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The conference realignment topic will only intensify as we get closer to 2023 when a bunch of TV contracts expire. I have posted hypothetical best case conferences for ODU but I have also thought what does ODU need to do to position itself for the next round of conference realignment? In order to establish itself for a potential bump up to the AAC (highly unlikely) or solidify its position for a good new regional conference, ODU needs to:

1. Compete and win on the field. Easier said than done but its a must. I think basketball is a solid program and should be an attractive addition to any conference. They need to get over the hump and back to the NCAA tourney but they are solid 20 win team every year. Football is headed in the wrong direction. BW and WS need to right the ship or make some changes way before we get to conference realignment time.

2. Facilities - Our facilities are OK, the Ted is great and we have a brand new basketball practice facility which I think is perfect for us. But football is behind even with a new weight room. We will be improving with the new stadium but I would like to see the north end zone done before 2023 or sooner. I think for all other sports we are pretty good except for baseball. Baseball could really use a new stadium.

3. Develop rivalries - ODU needs to develop rivalries. I think rivalries are key to the next conference because it brings out more interest, engagement and passion from the fans. ODU vs JMU will be a rivalry in football but its not there in basketball. At this point ODU has not developed any rivalries with current C-USA members.

4. Get the students back - Chandler and co need to get the students back into the picture. They bring the atmosphere and we need that back badly for football and basketball.

5. Get more money - always could use more donations and money for everything

(09-12-2018 10:05 AM)cmett003 Wrote:  The conference realignment topic will only intensify as we get closer to 2023 when a bunch of TV contracts expire. I have posted hypothetical best case conferences for ODU but I have also thought what does ODU need to do to position itself for the next round of conference realignment? In order to establish itself for a potential bump up to the AAC (highly unlikely) or solidify its position for a good new regional conference, ODU needs to:

1. Compete and win on the field. Easier said than done but its a must. I think basketball is a solid program and should be an attractive addition to any conference. They need to get over the hump and back to the NCAA tourney but they are solid 20 win team every year. Football is headed in the wrong direction. BW and WS need to right the ship or make some changes way before we get to conference realignment time.

2. Facilities - Our facilities are OK, the Ted is great and we have a brand new basketball practice facility which I think is perfect for us. But football is behind even with a new weight room. We will be improving with the new stadium but I would like to see the north end zone done before 2023 or sooner. I think for all other sports we are pretty good except for baseball. Baseball could really use a new stadium.

3. Develop rivalries - ODU needs to develop rivalries. I think rivalries are key to the next conference because it brings out more interest, engagement and passion from the fans. ODU vs JMU will be a rivalry in football but its not there in basketball. At this point ODU has not developed any rivalries with current C-USA members.

4. Get the students back - Chandler and co need to get the students back into the picture. They bring the atmosphere and we need that back badly for football and basketball.

5. Get more money - always could use more donations and money for

If you are saying JMU is not a basketball rivalry because JMU has sucked for a long time I can't blame you. This would/will change. JMU is neck deep into a $92M basketball arena, United Bank and Trust Center.

Our current coach, former JMU player that is well liked is being given a chance to make JMU basketball respectable again (big season coming up) but if it does not happen, JMU will hire a splashy coach that can bring good recruits fast to get the new arena off to a solid start.

(09-12-2018 10:28 AM)Purplehazed Wrote:  If you are saying JMU is not a basketball rivalry because JMU has sucked for a long time I can't blame you. This would/will change. JMU is neck deep into a $92M basketball arena, United Bank and Trust Center.

Our current coach, former JMU player that is well liked is being given a chance to make JMU basketball respectable again (big season coming up) but if it does not happen, JMU will hire a splashy coach that can bring good recruits fast to get the new arena off to a solid start.

I'll believe it when I see it. The last time y'all didn't suck consistently was a decade before this year's high school seniors were born?

