(06-01-2017 06:43 PM)Bobcat2013 Wrote:  

(06-01-2017 06:30 PM)SkullyMaroo Wrote:  USA had two Friday night games in 2014... one was Black Friday against Navy and it killed the attendance as not many Navy fans made the trip (nor did their band or cheerleaders) and it is a quasi-holiday. The other was against Troy, and again, it affected attendance. I'm hopeful a top 10-15 opponent will change that.

More than the attendance, I hate that a potential great recruiting weekend with a lot of official visits goes away because they're going to all be playing in games of their own.

We just shouldn't have games on black Friday.... it's so dumb. Let the players and coaches have an extra day of family time. To be fair to Navy though, I wasn't at the game but I don't remember seeing many fans or any band at our game in 2014 on TV or on the still images of the game. And that was in September.

Here's an idea: how about the NCAA just start the CFB season a week earlier and impose a universal bye for all teams on Thanksgiving week. Win win for everyone. We get football a week earlier, players and coaches get extra family time, and we don't have to worry about having an empty stadium on black Friday.

We're an hour away from a naval base and it was originally going to be a big to do and they were bringing the band, cheerleaders, and lots of fans. They didn't and quite frankly we should have done better as well -- but it was Black Friday.

(06-01-2017 06:43 PM)Bobcat2013 Wrote:  

(06-01-2017 06:30 PM)SkullyMaroo Wrote:  USA had two Friday night games in 2014... one was Black Friday against Navy and it killed the attendance as not many Navy fans made the trip (nor did their band or cheerleaders) and it is a quasi-holiday. The other was against Troy, and again, it affected attendance. I'm hopeful a top 10-15 opponent will change that.

More than the attendance, I hate that a potential great recruiting weekend with a lot of official visits goes away because they're going to all be playing in games of their own.

We just shouldn't have games on black Friday.... it's so dumb. Let the players and coaches have an extra day of family time. To be fair to Navy though, I wasn't at the game but I don't remember seeing many fans or any band at our game in 2014 on TV or on the still images of the game. And that was in September.

Here's an idea: how about the NCAA just start the CFB season a week earlier and impose a universal bye for all teams on Thanksgiving week. Win win for everyone. We get football a week earlier, players and coaches get extra family time, and we don't have to worry about having an empty stadium on black Friday.

So no games on Friday, where do you see players and coaches having extra time? If they play on the road, they will still be traveling on Friday. No chance the season gets bumped up a week and below no chance that everyone takes a week off because of Thanksgiving. These are both unrealistic.

(05-31-2017 03:34 PM)kevinwmsn Wrote:  It's official that Jags vs Ok State game has been moved from Saturday Sept 9th to Friday Sept 8 to be on ESPN2. I think that's going to hurt the game from being close to Miss State Game a few years ago on attendance(38k). I just think playing on the same night as high school football is just a bad idea for getting fans in the seats. I don't know how many Ok State fans will be coming, unless they want to vacation at the beaches down here for the weekend.

The game time for our opener is 6:30 pm against Ole Miss on ESPNU, I don't think they will get too many viewers from the state of Alabama being Alabama is playing FSU at 7 pm.

We have our game at Troy on a Weds on ESPN2, Thursday night game vs GState on ESPNU.

My question is it worth having this many games on ESPN networks when the stadium isn't going to be full?

We're playing big boy football. We should be able to get a good crowd. From a practical perspective, I think our fans will show anyway. We will get north of 25k.

Quite frankly, I'd rather go to a night game in September than an roasting hot day game on Saturday.

I was at Ladd on Black Friday for that game against Navy. I was expected a very good turnout, but it was just usual amount. I think a lot of people were just tired from waking up early to do their shopping. Black Friday football game hopefully never happen again. I remember how we was flagged 3 or 4 plays in a row on the last play of the game that we should have won.

(06-02-2017 07:47 AM)kevinwmsn Wrote:  I was at Ladd on Black Friday for that game against Navy. I was expected a very good turnout, but it was just usual amount. I think a lot of people were just tired from waking up early to do their shopping. Black Friday football game hopefully never happen again. I remember how we was flagged 3 or 4 plays in a row on the last play of the game that we should have won.

