(05-25-2022 06:06 PM)BewareThePhog Wrote:  One thing that I think works in the Big Ten’s favor is history and size. As Frank has noted elsewhere, Big Ten alumni often move outside their footprint. In addition to that, many of those schools are in fact BIG - so even a small number in terms of percentage adds up in absolute numbers compared to smaller schools.

And it’s also a multi-generational thing. My own alma mater and primary rooting interest is Kansas - but my secondary school is Michigan State, despite having never lived in the state myself.

I do think a few prominent brands also pick up other fans due to prominence and success, notable alumni, and/or cultural influences. Miami of FL football for example drew a LOT of interest in the 80s and 90s. Duke basketball may be the brand many love to hate, but like the Dallas Cowboys it doesn’t matter to the networks if people tune in to see them win or tune in hoping to see them lose. We’ll see how that goes with K’s retirement.

This is a basic but often underrated point.

Even compared to the public schools in the other P5 leagues, the Big Ten schools are massive.

11 out of the 14 Big Ten schools have enrollment sizes of over 40,000.

In contrast, only 3 of the current 14 SEC schools meet that mark. They'll have a fourth when Texas joins.

Only 1 ACC school (Florida State) has over 40,000 enrollment.

The Pac-12 has 5 schools that meet that metric.

The new Big 12 will have 4 schools that meet that mark (with 3 of them being the new members of UCF, Cincinnati and Houston).

When you add in the fact that Big Ten grads have a higher propensity to move out-of-state along with simply having a lot more of them, there's a particularly noticeable Big Ten diaspora across the country.

As applied to how this impacts realignment and TV values, I think the Big Ten has a touch less intensity of fandom on average within its home footprint compared to the SEC, but where the Big Ten makes up for it is that it has a more national distribution of alums and fans outside of its home region (particularly in large metro markets).

(05-24-2022 11:25 AM)Mav Wrote:  Omaha - Alums very rarely leave the city itself and most go on to become Jayskers, where they cheer for Husker football and Creighton basketball. Students and locals show up for hockey games but not much else. The few fans they do get tend to be hipsterish, unlike the more salt-of-the-earth Husker fans or bougie Creighton fans.

Nebraska - Still huge outside of Omaha, big but aging in Omaha. They had fans in western Iowa but those are almost all replaced by the Hawkeyes now. The fans they have in Omaha trend 40+ and more socially conservative. A couple decades of underperforming and an aloof recruiting attitude towards the city have alienated a lot of younger fans.

NIU - Townies in Dekalb/Sycamore but not much else. The western suburbs of Chicago are more about Notre Dame/Purdue/Illinois/Michigan/Iowa, Rockford's more into Wisconsin, and the area's much more interested in pro sports than college.

The dreaded Jaysker fan. There is also a variety that roots for Nebraska football and Kansas basketball.

On the Big Ten diaspora theme ...

In Nashville, I see far more more folks wearing Big Ten gear than I saw while living in Chicago folks wearing SEC gear. To be fair, I lived in Chicago on and off from 1987 to 1993, so there may be more of an "SEC vibe" in the Windy City now.

One of my nephews just finished his first year as a student at the University of Southern California. He says (based on general observation) the Big Ten influence in Los Angeles is stronger than the SEC influence.

Bottom line: Big Ten grads/fans are everywhere — seemingly much more so than SEC grads/fans.

(05-26-2022 12:08 PM)bill dazzle Wrote:  On the Big Ten diaspora theme ...

In Nashville, I see far more more folks wearing Big Ten gear than I saw while living in Chicago folks wearing SEC gear. To be fair, I lived in Chicago on and off from 1987 to 1993, so there may be more of an "SEC vibe" in the Windy City now.

One of my nephews just finished his first year as a student at the University of Southern California. He says (based on general observation) the Big Ten influence in Los Angeles is stronger than the SEC influence.

Bottom line: Big Ten grads/fans are everywhere — seemingly much more so than SEC grads/fans.

You can see it reflected in the Big Ten's bowl deals where they purposely cover every corner of the country: Pasadena and San Francisco on the West Coast; Phoenix and Las Vegas in the Southwest; Nashville and Charlotte in the Southeast; Miami, Orlando and Tampa in Florida; NYC on the East Coast; and Detroit in its home Midwestern footprint.