And why would y'all suddenly make a splashy hire when you have been spending cheaply on coaches for a long time? The faciility will make it easier to get a decent coach, but you still gotta compensate them competitively.

(09-12-2018 10:28 AM)Purplehazed Wrote:  

(09-12-2018 10:05 AM)cmett003 Wrote:  The conference realignment topic will only intensify as we get closer to 2023 when a bunch of TV contracts expire. I have posted hypothetical best case conferences for ODU but I have also thought what does ODU need to do to position itself for the next round of conference realignment? In order to establish itself for a potential bump up to the AAC (highly unlikely) or solidify its position for a good new regional conference, ODU needs to:

1. Compete and win on the field. Easier said than done but its a must. I think basketball is a solid program and should be an attractive addition to any conference. They need to get over the hump and back to the NCAA tourney but they are solid 20 win team every year. Football is headed in the wrong direction. BW and WS need to right the ship or make some changes way before we get to conference realignment time.

2. Facilities - Our facilities are OK, the Ted is great and we have a brand new basketball practice facility which I think is perfect for us. But football is behind even with a new weight room. We will be improving with the new stadium but I would like to see the north end zone done before 2023 or sooner. I think for all other sports we are pretty good except for baseball. Baseball could really use a new stadium.

3. Develop rivalries - ODU needs to develop rivalries. I think rivalries are key to the next conference because it brings out more interest, engagement and passion from the fans. ODU vs JMU will be a rivalry in football but its not there in basketball. At this point ODU has not developed any rivalries with current C-USA members.

4. Get the students back - Chandler and co need to get the students back into the picture. They bring the atmosphere and we need that back badly for football and basketball.

5. Get more money - always could use more donations and money for

If you are saying JMU is not a basketball rivalry because JMU has sucked for a long time I can't blame you. This would/will change. JMU is neck deep into a $92M basketball arena, United Bank and Trust Center.

Our current coach, former JMU player that is well liked is being given a chance to make JMU basketball respectable again (big season coming up) but if it does not happen, JMU will hire a splashy coach that can bring good recruits fast to get the new arena off to a solid start.

Ok... good luck with that.

(09-12-2018 10:28 AM)Purplehazed Wrote:  

(09-12-2018 10:05 AM)cmett003 Wrote:  The conference realignment topic will only intensify as we get closer to 2023 when a bunch of TV contracts expire. I have posted hypothetical best case conferences for ODU but I have also thought what does ODU need to do to position itself for the next round of conference realignment? In order to establish itself for a potential bump up to the AAC (highly unlikely) or solidify its position for a good new regional conference, ODU needs to:

1. Compete and win on the field. Easier said than done but its a must. I think basketball is a solid program and should be an attractive addition to any conference. They need to get over the hump and back to the NCAA tourney but they are solid 20 win team every year. Football is headed in the wrong direction. BW and WS need to right the ship or make some changes way before we get to conference realignment time.

2. Facilities - Our facilities are OK, the Ted is great and we have a brand new basketball practice facility which I think is perfect for us. But football is behind even with a new weight room. We will be improving with the new stadium but I would like to see the north end zone done before 2023 or sooner. I think for all other sports we are pretty good except for baseball. Baseball could really use a new stadium.

3. Develop rivalries - ODU needs to develop rivalries. I think rivalries are key to the next conference because it brings out more interest, engagement and passion from the fans. ODU vs JMU will be a rivalry in football but its not there in basketball. At this point ODU has not developed any rivalries with current C-USA members.

4. Get the students back - Chandler and co need to get the students back into the picture. They bring the atmosphere and we need that back badly for football and basketball.

5. Get more money - always could use more donations and money for

If you are saying JMU is not a basketball rivalry because JMU has sucked for a long time I can't blame you. This would/will change. JMU is neck deep into a $92M basketball arena, United Bank and Trust Center.

Our current coach, former JMU player that is well liked is being given a chance to make JMU basketball respectable again (big season coming up) but if it does not happen, JMU will hire a splashy coach that can bring good recruits fast to get the new arena off to a solid start.

