They both are incredible achievements and unbelievable but which is bigger.
NIU football in the Orange Bowl or Loyola in the Final Four?
Which one do more people know about and which one will elevate their schools recognition more?

(03-24-2018 07:55 PM)dekalb222 Wrote:  They both are incredible achievements and unbelievable but which is bigger.
NIU football in the Orange Bowl or Loyola in the Final Four?
Which one do more people know about and which one will elevate their schools recognition more?

NIU in the Orange Bowl, but people forget.....quickly. Had we gone to a BCS bowl the next year, meaning we didn't wet the bed against Bowling Green, it might have been different.
Being seen as a giant slayer one time is one thing, but twice in two years....people take notice. Even Herb the Terd would have had to shut his mouth.

(03-24-2018 07:55 PM)dekalb222 Wrote:  They both are incredible achievements and unbelievable but which is bigger.
NIU football in the Orange Bowl or Loyola in the Final Four?
Which one do more people know about and which one will elevate their schools recognition more?

I always wonder what the final data showed on NIU at the Orange Bowl? Everybody talked about the free advertising but show me the numbers.
Did freshman applications go up?
Freshman class count go up?
Incoming test scores go up?
Season ticket increase?
Attendance increase the next season?
Alumni contributions go up?
Recruiting better players?
Was there a long term jump in any data?

(03-24-2018 07:55 PM)dekalb222 Wrote:  They both are incredible achievements and unbelievable but which is bigger.
NIU football in the Orange Bowl or Loyola in the Final Four?
Which one do more people know about and which one will elevate their schools recognition more?

I would rank the Final 4 higher than the Orange Bowl. They’re actually in contention for a National Championship! They’re road is a much tougher one than Football. We were lucky to get the Orange Bowl bid. Loyola has clawed their way into the Final 4. I would love to see a the NCAA expand the Football playoff to the top 16.

The final four is a way bigger achievement. Loyola had to go through much higher ranked teams to get there. Winning the MAC and MACC and going to the Orange bowl is like getting to the final four by beating the 8, 16 and 13 seeds.

I’d go with Final 4 for the simple fact everyone remembers George Mason, VCU, Butler, Wichita, and now Loyola. Whereas, it’s hit or miss whether everyone remembers who crashed the BCS party. Everyone remembers Boise and UCF, but no one remembers Hawai’i.

Final Four - 3 weeks of TV time on all 4 networks.
We got 1% of that and some was negative.

http://bit.ly/2tUVPh4

(03-24-2018 11:36 PM)dekalb222 Wrote:  http://bit.ly/2tUVPh4

39.000.000 bucks for MVVC. Nice run.

Final Four - 1) Because they have been getting positive cinderella coverage for 2 weeks now nonstop, NIU was a few days around the OB 2) NCAA cinderellas are embraced by the sports media, NIU was mostly **** on as a team that didnt belong. 3) Even non-sports fans make brackets and follow the tournament until they get knocked out, only sports fans watch the bowl games unless you have a connection to the school.

However, I do recall a stat showing the NIU game being the most watched bowl game in Chicago by far. So Chicagoland definitely paid attention.

(03-25-2018 09:25 AM)NIU75 Wrote:  

(03-24-2018 11:36 PM)dekalb222 Wrote:  http://bit.ly/2tUVPh4

39.000.000 bucks for MVVC. Nice run.

Too early in the morning for math.
It should be $6,552,000

(03-24-2018 07:55 PM)dekalb222 Wrote:  They both are incredible achievements and unbelievable but which is bigger.
NIU football in the Orange Bowl or Loyola in the Final Four?
Which one do more people know about and which one will elevate their schools recognition more?

Loyola final 4

(03-25-2018 09:55 AM)NIUSox10 Wrote:  Final Four - 1) Because they have been getting positive cinderella coverage for 2 weeks now nonstop, NIU was a few days around the OB 2) NCAA cinderellas are embraced by the sports media, NIU was mostly **** on as a team that didnt belong. 3) Even non-sports fans make brackets and follow the tournament until they get knocked out, only sports fans watch the bowl games unless you have a connection to the school.

However, I do recall a stat showing the NIU game being the most watched bowl game in Chicago by far. So Chicagoland definitely paid attention.

Agreed. Final 4 for sure.

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Excellent question. For me, hard to say. Obviously I'm thinking about it from a WMU/Cotton vantage point. And it depends a lot upon whether Loyola's journey ends here. If they win the whole enchilada, then that decision is an easy one.

For the sake of argument, let's just say Loyola loses to scUM.

In the basketball post-season, Loyola's exposure has stretched out over three weeks of nationally-broadcast games against a steady stream of 'name' opponents (offering deep coverage in a variety of different cities). Everyone with a bracket is aware of your presence.

However, in the football regular season, there was a 12-week buildup starting with the pair of B1G wins, creeping up the weekly Top 25 rankings, hosting ESPN game day, etc.

Difficult to personally say whether I'd trade in our Cotton Bowl season with a hypothetical Final Four. Now had we beat Wisconsin, it'd make my decision easier (football). So that said, I'd take UCF's football journey over Loyola's Final Four journey. *Again assuming Loyola's path ends at Michigan.

As others have said, I think it's final four, but I'd say mostly because to get to the final four there are SEVERAL memorable moments in a short span that just build and build upon another.

I don't think there was as much negative press as folks on here like to remember about NIU, sure there were the Kirk's and others, but the vast amount of coverage, especially local, was positive, we just tend to remember the negative because we're so close to it. Also as Motown said, the result makes a big difference, if we beat FSU, that changes things quite a bit. And I assume the same if Loyola beats U of M.

(03-24-2018 07:55 PM)dekalb222 Wrote:  They both are incredible achievements and unbelievable but which is bigger.
NIU football in the Orange Bowl or Loyola in the Final Four?
Which one do more people know about and which one will elevate their schools recognition more?

Final Four...I think anytime a team has a chance to win an NCAA championship is much better than a chance at winning an Orange Bowl title. Until there is a real playoff, not sure Alabama, Clemson, big ten team, and other SEC powerhouse in football, then basketball playoff is still much better.

Agree on the Final Four. Plus, there's the very real factor of Sister Jean becoming a national cult figure, which adds greatly to the positive national publicity.


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(03-26-2018 11:49 AM)17Huskies Wrote:  As others have said, I think it's final four, but I'd say mostly because to get to the final four there are SEVERAL memorable moments in a short span that just build and build upon another.

I don't think there was as much negative press as folks on here like to remember about NIU, sure there were the Kirk's and others, but the vast amount of coverage, especially local, was positive, we just tend to remember the negative because we're so close to it. Also as Motown said, the result makes a big difference, if we beat FSU, that changes things quite a bit. And I assume the same if Loyola beats U of M.

NIU were obviously the underdogs in the Orange Bowl, and people like underdogs. I can tell you that every college football fan in Florida that wasn't an FSU fan was rooting for NIU. They wanted the Criminoles to be humiliated by little ol' NIU.

Final 4.

People love to root for a Cinderella.
People hate the G5 teams that crash the party.

Final Four, for one year at least.

Next year on ESPN "Loyola of Maryland, located on the South Side of Chicago, had a great NCAA run a while ago under their leading scorer Hank Gathers."