DavidSt
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RE: Will The Summit League be reformed as a Northern League??
(05-22-2017 01:10 PM)jacksfan29 Wrote: (05-22-2017 01:58 AM)DavidSt Wrote: (05-21-2017 08:15 PM)johnbragg Wrote: (05-21-2017 07:18 PM)DavidSt Wrote: But, the fans and alums want to join their old rivalries.
What fans? To a rough approximation, THERE ARE NO FANS.
Central Washington had 4,000 people per game last year. Figure a good chunk of them are current students. But let's say that 1000 diehard Central Washington fans road trip to Eastern Washington, spend $50 each on tickets. That's $50,000 every other year, so $25000 a year using wildly optimistic estimates.
Quote: It may help Portland State out for having more home games against instate rivals. That is what gets the fans more exciting.
1. There are not enough fans for these schools to make it matter if they're excited or not.
2. The benefit of these in-state rivalry games is minimal in any case. If the road team's fans road tripping to your games is a big factor in your attendance, it's because you're playing a school that's in a different category than you, like when Nebraska played at Wyoming and Husker fans took over half the stadium. When Wyoming played at Nebraska, the Cowboy presence was trivial.
What you're suggesting is trying to duplicate the Nebraska-to-Wyoming influx by bringing Eastern, Southern, Western and Northern Wyoming into the Mountain West. It doesn't work that way.
GNAC football is virtually dead when you have to play the same school twice a year. The three GNAC and the two affiliate schools for football might have a much better luck scheduling at a D1 level. That is a problem why the GNAC schools have a lower turnout. It is the issue that most of the games are teams not from the west coast which means not many fans travel to show up. Those 5 would have more teams to play against than they do right now.
These schools have choices. Yes, one is moving up to FCS but they better figure out how to get the WAC to start up FCS FB so they can find a league to play in. The Big Sky is not a home for wayward D2 schools.
The GNAC schools can drop FB or they can go down to NAIA.
To move up they need a league where they can play FB. Currently there is not a league available to them.
There are schools the WAC might be able to take like Azusa Pacific, Western Oregon, West Texas A&M, Colorado Mesa, Colorado State-Pueblo, Central Washington, Western Washington, Central Washington and the slew of Lone Star schools that want to go D1. Many of these schools seem like schools that are rumored to go to the WAC. All they need to do now is let Chicago State and UMKC to leave, and start forming an FCS level football conference.
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05-22-2017 01:17 PM |
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dbackjon
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RE: Will The Summit League be reformed as a Northern League??
(05-22-2017 12:55 PM)johnbragg Wrote: (05-22-2017 01:58 AM)DavidSt Wrote: (05-21-2017 08:15 PM)johnbragg Wrote: (05-21-2017 07:18 PM)DavidSt Wrote: But, the fans and alums want to join their old rivalries.
What fans? To a rough approximation, THERE ARE NO FANS.
Central Washington had 4,000 people per game last year. Figure a good chunk of them are current students. But let's say that 1000 diehard Central Washington fans road trip to Eastern Washington, spend $50 each on tickets. That's $50,000 every other year, so $25000 a year using wildly optimistic estimates.
Quote: It may help Portland State out for having more home games against instate rivals. That is what gets the fans more exciting.
1. There are not enough fans for these schools to make it matter if they're excited or not.
2. The benefit of these in-state rivalry games is minimal in any case. If the road team's fans road tripping to your games is a big factor in your attendance, it's because you're playing a school that's in a different category than you, like when Nebraska played at Wyoming and Husker fans took over half the stadium. When Wyoming played at Nebraska, the Cowboy presence was trivial.
What you're suggesting is trying to duplicate the Nebraska-to-Wyoming influx by bringing Eastern, Southern, Western and Northern Wyoming into the Mountain West. It doesn't work that way.
GNAC football is virtually dead when you have to play the same school twice a year. The three GNAC and the two affiliate schools for football might have a much better luck scheduling at a D1 level. Those 5 would have more teams to play against than they do right now.
That actually makes sense. If GNAC has only 5 teams, and those teams are so hard up for opponents that they're doing home-and-homes, then it makes sense for those teams to look to move up.
