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Now that classes and schoolwork have finally resumed I've been able to get some information from my fellow students as to what their outlook on the upcoming 2006 season will look like. To say the very least, the majority of the student body believes we will not even win five games this year. This weighs heavy on the old orange and brown heart as I am led to believe by my classmates that there will be very little attendance in the student sections for our home games, and almost none at the cleveland game.

However, coach Brandon and a couple of the team captains did get to speak at this years freshman convocation. I beleive they may have done a terrific job with pumping up our incoming freshman for the football season. I did actually get goosbumps when one of the captains asked the audience to participate in the BG SU call and response deal and the response was thunderous. It seemed lik the very Halls of Ivy were shaking from the sound. So, Hopefully this years freshman class will be a bright spot in attendance for the Doyt. If they aren't, I'm afraid that unless the football team comes out very strong in the first few games the Doyt will see very few fans in the bleachers.

I know many students who feel the Falcons only win 5 games this year. I personally think we'll win at least 6 and up to 8 or 9, but many fans don't agree.

I am a student and I can wait for the season to start, I know there are those students that could care less about the team but I know that myself and of my freshmen friends will be at the games going crazy for the team and hopefully the team will be fun to watch.

Thinking about the season, I am expecting a 7-9 win season. I will be extremely happy if we can win 10 games but in all honesty, and many agree, i think we will not be able to do it. I want to win 10 games and I think that there is a good chance that we can, I just don't see it happening. I love our team this year and I think we will surprise some people....

Sweets9 wrote:I know many students who feel the Falcons only win 5 games this year. I personally think we'll win at least 6 and up to 8 or 9, but many fans don't agree.

I get the feeling that most students who come here just think that at BG, we just flat out suck at sports. It's such a preconcieved notion, we have tons and tons of fans of other schools who don't give a crap about supporting their schools athletic teams. Very few people I knew from last year thought that we were going to be any good last season either. There is a clear inferiority complex among the student body, especially among the freshmen. Given our successes the last decade or so, I don't understand it.

I know that DJ Johnson just wrote an editorial in the BG News this past Monday about how we as students are not supporting the teams here the way we should. Although I don't generally agree with his columns, I couldn't have said it any better on this particular issue.

sadly it
doesnt matter if we win
or lose
right
all we need
are more bowl tie ins
to celebrate mediocity

Did MACMAN just whip out a Haiku?

What we need is another ESPN Gameday, that would spark some attendance!!!!!

Most BG students are fair weather fans in every sense of the term. Combine wins with nice weather and you'll never see a sub 18,000 crowd at the Doyt. We beat Buffalo, attendence for Kent goes up. We beat Kent, expect a big crowd against Eastern. Miami is on ESPN 2, for whichever reason usually helps attendence although I don't know what the big deal is. Of course, if it's cold or raining for any of these games, that's the trump card. BG Football just isn't important enough to the student body for them to battle the elements to watch us. I hope I am wrong about all of this if the wins aren't there or it rains, because there is nothing more depressing to me than sitting in the Doyt in a crowd of less than 10,000, especially since we have the MAC's best winning percentage since 2001, which I guess makes us second in the entire state behind OSU in that span.

bgsufalcon24 wrote:

Sweets9 wrote:I know many students who feel the Falcons only win 5 games this year. I personally think we'll win at least 6 and up to 8 or 9, but many fans don't agree.

I get the feeling that most students who come here just think that at BG, we just flat out suck at sports. It's such a preconcieved notion, we have tons and tons of fans of other schools who don't give a crap about supporting their schools athletic teams. Very few people I knew from last year thought that we were going to be any good last season either. There is a clear inferiority complex among the student body, especially among the freshmen. Given our successes the last decade or so, I don't understand it.

I know that DJ Johnson just wrote an editorial in the BG News this past Monday about how we as students are not supporting the teams here the way we should. Although I don't generally agree with his columns, I couldn't have said it any better on this particular issue.

I think it's because most in-state students have been gauging everything against OSU their entire life, so anything not celebrated like OSU Football and the Big Ten level is automatically seen as inferior and not worth the time. #1 Reason BG students choose to watch OSU on TV than actually attend a BGSU Football game, IMO. They have just been conditioned to disrespect the level the MAC plays at because the average talent may not be on par with the Big 10, even though the MAC plays at a pretty high level.

It cracks me up that the students always get the blame for our attendance issues. The fact is students consistently make up right around 20% of the actual attendance. That is a really solid number for any football program. We have done a better job getting students to the game than community members and alumni combined. A few years back i looked at the numbers and that season, Brandon's first I think, student attendance averaged right around 5000 per game. Thats almost 25% of the student body attending games. And that would account for filling the stadium to about 20% capacity. Those numbers are better than community and alumni attendance combined, yet it's still their fault. Thats BS! God forbid any of them actually come to this academic institution for ACADEMIC REASONS! Between tests, homework, class, and work for some attending sporting events does not fit in. So instead of focusing on the students lets try getting more people in the community out to the games. How hard can it be in an area supporting over 100,000 people to get 10,000 in the stadium? And BGSU has over 100,000 alumni out there. Lets focus on getting them to the games however we can. The people here on this board are not the problem, we are the die hards. I just think sometime we need to take the die-hard colored glasses off and look at things from a different perspective. Could student attendance be better, absolutly. In the overall scheme of building a more consistent fan base is that the best use of resources, I don't believe so.

MACMAN wrote:sadly it
doesnt matter if we win
or lose
right
all we need
are more bowl tie ins
to celebrate mediocity

Too many lines...Haiku follows a 5-7-5 structure of words (maybe syllables?)...IIRC

syllables.

Students, a problem?
I don't friggin' think so, pal
Community sucks.

Here're my 2 cents on attendance.

Back in the early 80's, I remember attendance being an issue with NCAA - needed to avg 20K or 25K per game....thus the bleachers in the endzones were erected. No problem...built the bleachers and they came. Large crowds. So, what's different between now and then? Student population and the "sucky" community have both grown, teams equally exciting, yet attendance drops.

Then (80's), there weren't 25 ESPN channels covering seemingly any and every game; OSU/MICH/ND didn't have TV contracts to be on cable somewhere every week. It was either BGSU or the ABC game of the week - all else on radio.

Back then, there weren't year-round youth baseball, volleyball, hockey, basketball, etc. travel team leagues where games were primarily on weekends (conflicting with BG games). MANY of the "sucky" community members have school-age children in these activities and choose their kids' activities over BG football. The gall.

I believe these to be two major contributors to our attendance issues. Perhaps these are also reasons many of our alumni choose to not attend games as well. Simple solution? No. Any solution? Don't know....