IF....all of that happens you might be worthy but I just don't know yet. I cant ever see JMU being a basketball school. If you all bump up how are you going to handle dropping your subsidized money from over 80% to 55%. A 25% hit to you athletic budget should be your biggest worry. If you don't get donations up you will be hurting for cash for that new coach.

I certainly can see JMU being a basketball school if they want to be. They were quite good during the Lefty years and the guy before that too. I still cant believe they get to spend $92 million on a basketball arena, while we are scraping for pennies under the couch cushions to get a $65 million 22,000 seat football stadium. We would have the football stadium we need if were allowed to spend equal to what JMU is. In any case, they'll improve with the new facilities, but can they be good at both at the same time? That seems to be hard to do for a non P5.

The obsession with conference realignment is absolutely mind boggling

(09-12-2018 10:57 AM)monarx Wrote:  I certainly can see JMU being a basketball school if they want to be. They were quite good during the Lefty years and the guy before that too. I still cant believe they get to spend $92 million on a basketball arena, while we are scraping for pennies under the couch cushions to get a $65 million 22,000 seat football stadium. We would have the football stadium we need if were allowed to spend equal to what JMU is. In any case, they'll improve with the new facilities, but can they be good at both at the same time? That seems to be hard to do for a non P5.

It's really hard to do both when you're paying the lowest bball salary in the CAA.

ODU definitely needs to start focusing on the current student population. I heard the average age of the ODU fan is.....well it's older than me and that's pretty damn old. Your current students are your future donors and season ticket holders. You have to get them hooked now as students so they will want to come back to campus and watch football.

(09-12-2018 10:57 AM)monarx Wrote:  I certainly can see JMU being a basketball school if they want to be. They were quite good during the Lefty years and the guy before that too. I still cant believe they get to spend $92 million on a basketball arena, while we are scraping for pennies under the couch cushions to get a $65 million 22,000 seat football stadium. We would have the football stadium we need if were allowed to spend equal to what JMU is. In any case, they'll improve with the new facilities, but can they be good at both at the same time? That seems to be hard to do for a non P5.

See bold above = Charlie King, the VP of Ops likes to build things and is good at getting his way, some claim he is the president. I am glad he is on my side.

I hear all of you on coaches salaries ect. I don't know the answers but I do know this, JMU is so fiscally conservative that I see no way they spend on facilities and go limp on coaches. They have stood up for the football coaches and they have stood up for the COA. They are anything but reckless.

(09-12-2018 11:00 AM)GotLabradors Wrote:  ODU definitely needs to start focusing on the current student population. I heard the average age of the ODU fan is.....well it's older than me and that's pretty damn old. Your current students are your future donors and season ticket holders. You have to get them hooked now as students so they will want to come back to campus and watch football.

Well my son is 9 and still an ODU basketball fan, albeit not as emotional as he used to be, but he has already lost interest in ODU football. He looks up the score and that is it. Being both competitive and creating a competition driven and emotional environment is a must. It probably has to be done organically... not sure there is much the administration can do. They can get them to games, but they can't take their cell phones away. You watch a major game on TV and everyone is standing the whole game, sometimes jumping, and phones are only out to snap selfies and not being stared at. I don't think the age of the fans is the problem. 9 times out of 10, my section full of 35-60 year olds is about 10 times louder than the students.

(09-12-2018 11:00 AM)GotLabradors Wrote:  ODU definitely needs to start focusing on the current student population. I heard the average age of the ODU fan is.....well it's older than me and that's pretty damn old. Your current students are your future donors and season ticket holders. You have to get them hooked now as students so they will want to come back to campus and watch football.

Strange that what got me hooked was the move from CAA to C-USA. I graduated in 2011 so really before TH. I went to the games when I was a student but didnt really care until we went to the FCS playoffs and then on to FBS.