But that doesn't mean it makes sense for the Big Sky (or the Southland, or the MVFC) to invite them. Maybe the WAC, desperate as they are, has reasons.
Of course, there is another alternative--drop football and eliminate the expense of the program.
Quote:That is a problem why the GNAC schools have a lower turnout. It is the issue that most of the games are teams not from the west coast which means not many fans travel to show up.
That. Doesn't. Matter. Apart from maybe a half-dozen schools, FCS games might as well be played in empty stadiums for all the difference ticket sales make. Much less non-Division I football.
Western Washington already dropped football, couldn't afford it.
And yes, the scheduling issues of a DII school are not the Big Sky's issue. EWU moved up in part to separate themselves from CWU and WWU.
What do you consider worthwhile attendance?
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05-22-2017 01:23 PM |
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DavidSt
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RE: Will The Summit League be reformed as a Northern League??
(05-22-2017 01:23 PM)dbackjon Wrote: (05-22-2017 12:55 PM)johnbragg Wrote: (05-22-2017 01:58 AM)DavidSt Wrote: (05-21-2017 08:15 PM)johnbragg Wrote: (05-21-2017 07:18 PM)DavidSt Wrote: But, the fans and alums want to join their old rivalries.
What fans? To a rough approximation, THERE ARE NO FANS.
Central Washington had 4,000 people per game last year. Figure a good chunk of them are current students. But let's say that 1000 diehard Central Washington fans road trip to Eastern Washington, spend $50 each on tickets. That's $50,000 every other year, so $25000 a year using wildly optimistic estimates.
Quote: It may help Portland State out for having more home games against instate rivals. That is what gets the fans more exciting.
1. There are not enough fans for these schools to make it matter if they're excited or not.
2. The benefit of these in-state rivalry games is minimal in any case. If the road team's fans road tripping to your games is a big factor in your attendance, it's because you're playing a school that's in a different category than you, like when Nebraska played at Wyoming and Husker fans took over half the stadium. When Wyoming played at Nebraska, the Cowboy presence was trivial.
What you're suggesting is trying to duplicate the Nebraska-to-Wyoming influx by bringing Eastern, Southern, Western and Northern Wyoming into the Mountain West. It doesn't work that way.
GNAC football is virtually dead when you have to play the same school twice a year. The three GNAC and the two affiliate schools for football might have a much better luck scheduling at a D1 level. Those 5 would have more teams to play against than they do right now.
That actually makes sense. If GNAC has only 5 teams, and those teams are so hard up for opponents that they're doing home-and-homes, then it makes sense for those teams to look to move up.
But that doesn't mean it makes sense for the Big Sky (or the Southland, or the MVFC) to invite them. Maybe the WAC, desperate as they are, has reasons.
Of course, there is another alternative--drop football and eliminate the expense of the program.
Quote:That is a problem why the GNAC schools have a lower turnout. It is the issue that most of the games are teams not from the west coast which means not many fans travel to show up.
That. Doesn't. Matter. Apart from maybe a half-dozen schools, FCS games might as well be played in empty stadiums for all the difference ticket sales make. Much less non-Division I football.
Western Washington already dropped football, couldn't afford it.
And yes, the scheduling issues of a DII school are not the Big Sky's issue. EWU moved up in part to separate themselves from CWU and WWU.
What do you consider worthwhile attendance?
The point is that many of the D2 schools at times do get more people to attend football than Eastern Michigan at times. They get better attendance than many FCS schools playing football at D1. Having Eastern Washington and Central Washington playing all sports all year long might help bring the attendance for all sports up some. As it is, Eastern Washington can't call it a game with stats or win playing Central Washington. It would be called an exhibition. In recent years, many D2 schools have upset D1 schools. Some of these schools could compete at the D1 level if they ever get a chance to move up. The issue with these D2 and D3 schools that have a sport in D1 could face FCOA numbers and all that. Mainly the mains and women's hockey and the baseball schools could face that they need to keep up. This is why I think these schools and several others that does help the P5 money wise in sports would be allow to move up.
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05-22-2017 01:32 PM |
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