students) fees. Starting with $500+ in free money per each student goes a long way to prolong the con.

That can be a sub step.

(09-04-2017 05:32 PM)Captain Bearcat Wrote:  

(09-04-2017 01:47 PM)HeartOfDixie Wrote:  You have to build a culture of support.

Very few schools actually have that and even some P5 schools do not.

This.

Take Notre Dame. They're successful because of their 12,929 students, there's always at least 12,800 of them in the stadium on game day.

For them its a major honor to be at Notre Dame.

Top of all the catholic schools.

(09-04-2017 12:01 AM)Kittonhead Wrote:  Beyond the P5 universities are moving up and investing in programs.

It's all for one reason, to achieve a pop in alumni support/interest. Pack the stadium , bring the donors in, build the facilities. All of which doesn't happen if a program is not winning.

Step 1: Move to a conference with a national TV deal. Without a consistent TV presence alumni won't carve out time for it.

Step 2: Hire a million dollar coach. Its very important from an alumni pride perspective have a coach that is well paid. A coach who is a good recruiter with charisma.

Step 3: Dominate your conference. This makes you the darling of your conference TV package, amplifying the impact of success.

Its not so much about what conference so long that you are in one, IMO.

forgot the most important. Don;t let ESPN screw you into weekday night games on a regular basis

Is it worth chasing those ghost fans in today's CFB reality? Forget increased butts-in-seat attendance in G5 and definitely forget expanding bleachers to 40,000 plus nowadays, that ship has sailed. Those peeps are long gone and aren't going to show up outside of some pretty specific circumstances.

Now the best way for a G5 school to have a prominent program would be to A) Win, obviously and B) make sure the TV experience is top notch.

As in making sure the sidelines look good, the stands are crammed along the TV sight-lines, the social media is strong, make sure there are multiple camera angles, research assistants for the broadcasters, and state of the art broadcast facilities. And so on and so forth.

I think a NFL-level TV experience broadcast for a G5 program is the next natural step. For instance, MACtion: make it a broadcast laboratory with Twitter comments and instagram posts and Facebook likes and 4K HD and EyeVision cameras and SkyCam.

All of that is cheaper, and probably more effective, than trying to putt butts-in-seats.