(09-12-2018 10:57 AM)odu09 Wrote:  The obsession with conference realignment is absolutely mind boggling

Its not that mind boggling, its a big deal and changes college sports.

(09-12-2018 11:11 AM)EverRespect Wrote:  

(09-12-2018 11:00 AM)GotLabradors Wrote:  ODU definitely needs to start focusing on the current student population. I heard the average age of the ODU fan is.....well it's older than me and that's pretty damn old. Your current students are your future donors and season ticket holders. You have to get them hooked now as students so they will want to come back to campus and watch football.

Well my son is 9 and still an ODU basketball fan, albeit not as emotional as he used to be, but he has already lost interest in ODU football. He looks up the score and that is it. Being both competitive and creating a competition driven and emotional environment is a must. It probably has to be done organically... not sure there is much the administration can do. They can get them to games, but they can't take their cell phones away. You watch a major game on TV and everyone is standing the whole game, sometimes jumping, and phones are only out to snap selfies and not being stared at. I don't think the age of the fans is the problem. 9 times out of 10, my section full of 35-60 year olds is about 10 times louder than the students.

*WHat the TV shows is people standing and "into the game." It doesn't pan to the ones that aren't. I've gone to a lot of major college games, the interest just isn't what it used to be. Yeah, the majors still bring a **** ton of people in, but attendance is slowly decreasing. A lot of the fanbase (ours being a big problem) is they go to party and there happens to be a game going on.

(09-12-2018 11:47 AM)Gilesfan Wrote:  A lot of the fanbase (ours being a big problem) is they go to party and there happens to be a game going on.

Agreed on pretty much everything here. But prefer the folks who pay to party than those who don't show up at all. WKU and MT have that issue.

(09-12-2018 11:47 AM)Gilesfan Wrote:  

(09-12-2018 11:11 AM)EverRespect Wrote:  

(09-12-2018 11:00 AM)GotLabradors Wrote:  ODU definitely needs to start focusing on the current student population. I heard the average age of the ODU fan is.....well it's older than me and that's pretty damn old. Your current students are your future donors and season ticket holders. You have to get them hooked now as students so they will want to come back to campus and watch football.

Well my son is 9 and still an ODU basketball fan, albeit not as emotional as he used to be, but he has already lost interest in ODU football. He looks up the score and that is it. Being both competitive and creating a competition driven and emotional environment is a must. It probably has to be done organically... not sure there is much the administration can do. They can get them to games, but they can't take their cell phones away. You watch a major game on TV and everyone is standing the whole game, sometimes jumping, and phones are only out to snap selfies and not being stared at. I don't think the age of the fans is the problem. 9 times out of 10, my section full of 35-60 year olds is about 10 times louder than the students.

*WHat the TV shows is people standing and "into the game." It doesn't pan to the ones that aren't. I've gone to a lot of major college games, the interest just isn't what it used to be. Yeah, the majors still bring a **** ton of people in, but attendance is slowly decreasing. A lot of the fanbase (ours being a big problem) is they go to party and there happens to be a game going on.

I don't know, I went to our game at VCU 2 years ago and it didn't seem like there was many people who weren't "into the game". Their crowd got almost as loud over a routine layup in the middle of the 1st half as ours do on a buzzer beater.

Our fan base used to go to party (think jean vest guy and his crew). If we could just get there again, that would be great. Not sure what that would take. Winning helps, but we were good enough last year that we should have attracted better and louder crowds. Probably need some repeatable processes along with committed leadership among the student led organizations, such as the frats, where they party before the game, get liquored up, and start pushing boundaries.

I know I'm not supposed to say that, but that's what leads to better student sections and home court advantages where it is working. I feel that when they started cracking down on that about 10 years ago, that is when our atmosphere took a turn for the worse. Ideally, we would want the atmosphere without the cursing, but that was better than this. You aren't going to get a student section baiting opposing coaches into technical fouls with free ice cream and cake. That will get the student section that will spend 2 hours on their phone playing Minecraft and Fortnite while the game is going on.

