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Post by boomerang on Nov 28, 2007 17:41:39 GMT -5
I root for Mizzou and hate it when Semo plays them. I've never missed a Semo basketball home game for a Mizzou one, but if Mizzou plays in the National Championship game come January, the same night Semo plays Murray - I'll have to think about it.
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rbm1
3rd String
I root for the MSU Racers, Penn State Nittany Lions, Pitt Panthers, and Wagner Seahawks
Posts: 50
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Post by rbm1 on Nov 28, 2007 20:25:00 GMT -5
If any of you read the Racer board, you know that I didn't go to MSU but was a "RacerbyMarriage" because my spouse was employed there. You'll also know that I went to Pitt and Penn State (the dreaded BCS schools) so I don't always understand where OVC alums are coming from.
I wonder if it may have something to do with being a 1-bid conference and having to put all of your athletic eggs in one basket and hope you win the tourney to make the NCAA's. If you follow college FB, you'll know PSU didn't have a stellar season (nothing like your QB being known for fumbling or throwing an interception at least once IN EVERY FREAKIN" GAME THIS SEASON!!) .... but .... they're heading to a bowl game and will have a huge following go down with them.
Even during the dog days of PSU FB (when they had their losing season and folks were calling for JoePa's head), you still saw 103K packing their stadium for home games. Granted that was down 6K-7K so you did have some folks unhappy with how things were going, but there were still over 100K fans showing up!! That is school loyalty.
I guess that's why I cannot really comment about the situation with mid-majors. My experience with MSU seems to be that when they have hot players and are doing well, more folks show up to see the games. When they're not hot, the fans disappear (which is why I asked the ? about cheering for other teams in the first place. When they are disappearing, where do they go?)
IU's FB program was drawing no one until Hoeppner (the one who just died) started his own campaign to draw folks in. He made a ton of public appearances, begged the students to come, instituted the "Rock" and did other things. The folks came! It took a while but their fan base grew. I wonder if the OVC coaches did a little face time on campus and in the community if that would make a difference.
Along with drawing in good players, I think mid-majors have to have a good coach. One who is charismatic and has a reputation to draw folks in. If you bring in coaches with personalities of maplewood, they're not going to excite folks into going to games. The old EKU coach - the one that went to U Mass (I hope I am right on that) - he seemed to do well (was winning) and generated media excitement as a hot up-and-coming coach. I wonder if the fan base was larger under him than with their new (current) coach.
MSU had Cronin. Cronin brought in (arguably) pedigree .... and some controversy which always made for good media publicity. A couple of high profile games on TV and MSU was in a great place. Now I'm not so sure. I see their trajectory as going down and not up.
Just my humble (uninformed?) 2 cents. :-)
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rbm1
3rd String
I root for the MSU Racers, Penn State Nittany Lions, Pitt Panthers, and Wagner Seahawks
Posts: 50
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Post by rbm1 on Nov 28, 2007 20:31:37 GMT -5
Sorry for the back-2-back posts.
These are self-reported numbers from the Chronicle of Higher Education. They are for the '05-'06 season.
First number is revenue; second number is expenses.
Peay: 546,415 $454,036 EIU: $790,210 $603,966 EKU: $889,648 $889,648 Jax St: $642,604 $642,604 Morehead: $670,375 $670,375 Murray: $686,730 $1,268,774 Sammy: $1,039,236 $1,076,093 SEMO: $702,406 $731,215 TSU: $793,170 $833,992 Tech: $344,515 $837,482 UTM: $613,305 $598,754
Edited for spelling errors (pet peeve)
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Post by ekumaroons on Nov 29, 2007 19:40:26 GMT -5
Along with drawing in good players, I think mid-majors have to have a good coach. One who is charismatic and has a reputation to draw folks in. If you bring in coaches with personalities of maplewood, they're not going to excite folks into going to games. The old EKU coach - the one that went to U Mass (I hope I am right on that) - he seemed to do well (was winning) and generated media excitement as a hot up-and-coming coach. I wonder if the fan base was larger under him than with their new (current) coach. The funny thing about Travis Ford (the EKU coach now at UMass)... he didn't have a winning season until the year he made the dance. He was, I believe, begining to panic and asked the school to extend his contract and include a byout clause after his first four seasons... all losing ones. It was during the fifth year that he brought in 3 JUCO players, remade the team, got hot at the right time (winning 7 straight games before the NCAA's) and bolted for UMass. The team did get a slight bump in attendance because he was a famous player at UK... but I don't think he won enough or for a prolonged eough time to really generate sustained interest. He did make some effort to get the fans out, however... and he did bring the program back from the dead. He was also an arrogant jerk. I was hoping that Neubauer's arrival and stay at EKU would generate some more interest in the team this season... but going 0-4 against D-I opponents to start the year certainly has't helped.
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