There's little-to-no SEC vibe in Chicago. There are a fair amount of Missouri students from and alums that live here, so that's school-specific, but it's still not comparable to what you'd see with most of the out-of-state Big Ten schools. (I'd say the Mizzou gear is about as prevalent as Minnesota gear around town - it's not rare, but it's not ubiquitous, either. In contrast, Michigan, Michigan State, Iowa, Indiana, Purdue, Ohio State and Wisconsin gear are all pretty much inescapable, much less Notre Dame or Illinois gear.) As with anywhere, you'll come across Florida, Alabama and Kentucky gear in particular from time to time, but really no more than you'd see the gear of national brand name schools like UNC, Duke and USC. The ACC and old Big 8 schools probably have more of a presence here than the SEC schools.

Now, there are a lot of Chicago area students that have been heading to Alabama in particular over the past decade, but that isn't really translating into a more widespread adoption of Alabama support beyond that specific student group or the fact that Bama is a national football brand name. Vandy also interestingly generally draws more students from the State of Illinois compared to any other state besides Tennessee - that's a super hot school for people from here that may have otherwise targeted the Ivy League, Northwestern or University of Chicago in the past.

our fanbase is made of anyone who loves freedom, buxom women and/or equivalent dude, beauty, delicious beer, mountains and fresh air. If you are a fan of those things, why you're an Appalachian man/woman. If you don't like Appalachian you can't be a fan of any of these things.

(05-25-2022 09:48 PM)Kit-Cat Wrote:  80% of Ohio alums think Ohio has a bad FB team and that they've always had a bad FB team. The Solich years may have never happened. 20% that do care will wield discretionary power over their support. The locals are fat and happy. They have nothing else to do but to go to Bobcat games. Forget going to Cincinnati or Columbus for a game with these gas prices. For those within 30-45 minutes its easy entertainment. These same people have 3-4 kids so they end up buying 5-6 season tickets. Athens also benefits from warmer, sunnier fall weather than other MAC programs up on the Great Lakes.

There's no doubt that OU has a much more loyal and energetic fan base than pre-Solich, one bad season won't kill support for Bobcat football. Two or three will start eating into it however. If you think OU is immune from a downturn in fan interest after prolonged losing then look at Miami - our average attendance in 2003 was higher than OU's all-time record, look at our last ~15 years for how losing changed things. I don't think we'll see frequent <10K crowds at Peden anytime soon, but 3-9 with a MAC schedule just doesn't maintain a fan base no matter how convenient or well-priced.

(05-26-2022 12:36 PM)Frank the Tank Wrote:  Now, there are a lot of Chicago area students that have been heading to Alabama in particular over the past decade, but that isn't really translating into a more widespread adoption of Alabama support beyond that specific student group or the fact that Bama is a national football brand name. Vandy also interestingly generally draws more students from the State of Illinois compared to any other state besides Tennessee - that's a super hot school for people from here that may have otherwise targeted the Ivy League, Northwestern or University of Chicago in the past.

I'm guessing that Alabama hasn't seen a big uptick in fan support around Chicago partially due to where their alums go to work after graduation. I imagine some return home, but with the southern economy/demography growing so much I'd speculate that most companies recruiting out of Tuscaloosa are hiring for jobs in Atlanta, Birmingham, etc. As such, they and their families don't "import" their fandom back to Chicago very often, unlike those who grow up in Chicago but come back after spending four years in Madison, Columbus, Ann Arbor, etc.

(05-26-2022 02:03 PM)Love and Honor Wrote:  

(05-25-2022 09:48 PM)Kit-Cat Wrote:  80% of Ohio alums think Ohio has a bad FB team and that they've always had a bad FB team. The Solich years may have never happened. 20% that do care will wield discretionary power over their support. The locals are fat and happy. They have nothing else to do but to go to Bobcat games. Forget going to Cincinnati or Columbus for a game with these gas prices. For those within 30-45 minutes its easy entertainment. These same people have 3-4 kids so they end up buying 5-6 season tickets. Athens also benefits from warmer, sunnier fall weather than other MAC programs up on the Great Lakes.

There's no doubt that OU has a much more loyal and energetic fan base than pre-Solich, one bad season won't kill support for Bobcat football. Two or three will start eating into it however. If you think OU is immune from a downturn in fan interest after prolonged losing then look at Miami - our average attendance in 2003 was higher than OU's all-time record, look at our last ~15 years for how losing changed things. I don't think we'll see frequent <10K crowds at Peden anytime soon, but 3-9 with a MAC schedule just doesn't maintain a fan base no matter how convenient or well-priced.

