The unofficial online home for fans of the Old Dominion University Monarchs. Part of Collegiate Sports Nation (CSN).

(06-08-2021 08:27 AM)monarx Wrote:  

(06-08-2021 08:07 AM)AimHigher Wrote:  A 9am baseball game on ESPN2 has me thinking would we as fans be supportive of an ODU football game at 9am if it was on ESPN/ESPN2 before the P5 kickoff on national networks 11/noonish?

Id be there. I wouldnt want it all the time, but 1 game a year would be kind of fun.

breakfast tailgate then a game once a year could be cool.

(06-08-2021 08:33 AM)benny_t Wrote:  

(06-08-2021 08:27 AM)monarx Wrote:  

(06-08-2021 08:07 AM)AimHigher Wrote:  A 9am baseball game on ESPN2 has me thinking would we as fans be supportive of an ODU football game at 9am if it was on ESPN/ESPN2 before the P5 kickoff on national networks 11/noonish?

Id be there. I wouldnt want it all the time, but 1 game a year would be kind of fun.

breakfast tailgate then a game once a year could be cool.

If CUSA could sell it for conference games, Id be all about it. The game would still be on TV between 11 and Noon. Plenty of eyes to watch on a Sat morning. Id give it to ESPN for free if they'd show a CUSA game of the week at that time.

I know we wouldn't, as a coach, want to change anything at this point but Garriola looks like he's swinging out his shoes at each bat still. But the guys calling the game I think are right. He's just trying to rip it so hard.

(06-08-2021 09:09 AM)bit_9 Wrote:  I know we wouldn't, as a coach, want to change anything at this point but Garriola looks like he's swinging out his shoes at each bat still. But the guys calling the game I think are right. He's just trying to rip it so hard.

Ya may need another cup of coffee this is the football thread

(06-08-2021 09:19 AM)AimHigher Wrote:  

(06-08-2021 09:09 AM)bit_9 Wrote:  I know we wouldn't, as a coach, want to change anything at this point but Garriola looks like he's swinging out his shoes at each bat still. But the guys calling the game I think are right. He's just trying to rip it so hard.

Ya may need another cup of coffee this is the football thread

haha woops! Ya, I hadn't had but 1 in me. =]

Saw Lindys and Athlon previews today. Both had us picked dead last in the East and Athlon had us dead last overall in the conference one place behind UTEP. The bottom half of the conference is predicted to suck again so MTSU and FIU aren’t predicted to be way far ahead of us. They were very discouraging write ups unfortunately. Made it sound like beating Hampton is our best bet and 3 wins would be a stunning step in the right direction.

(06-10-2021 04:11 PM)monarx Wrote:  Saw Lindys and Athlon previews today. Both had us picked dead last in the East and Athlon had us dead last overall in the conference one place behind UTEP. The bottom half of the conference is predicted to suck again so MTSU and FIU aren’t predicted to be way far ahead of us. They were very discouraging write ups unfortunately. Made it sound like beating Hampton is our best bet and 3 wins would be a stunning step in the right direction.

What would you expect? They go by returning staters (and talent) and they have little knowledge of our past couple recruiting classes to even have an accurate judge of what we have on the roster.

We probably are not ready to compete for the top of the conference but this team will be much better than those magazines believe. There is some serious talent in spots.

It’s better than where it was but still not good enough. Should be the 10 highest ranked champions. Then the next 6. This basically makes it a P6 or P7. I can’t see a situation where the CUSA, MAC or SB champ is ranked higher than the MW or AAC anytime soon. And if this does eliminate up to 10 bowls, that actually makes it harder for G5’s to get in a bowl.

(06-10-2021 07:28 PM)monarx Wrote:  It’s better than where it was but still not good enough. Should be the 10 highest ranked champions. Then the next 6. This basically makes it a P6 or P7. I can’t see a situation where the CUSA, MAC or SB champ is ranked higher than the MW or AAC anytime soon. And if this does eliminate up to 10 bowls, that actually makes it harder for G5’s to get in a bowl.

I dunno, Coastal Carolina nearly finished higher than Cincinnati this past year. Northern Illinois and Western Michigan got into NY6 bowls. And it may be a long shot, but it's better than the no shot the G5s had before. I'm not too broken up about the loss of bowls tbh. They're fun to watch during the holidays and I'm not going to say no to a bid if one happens but there's only so much mileage you can get out of a trip to the FlexSeal Bowl to play a rando MAC or Sun Belt team that you can schedule for a home-and-home whenever you want.

I think I was in the 7th or 8th grade when I memorized the matchups and bowls for every single game that particular year.

There were 17.

Now there's 40. Too many crap teams are being put out there to try to make the bowl association money, where the schools take the hit on the losses and put the players at risk for what? A bowl game "reward" in December in Idaho or something? I'll still believe FCS has the playoff model that's worked, for the most part, for years.

Players generally love bowl games, FWIW. Not all bowls are equal but some get really cool vacations with some financial perks.