(09-12-2018 11:00 AM)GotLabradors Wrote:  ODU definitely needs to start focusing on the current student population. I heard the average age of the ODU fan is.....well it's older than me and that's pretty damn old. Your current students are your future donors and season ticket holders. You have to get them hooked now as students so they will want to come back to campus and watch football.

It has to be a concern for the athletic department, and if its not, it should be. If you look around the stands for both football and basketball, the fans are in large part 40+ and caucasian. ODU has been quite diverse for decades, and had football for 10 years now. I would think we would see a lot more people in their 20s and 30s than we do, and would expect the fanbase to be much more diverse by now too. Perhaps ODU did better student engagement in the 80s and 90s than we've done in the last 10-20 years? We certainly won a lot of games and converted a lot of new fans during that time too. If something doesn't change soon, ODUs donor pool and fan base may dry up over the next 20-30 years.

(09-12-2018 12:13 PM)monarx Wrote:  

(09-12-2018 11:00 AM)GotLabradors Wrote:  ODU definitely needs to start focusing on the current student population. I heard the average age of the ODU fan is.....well it's older than me and that's pretty damn old. Your current students are your future donors and season ticket holders. You have to get them hooked now as students so they will want to come back to campus and watch football.

It has to be a concern for the athletic department, and if its not, it should be. If you look around the stands for both football and basketball, the fans are in large part 40+ and caucasian. ODU has been quite diverse for decades, and had football for 10 years now. I would think we would see a lot more people in their 20s and 30s than we do, and would expect the fanbase to be much more diverse by now too. Perhaps ODU did better student engagement in the 80s and 90s than we've done in the last 10-20 years? We certainly won a lot of games and converted a lot of new fans during that time too. If something doesn't change soon, ODUs donor pool and fan base may dry up over the next 20-30 years.

Overall culture has changed a bit too.

1. We used to love competition and look up to athletes. Now we are glued to our internet devices and look at the jocks as "toxic masculinity" and "rape culture". It isn't as bad with basketball, but the game of football itself is currently under attack.

2. Women are also getting over 60% of the college degrees. I am too far removed from being an ODU student at his point, but when I was there, the men pretty much decided what was going on in a given night an the women showed up. Perhaps that has flipped.

So much hyperbole. Older fans have more disposable income, therefore they're more likely to have the additional funds to buy season tickets.

(09-12-2018 12:21 PM)EverRespect Wrote:  

(09-12-2018 12:13 PM)monarx Wrote:  

(09-12-2018 11:00 AM)GotLabradors Wrote:  ODU definitely needs to start focusing on the current student population. I heard the average age of the ODU fan is.....well it's older than me and that's pretty damn old. Your current students are your future donors and season ticket holders. You have to get them hooked now as students so they will want to come back to campus and watch football.

It has to be a concern for the athletic department, and if its not, it should be. If you look around the stands for both football and basketball, the fans are in large part 40+ and caucasian. ODU has been quite diverse for decades, and had football for 10 years now. I would think we would see a lot more people in their 20s and 30s than we do, and would expect the fanbase to be much more diverse by now too. Perhaps ODU did better student engagement in the 80s and 90s than we've done in the last 10-20 years? We certainly won a lot of games and converted a lot of new fans during that time too. If something doesn't change soon, ODUs donor pool and fan base may dry up over the next 20-30 years.

Overall culture has changed a bit too.

1. We used to love competition and look up to athletes. Now we are glued to our internet devices and look at the jocks as "toxic masculinity" and "rape culture". It isn't as bad with basketball, but the game of football itself is currently under attack.

2. Women are also getting over 60% of the college degrees. I am too far removed from being an ODU student at his point, but when I was there, the men pretty much decided what was going on in a given night an the women showed up. Perhaps that has flipped.

Check out OldRow ODU and Barstool ODU, or go to the Edge, and you'll know the answer to your second question.