Topic: A Look at the MWC Championship

[Scottyo614]

Flipped over to the Mountain West Championship on ESPN. Yeah there’s some snow, I’m sure Fresno did not travel well, but hey Boise should have a big crowd right? When they showed the crowd hard camera the place looked half empty at best. The endzone is full of empty bleachers. We get mad about 20k in stands for a terrible let’s say ODU, but wow this is eye opening.

Two teams in the top 25, loyal base and they can’t draw a crowd? Maybe, just maybe the NCAA might wake up and see the potential if you let every team play to win it all instead of just play to win the game. G5 fans don’t care about just winning a conference title. We want more.

[banker]

If we hosted a championship game today, in this weather, we wouldn't have had 16,000 in attendance.

[Scottyo614]

If we hosted a championship game today, in this weather, we wouldn't have had 16,000 in attendance.

I agree. I took a lot of heat here about 3-4 years ago when I was upset that we were playing for a conference title and nothing else. It appears everyone in the G5 is now understanding we are playing for nothing but network content money

[svherd]

I agree. I took a lot of heat here about 3-4 years ago when I was upset that we were playing for a conference title and nothing else. It appears everyone in the G5 is now understanding we are playing for nothing but network content money

Attendance at college football games is on a 4 year slide. Last year saw the largest decrease in attendance by percentage in two decades. Hell, Saban and the Bama AD chastised the students for not coming out in larger numbers. Despite some delusional posters on the boards whine about, MU is far from the only school facing this issue.

[pdunn]

Attendance at college football games is on a 4 year slide.

Which is just about the same amount of time the so called "playoff" has been around.

[Scottyo614]

Which is just about the same amount of time the so called "playoff" has been around.

Even my Buckeye friends were commenting about they belong in a Rose Bowl but are tired of Bama, Clemson with a OK, OSU alternative.

ND played 5 ACC. The ACC seemed to be really down when watching the teams this year. Yet Clemson and ND are looking in. Are they the best? What a mess.

[pdunn]

Even my Buckeye friends were commenting about they belong in a Rose Bowl but are tired of Bama, Clemson with a OK, OSU alternative.

ND played 5 ACC. The ACC seemed to be really down when watching the teams this year. Yet Clemson and ND are looking in. Are they the best? What a mess.

It used to be that conferences were regional and you had those once a year meetings with familiar teams.  Then almost thirty years ago, Penn State joined the Big 10.  That started a 25 year process that just destroyed the whole order of things.  Look at these conferences now.  Rutgers, Maryland and Nebraska in the Big 10.  No more Nebraska-Oklahoma game or any of those rivalries.  "Eastern" football doesn't even exist anymore.  The Pouties in the Big 12 was a necessary move but their nearest conference opponent is on the other side of the Mississippi River.  No more Pitt, VT, Penn State, Syracuse, BC, Rutgers, Temple, or Maryland. 

These conferences were built on media markets more than anything else.  Ironically, fewer people seem to be paying attention.  Definitely not as many are attending games.

One thing I admire about the MAC, they stick together.  No one seems to talk about moving conferences among the old guard.  Even U of Buffalo seems to have settled in.  To me that is comforting.  And despite everything that is wrong with the MAC I really wish that our last stint in it would have worked out.  I think our attendance would be better and there would be more fan interest playing BGSU, Miami and Ohio every year than playing Charlotte, ODU, and F (I/A) U.  Because we have history there.  It will take beyond my lifetime to build that kind of history with the teams we have in CUSA v3.0.

[gochneaur645]

We had like maybe 8K butts in the seats for the '14 title game. Granted, it was about the worst imaginable weather, but still, that's just what it is for G5 football in bad weather in December. It wasn't much different for the non-championship playoff games in FCS/I-AA.

[gochneaur645]

It used to be that conferences were regional and you had those once a year meetings with familiar teams.  Then almost thirty years ago, Penn State joined the Big 10.  That started a 25 year process that just destroyed the whole order of things.  Look at these conferences now.  Rutgers, Maryland and Nebraska in the Big 10.  No more Nebraska-Oklahoma game or any of those rivalries.  "Eastern" football doesn't even exist anymore.  The Pouties in the Big 12 was a necessary move but their nearest conference opponent is on the other side of the Mississippi River.  No more Pitt, VT, Penn State, Syracuse, BC, Rutgers, Temple, or Maryland. 

These conferences were built on media markets more than anything else.  Ironically, fewer people seem to be paying attention.  Definitely not as many are attending games.

One thing I admire about the MAC, they stick together.  No one seems to talk about moving conferences among the old guard.  Even U of Buffalo seems to have settled in.  To me that is comforting.  And despite everything that is wrong with the MAC I really wish that our last stint in it would have worked out.  I think our attendance would be better and there would be more fan interest playing BGSU, Miami and Ohio every year than playing Charlotte, ODU, and F (I/A) U.  Because we have history there.  It will take beyond my lifetime to build that kind of history with the teams we have in CUSA v3.0.

Eh, it all comes down to how much the games mean. Look how pathetic our attendance was against Ohio in 2003 and WMU in 2004 when those games meant nothing. If the Charlotte and UTSA games this year would have been for the division title, there would have been twice as many people there.

The MAC has their weeknight games with some attention from football starved fans, but they play in front of about 2,000 people, and their champ is 8-5 playing in maybe an even worse bowl than we will.

[goherd24]

Flipped over to the Mountain West Championship on ESPN. Yeah there’s some snow, I’m sure Fresno did not travel well, but hey Boise should have a big crowd right? When they showed the crowd hard camera the place looked half empty at best. The endzone is full of empty bleachers. We get mad about 20k in stands for a terrible let’s say ODU, but wow this is eye opening.

Two teams in the top 25, loyal base and they can’t draw a crowd? Maybe, just maybe the NCAA might wake up and see the potential if you let every team play to win it all instead of just play to win the game. G5 fans don’t care about just winning a conference title. We want more.

Dude, there was a blizzard going. They had to shovel the lines on the field between plays and possessions lol. Of course its going to be attended poorly. We had 20k for.our title game at home and it was just a little rain.