(07-27-2020 03:09 PM)Fighting Muskie Wrote:  

(07-27-2020 02:52 PM)bill dazzle Wrote:  

(07-27-2020 02:16 PM)Fighting Muskie Wrote:  

(07-27-2020 01:14 PM)bill dazzle Wrote:  

(07-27-2020 12:06 PM)Fighting Muskie Wrote:  Northeastern collegiate athletics is so heavily Balkanized. You’ve got your elite secular schools, your catholic schools, then your publics and land grants. College sports, particularly football, were never the great cultural unifiers there the way they are in the Midwest and South—they had MLB and later NFL for that in the Northeast.

Bill Dazzle brings up Vanderbilt and they are going through a lot of what other urban private schools in the south have felt once the NFL came to town and established itself. Look at Rice, Tulane, and SMU—that’s the trajectory the Commodores are on.

Very good point about VU, FMuskie. Agree fully. And trajectory is not ideal.

Attendance wise, P5 WF, Duke, and Vandy are a lot more like G5 Tulsa, Tulane, and SMU than they are an average P5.

Agree. I never have to worry about sitting near drunk buffoons when I attend a Vandy football game, as there are always plenty of empty seats from which to choose.

I don't ever see us drawing well in football. Our student body now has a significant number of international students (the highest percentage in the SEC), many of whom are not interested in American football. And the alumni live all over the country. We simply don't have a "built-in" football fan base.

I always figured that Vanderbilt was a good place to watch college football—not because the facilities or amenities are particularly nice or the team particularly good but because it’s less crowded and you can sit considerably closer than some of college football’s grand cathedrals.

I went to the NIU/Vanderbilt game last year.

It was 99 degrees that day. Only the top row of the stadium provided shade as it was an 11am start. Little shade in the concourses, surprisingly.

No locals showed up because it was dangerously hot.

But it would’ve been perfect for a night game or October/November day game. Great sightlines. Hotels within walking distance. Goes without saying, so many things to do - I went to the Hermitage (Andrew Jackson’s place) and their ghost tours.

It’s also only an hour from WKU, so I caught the UAB-WKU game on the way back as a doubleheader.