(09-18-2019 08:39 AM)bearcatdp Wrote: (09-18-2019 08:25 AM)OKIcat Wrote: (09-18-2019 07:19 AM)TubaCat Wrote: MHT is always good for a laugh. I go for the schadenfreude, but stay for the Chuck Martin nicknames.
Also, almost every thread has a reference to the 2017 game when coach Chuck forgot to call a timeout. That game truly disturbed them.
Yep it's kind of fun to surf over to MHT. If I were a donor to athletics over there, I would be outraged at the state of the both men's basketball and football the past decade plus. Obviously, the MAC has lots of limitations and is no place to sustain greatness in either sport. But the Redhawks can't really even make noise within the conference these days. In football, they were once pretty dominant but recent success belongs to Buffalo, Northern IL, Toledo and Ohio.
Other than a visit from UC or Ohio, do they even get 10,000 fans in the stands? To me, their prospects are bad, and worsening, for competing in FBS football long term.
Why do you think this is? Is there a resource disparity amongst MAC teams? This is a shame because I really like the rivalry and wish Miami were at the top of the MAC to make these games mean more. I wish we were at the top of the AAC too but it shows how far Miami has fallen over the past decade+.
A few theories:
1) Miami is a hockey school.
2) Location is a problem. Most alums don't live in or around Oxford, and as we know it is a pain in the arse to even drive there for most people. As a result, this affects crowd size at their football/basketball games.
3) Too many Ohio FBS programs and too many DI basketball programs. On top of that, NKU now has a better basketball program and nicer facilities than Miami.
4) Ohio and Toledo have done very well for a few reasons. One, they have a lot of fan and alumni support. Ohio does not have a competing university in their backyard (ala Kent/Akron/YSU and Miami having to compete with us).
5) Just spit-balling here, but one has to wonder if the fact that half of Miami's student population being from out of state is a reason for student apathy. Most of those kids grew up not knowing where Miami University was, much less care about their athletics.
6) Re: Basketball, Millett Hall is a dump. Wall World was 20 years ago. Ron Harper was even longer ago. Too much competition: Ohio MAC schools, UC, Wright State, UD, Ohio State, NKU, Ball State, etc.
7) Kind of ties in with some other points, but our rise in FB may have hit them harder than any of the other MAC schools. If you are a local recruit, do you want to play in front of your friends and family at Nippert or do you want to play in front of 5K people? Moreover, UC has the better TV deal.