When you have a low socioeconomic base of support they don't have an alternative if they want to watch live FB. Ohio St. is 90 miles. Marshall is like 86 miles. WVU probably 150 miles. Forget it with high gas prices.

The well-to-do supporters care about the state of the program but that is only 10% of the crowd.

Students have stayed quite loyal to FB.

(05-26-2022 02:20 PM)Kit-Cat Wrote:  

(05-26-2022 02:03 PM)Love and Honor Wrote:  

(05-25-2022 09:48 PM)Kit-Cat Wrote:  80% of Ohio alums think Ohio has a bad FB team and that they've always had a bad FB team. The Solich years may have never happened. 20% that do care will wield discretionary power over their support. The locals are fat and happy. They have nothing else to do but to go to Bobcat games. Forget going to Cincinnati or Columbus for a game with these gas prices. For those within 30-45 minutes its easy entertainment. These same people have 3-4 kids so they end up buying 5-6 season tickets. Athens also benefits from warmer, sunnier fall weather than other MAC programs up on the Great Lakes.

There's no doubt that OU has a much more loyal and energetic fan base than pre-Solich, one bad season won't kill support for Bobcat football. Two or three will start eating into it however. If you think OU is immune from a downturn in fan interest after prolonged losing then look at Miami - our average attendance in 2003 was higher than OU's all-time record, look at our last ~15 years for how losing changed things. I don't think we'll see frequent <10K crowds at Peden anytime soon, but 3-9 with a MAC schedule just doesn't maintain a fan base no matter how convenient or well-priced.

When you have a low socioeconomic base of support they don't have an alternative if they want to watch live FB. Ohio St. is 90 miles. Marshall is like 86 miles. WVU probably 150 miles. Forget it with high gas prices.

The well-to-do supporters care about the state of the program but that is only 10% of the crowd.

Students have stayed quite loyal to FB.

It's a lot easier for Ohio alums to drive in from out of towns than it is for Miami alums. Its a pain in the neck to get to Oxford, even if you live in Greater Cincinnati or Dayton.

There are a lot of Miami alums living in Greater Cincinnati who are now UC fans. Several of them are on this board. It all started with the Bob Huggins basketball era and worked its way over to football during Mark Dantonio and Brian Kelly days. Ohio does not have that dynamic in their geographic footprint.

(05-26-2022 02:57 PM)CliftonAve Wrote:  

(05-26-2022 02:20 PM)Kit-Cat Wrote:  

(05-26-2022 02:03 PM)Love and Honor Wrote:  

(05-25-2022 09:48 PM)Kit-Cat Wrote:  80% of Ohio alums think Ohio has a bad FB team and that they've always had a bad FB team. The Solich years may have never happened. 20% that do care will wield discretionary power over their support. The locals are fat and happy. They have nothing else to do but to go to Bobcat games. Forget going to Cincinnati or Columbus for a game with these gas prices. For those within 30-45 minutes its easy entertainment. These same people have 3-4 kids so they end up buying 5-6 season tickets. Athens also benefits from warmer, sunnier fall weather than other MAC programs up on the Great Lakes.

There's no doubt that OU has a much more loyal and energetic fan base than pre-Solich, one bad season won't kill support for Bobcat football. Two or three will start eating into it however. If you think OU is immune from a downturn in fan interest after prolonged losing then look at Miami - our average attendance in 2003 was higher than OU's all-time record, look at our last ~15 years for how losing changed things. I don't think we'll see frequent <10K crowds at Peden anytime soon, but 3-9 with a MAC schedule just doesn't maintain a fan base no matter how convenient or well-priced.

When you have a low socioeconomic base of support they don't have an alternative if they want to watch live FB. Ohio St. is 90 miles. Marshall is like 86 miles. WVU probably 150 miles. Forget it with high gas prices.

The well-to-do supporters care about the state of the program but that is only 10% of the crowd.

Students have stayed quite loyal to FB.

It's a lot easier for Ohio alums to drive in from out of towns than it is for Miami alums. Its a pain in the neck to get to Oxford, even if you live in Greater Cincinnati or Dayton.