If there weren't 40 bowls you'd never see a G5 in a bowl. They'd rather have a 6-6 SEC team than an undefeated CUSA or even AAC team. I agree with you about the FCS playoff having it right. And they could have moved to that with this playoff expansion. Problem is they wont give outbids to all the conferences. 10 outbids, and 6 at larges is the best way.

Maybe we get a bid to the Pungo Snowball Festival Bowl.

(06-14-2021 10:27 AM)Gilesfan Wrote:  Players generally love bowl games, FWIW. Not all bowls are equal but some get really cool vacations with some financial perks.

I've been railing against the college sports caste system for as long as I can remember. If you're team is 6-6 (and if they are, chances are you're not generating the revenue enough to turn a profit), why should those folks be rewarded when underfunded athletes who end up with better seasons don't get afforded the same opportunity.

Yes, I know it's more rhetorical and rooted in supply and demand, but most of these bowls are just bad economic decisions from the get-go. Required ticket buys, the promise of added exposure with does absolutely nothing for admissions or applications (despite the claim). Great, you guys had a mediocre season, go celebrate. If only all athletes were treated the same by their school. Is the 13-5-1 soccer team at State U. getting that benefit if they have a bad tournament and miss out on the postseason? Not quite apples to apples (ok, not at all) but football players at these middling schools are already getting more than their peers.

Then again, college sports isn't about students or fairness, it's about finances.

(06-14-2021 10:37 AM)The Doctor Is In Wrote:  Maybe we get a bid to the Pungo Snowball Festival Bowl.

I think a "Virginia Beach Bowl" would actually be a great idea. Have the game at ODU, but have VB be the "title sponsor". Have the teams stay at the oceanfront, maybe a parade down Atlantic Avenue, a VB Bowl 10k, Concert at the park by King Neptune with fireworks afterward.

or

If we had a corporate sponsor who didnt care about the politics of where it was located, call it the Chesapeake Bay Bowl, and have the parade, race, concert and fireworks in downtown Norfolk and the teams stay there. I just think the VB bowl sounds better, and they could benefit from the tourism and name recognition that comes with a title sponsorship. And teams would be more excited about going to the "beach". Imagine, Navy vs. ODU, or ECU vs. Charlotte... could be a lot of fun.

(06-14-2021 10:48 AM)monarx Wrote:  If we had a corporate sponsor who didnt care about the politics of where it was located,

... Maybe Elk Grove Village would be interested.

Its like women complaing about WNBA pay. If people care about the sport...and there is more money involved, obviously its different.

(06-14-2021 10:48 AM)monarx Wrote:  

(06-14-2021 10:37 AM)The Doctor Is In Wrote:  Maybe we get a bid to the Pungo Snowball Festival Bowl.

I think a "Virginia Beach Bowl" would actually be a great idea. Have the game at ODU, but have VB be the "title sponsor". Have the teams stay at the oceanfront, maybe a parade down Atlantic Avenue, a VB Bowl 10k, Concert at the park by King Neptune with fireworks afterward.

or

If we had a corporate sponsor who didnt care about the politics of where it was located, call it the Chesapeake Bay Bowl, and have the parade, race, concert and fireworks in downtown Norfolk and the teams stay there. I just think the VB bowl sounds better, and they could benefit from the tourism and name recognition that comes with a title sponsorship. And teams would be more excited about going to the "beach". Imagine, Navy vs. ODU, or ECU vs. Charlotte... could be a lot of fun.

I think the City of Norfolk would throw a fit if the nationally televised "Virginia Beach Bowl" was in Norfolk, VA.

(06-14-2021 12:04 PM)Gilesfan Wrote:  Its like women complaing about WNBA pay. If people care about the sport...and there is more money involved, obviously its different.

Kind of a side tangent, but it goes to that statement.

There's greater issues at play in college sports than simply free market. Why do some schools make sports "non-ticketed events?" It's not that there's no market for it, but it can be attributed to a number of things - all of which fall on the school.

ODU has always done a poor job in promoting its sports, whether it be staffing issues or lethargy, laziness or apathy. If you put zero effort into marketing (like they did with baseball during my time as a student), you get few fans and when the next marketing person comes in and sees there's few fans, they put no effort into changing it and the potential fans aren't engaged on the social platforms, because those platforms are overrun with the sports the school "cares about." More butts in the seats means zilch for the school or the staffer charged to making schedule books or now, cool social graphics etc.

It's a chicken-egg. No one went to baseball games because they were never promoted or marketed worth a crap. Biggest crowd I saw in my tenure was the whole worst couch on campus contest (we entered one we'd set on fire. Some frat won by stapling natty light boxes to theirs).

I lived a block from The Bud for years, there was zip (maybe 100 average). It's not like there's no fans or people don't care - but it's more work to actual put in an effort to make these events spectator friendly than just to chalk them up as non-revenue.

Too many places, including Norfolk, view non-revenue as non-marketing.