I was there, too. I thought the crowd was pretty good considering the timing.
I believe USA converted the game-tying two point play three times at the end, each disallowed by penalty, and finally failed on the fourth try.

(06-01-2017 07:47 PM)warhawk09 Wrote:  

(06-01-2017 06:43 PM)Bobcat2013 Wrote:  

(06-01-2017 06:30 PM)SkullyMaroo Wrote:  USA had two Friday night games in 2014... one was Black Friday against Navy and it killed the attendance as not many Navy fans made the trip (nor did their band or cheerleaders) and it is a quasi-holiday. The other was against Troy, and again, it affected attendance. I'm hopeful a top 10-15 opponent will change that.

More than the attendance, I hate that a potential great recruiting weekend with a lot of official visits goes away because they're going to all be playing in games of their own.

We just shouldn't have games on black Friday.... it's so dumb. Let the players and coaches have an extra day of family time. To be fair to Navy though, I wasn't at the game but I don't remember seeing many fans or any band at our game in 2014 on TV or on the still images of the game. And that was in September.

Here's an idea: how about the NCAA just start the CFB season a week earlier and impose a universal bye for all teams on Thanksgiving week. Win win for everyone. We get football a week earlier, players and coaches get extra family time, and we don't have to worry about having an empty stadium on black Friday.

So no games on Friday, where do you see players and coaches having extra time? If they play on the road, they will still be traveling on Friday. No chance the season gets bumped up a week and below no chance that everyone takes a week off because of Thanksgiving. These are both unrealistic.

Better traveling on Friday than on Thanksgiving. I get that this won't happen but why is it so unreasonable?

(06-01-2017 03:22 PM)BurlingtonApp Wrote:  One of our top 5 highest attended games ever was an ESPN game on a Friday night. Probably not as big of a deterrent as you're expecting.

Friday is decent but probably makes high school folks mad.
ESPN can still kick rocks. With the cost cutting there we are going to probably get less than what we got last time.
Fox Sports is making a move on college football hopefully they will offer us something better.
They now have the PAC12, BIG10, BIG12, CUSA and Army. The Sun Belt would bolster the southern markets some as they are likely never to get the SEC or ACC with both having or will have their own networks with ESPN.

The best compromise is only allow one mid-week home game per team. ESPN would probably fight that, but $150,000 isn't enough to sacrifice multiple Saturday games for. As the USM fan pointed out every game we play is on ESPN3 at the very least so the advantage of being over the air isn't as big as in the past.

(06-02-2017 11:45 AM)JTApps1 Wrote:  The best compromise is only allow one mid-week home game per team. ESPN would probably fight that, but $150,000 isn't enough to sacrifice multiple Saturday games for. As the USM fan pointed out every game we play is on ESPN3 at the very least so the advantage of being over the air isn't as big as in the past.

I could be ok with 1 mid week game per team, I would not like not to be the same matchup every year, like Troy vs USA has been the past few years.

(06-02-2017 12:53 PM)kevinwmsn Wrote:  

(06-02-2017 11:45 AM)JTApps1 Wrote:  The best compromise is only allow one mid-week home game per team. ESPN would probably fight that, but $150,000 isn't enough to sacrifice multiple Saturday games for. As the USM fan pointed out every game we play is on ESPN3 at the very least so the advantage of being over the air isn't as big as in the past.

I could be ok with 1 mid week game per team, I would not like not to be the same matchup every year, like Troy vs USA has been the past few years.

At least your schools are close enough to still allow visiting fans a chance to easily attend. Having our GS game on Thursday eliminates a number of home fans, and huge chunk of the visiting fans from either school. In previous season we had over 30K for the GS game, but that dropped to 24K for Thursday in 2015. It is what it is at this point though.

I'm okay with a Friday night (not Black Friday) game. At least for us, most of our fans are local. For other schools, like Troy or state or Ga. Southern or App, its a bigger deal.