There are a lot of Miami alums living in Greater Cincinnati who are now UC fans. Several of them are on this board. It all started with the Bob Huggins basketball era and worked its way over to football during Mark Dantonio and Brian Kelly days. Ohio does not have that dynamic in their geographic footprint.

We have fans that went to smaller colleges in the region.

I can't think of a fairweather from another FBS program. Unless they are part of Ohio faculty.

Mainly people from the area and alumni. We did get "lucky" and attracted a lot of outside eyes from our movie

While not fans, we have name recognition and attract viewers when we get the chance to be on national TV, which will be more likely and more often now that we're out of cusa

Washington:

UW is the biggest University on the west coast with over 45,000 (approx. 32,000 undergrads) students. I would also classify us as a very diverse/international school. Nearly half of the student population is from a minority group, little more than 15% are international students and over 20% are from out of state. We have over 250,000 (400,000+ total) alumni that live outside of the state with the largest amount still on the west coast in Oregon and California.

As far as the fans in the stands, I would say it's somewhere in the neighborhood of 60/40. 60 grads/alums 40 friends/Tshirts. UW's biggest rivals for eyeballs are the pro sports teams in town, mainly the Seattle Seahawks. As anyone who has lived on the left coast will tell you, fans are fickle here. They will follow winners with the fire of a 1000 suns, but if you're average they turn the channel or don't show up to games.

Annoying side note, those Tshirts who follow UW football root for Gonzaga basketball

I have degrees from UT-Dallas (Economics), Northeastern (Political Science) and Penn State (MBA).

I don’t keep up with anything UTD and Northeastern related. The Comets play in Div III and it’ll stay that way for the foreseeable future. The student demographics (East and South Asian, international students, commuter school, etc) is not there to support Div I athletics. UTD is a powerhouse in chess or at least it used to be that way when I graduated. Northeastern hockey was fun to watch at Matthews Arena especially when the Huskies played BU. Other than that I rarely attended any events at NU because I was in my mid to late 20s and felt I overdrew the college experience plus Boston had lots to offer rather than hanging out with college kids. Penn State is where I realized the power of a true P5 powerhouse and the prestige it carries. I’m not going to lie, I wear PSU gear more often than UTEP gear and it’s the only diploma I have hanged in my house and office. But I’ll never give up on UTEP. One I had the best two years of my college life and two because that school has so much potential and I don’t think people in El Paso realize that. Unlike the vast majority of G5’s, UTEP’s struggles are internal not external.

Attended UTEP my freshman and sophomore years then transferred to UTD because my family needed me back in DFW. I can say based on my experience there, most locals are automatic UTEP fans at the time they’re born. It’s not rare to find people in El Paso who attended P5 schools and still keep their allegiance to UTEP. You see UTEP gear everywhere and the local media covers the Miners like I see P5 schools getting covered in their markets. I remember local commercials from car dealerships to restaurants to retailers saying “Go Miners” at the end. It’s mostly a blue collar fan base and I’d say about 80% Hispanic. The student body is from El Paso County (pop. 900k) and about 2k students commute daily from Juarez. There’s a strong alumni base in Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Austin, Phoenix, Denver and Southern California.

Not a lot of people care about Northeastern sports outside hockey up there. Loads of international students and the co-op factor.

Even after they've been close to NCAA bids most of the past decade they struggle to get four figures for games. Their health protocols are very strict also, they banned fans the minute the Omicron outbreak started in mid December and didn't bring them back till halfway through conference play. It didn't really matter much, they have like 500 diehards, maybe a few dozen students, and the Boston alumni groups of all the CAA schools.

That's their crowd. Out of the 13 CAA schools they probably have the smallest or 2nd smallest fan base. Even Drexel, which is the 6th most popular school in Philly is bigger.

(05-26-2022 02:20 PM)Kit-Cat Wrote:  

(05-26-2022 02:03 PM)Love and Honor Wrote:  

(05-25-2022 09:48 PM)Kit-Cat Wrote:  80% of Ohio alums think Ohio has a bad FB team and that they've always had a bad FB team. The Solich years may have never happened. 20% that do care will wield discretionary power over their support. The locals are fat and happy. They have nothing else to do but to go to Bobcat games. Forget going to Cincinnati or Columbus for a game with these gas prices. For those within 30-45 minutes its easy entertainment. These same people have 3-4 kids so they end up buying 5-6 season tickets. Athens also benefits from warmer, sunnier fall weather than other MAC programs up on the Great Lakes.

There's no doubt that OU has a much more loyal and energetic fan base than pre-Solich, one bad season won't kill support for Bobcat football. Two or three will start eating into it however. If you think OU is immune from a downturn in fan interest after prolonged losing then look at Miami - our average attendance in 2003 was higher than OU's all-time record, look at our last ~15 years for how losing changed things. I don't think we'll see frequent <10K crowds at Peden anytime soon, but 3-9 with a MAC schedule just doesn't maintain a fan base no matter how convenient or well-priced.

When you have a low socioeconomic base of support they don't have an alternative if they want to watch live FB. Ohio St. is 90 miles. Marshall is like 86 miles. WVU probably 150 miles. Forget it with high gas prices.

The well-to-do supporters care about the state of the program but that is only 10% of the crowd.

Students have stayed quite loyal to FB.

The dynamic of Miami fans rooting for UC more often (or keeping their pre-college allegiance to the likes of OSU/Michigan) has less to do with Oxford's inaccessibility than Miami football's awful record from 2006-15. In that stretch we went 34-89 (10 wins of those coming in 2010), no amount of convenience is going to maintain a decent MAC fan base at that record. Conversely, we were selling out hockey games throughout that whole period with a nationally-competitive program despite similar inaccessibility for Friday/Saturday night games.

OU might not see as dramatic of a dropoff in attendance as Miami did (assuming the Bobcats are about to enter a similar period of losing), but fans/students will find plenty of ways to spend their Saturdays instead if the losing continues. Miami students and the people of Hamilton, Middletown, and the Cincy/Dayton areas certainly did when they went from packing Yager in the late 90s/early 2000s to crickets. I hope for your sake it's not that bad since it's fun for both of us to be good like in 2019 when our matchup was the de facto East division championship, but that's just the reality for the MAC. Same would go for the likes of Toledo/WMU, who have their respective cities to themselves and more than an hour between them and UM/MSU; losing spares no one in our position.

(05-26-2022 12:36 PM)Frank the Tank Wrote:  

(05-26-2022 12:08 PM)bill dazzle Wrote:  On the Big Ten diaspora theme ...

In Nashville, I see far more more folks wearing Big Ten gear than I saw while living in Chicago folks wearing SEC gear. To be fair, I lived in Chicago on and off from 1987 to 1993, so there may be more of an "SEC vibe" in the Windy City now.

One of my nephews just finished his first year as a student at the University of Southern California. He says (based on general observation) the Big Ten influence in Los Angeles is stronger than the SEC influence.

Bottom line: Big Ten grads/fans are everywhere — seemingly much more so than SEC grads/fans.

You can see it reflected in the Big Ten's bowl deals where they purposely cover every corner of the country: Pasadena and San Francisco on the West Coast; Phoenix and Las Vegas in the Southwest; Nashville and Charlotte in the Southeast; Miami, Orlando and Tampa in Florida; NYC on the East Coast; and Detroit in its home Midwestern footprint.

There's little-to-no SEC vibe in Chicago. There are a fair amount of Missouri students from and alums that live here, so that's school-specific, but it's still not comparable to what you'd see with most of the out-of-state Big Ten schools. (I'd say the Mizzou gear is about as prevalent as Minnesota gear around town - it's not rare, but it's not ubiquitous, either. In contrast, Michigan, Michigan State, Iowa, Indiana, Purdue, Ohio State and Wisconsin gear are all pretty much inescapable, much less Notre Dame or Illinois gear.) As with anywhere, you'll come across Florida, Alabama and Kentucky gear in particular from time to time, but really no more than you'd see the gear of national brand name schools like UNC, Duke and USC. The ACC and old Big 8 schools probably have more of a presence here than the SEC schools.

Now, there are a lot of Chicago area students that have been heading to Alabama in particular over the past decade, but that isn't really translating into a more widespread adoption of Alabama support beyond that specific student group or the fact that Bama is a national football brand name. Vandy also interestingly generally draws more students from the State of Illinois compared to any other state besides Tennessee - that's a super hot school for people from here that may have otherwise targeted the Ivy League, Northwestern or University of Chicago in the past.

I was curious about the current "SEC vibe" in Chicago, so thanks for the update, Frank. Seems it remains about as modest as when I lived in Chicago.

(05-26-2022 11:09 PM)UTEPDallas Wrote:  I have degrees from UT-Dallas (Economics), Northeastern (Political Science) and Penn State (MBA).

I don’t keep up with anything UTD and Northeastern related. The Comets play in Div III and it’ll stay that way for the foreseeable future. The student demographics (East and South Asian, international students, commuter school, etc) is not there to support Div I athletics. UTD is a powerhouse in chess or at least it used to be that way when I graduated. Northeastern hockey was fun to watch at Matthews Arena especially when the Huskies played BU. Other than that I rarely attended any events at NU because I was in my mid to late 20s and felt I overdrew the college experience plus Boston had lots to offer rather than hanging out with college kids. Penn State is where I realized the power of a true P5 powerhouse and the prestige it carries. I’m not going to lie, I wear PSU gear more often than UTEP gear and it’s the only diploma I have hanged in my house and office. But I’ll never give up on UTEP. One I had the best two years of my college life and two because that school has so much potential and I don’t think people in El Paso realize that. Unlike the vast majority of G5’s, UTEP’s struggles are internal not external.

Attended UTEP my freshman and sophomore years then transferred to UTD because my family needed me back in DFW. I can say based on my experience there, most locals are automatic UTEP fans at the time they’re born. It’s not rare to find people in El Paso who attended P5 schools and still keep their allegiance to UTEP. You see UTEP gear everywhere and the local media covers the Miners like I see P5 schools getting covered in their markets. I remember local commercials from car dealerships to restaurants to retailers saying “Go Miners” at the end. It’s mostly a blue collar fan base and I’d say about 80% Hispanic. The student body is from El Paso County (pop. 900k) and about 2k students commute daily from Juarez. There’s a strong alumni base in Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Austin, Phoenix, Denver and Southern California.

I've been curious over the years about your fan/school background (the UTEP and Penn State combo is distinctive), and this post explains it well. Very interesting, too.

You do a quality job of posting.

(05-27-2022 08:19 AM)sctvman Wrote:  Not a lot of people care about Northeastern sports outside hockey up there. Loads of international students and the co-op factor.

Even after they've been close to NCAA bids most of the past decade they struggle to get four figures for games. Their health protocols are very strict also, they banned fans the minute the Omicron outbreak started in mid December and didn't bring them back till halfway through conference play. It didn't really matter much, they have like 500 diehards, maybe a few dozen students, and the Boston alumni groups of all the CAA schools.

That's their crowd. Out of the 13 CAA schools they probably have the smallest or 2nd smallest fan base. Even Drexel, which is the 6th most popular school in Philly is bigger.

Northeastern was traditionally a low major D1 school. They didn't have a golden era of D1 athletics in the 60's, 70's or 80's.

TCU has billed itself as Fort Worth's home team. We get very good student turnout in relation to the size of the school, a little over 10,000 undergrads. Due to the DFW area having a lot of job opportunities for grads, a lot of them stay in the area. That makes it easy for them to support our teams. We are fortunate to also draw a number of fans in the DFW area who did not attend TCU or go to college, but like football. All together. since we rebuilt our stadium and completed it in 2012, we have always averaged well over 40,000 fans all except the Covid year. Not bad for a school our size.

(05-24-2022 09:19 AM)EigenEagle Wrote:  Most G5 fan bases are made up of people who don't have any family history in the state but have been in the state or community for a while.

What?

(05-27-2022 12:56 PM)Kit-Cat Wrote:  

(05-27-2022 08:19 AM)sctvman Wrote:  Not a lot of people care about Northeastern sports outside hockey up there. Loads of international students and the co-op factor.

Even after they've been close to NCAA bids most of the past decade they struggle to get four figures for games. Their health protocols are very strict also, they banned fans the minute the Omicron outbreak started in mid December and didn't bring them back till halfway through conference play. It didn't really matter much, they have like 500 diehards, maybe a few dozen students, and the Boston alumni groups of all the CAA schools.

That's their crowd. Out of the 13 CAA schools they probably have the smallest or 2nd smallest fan base. Even Drexel, which is the 6th most popular school in Philly is bigger.

Northeastern was traditionally a low major D1 school. They didn't have a golden era of D1 athletics in the 60's, 70's or 80's.

Former Boston Celtic great Reggie Lewis played at Northeastern. In his prime, he was a big-time pro player. But your point is well made.