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I hate to start an attendance conversation, but the reality is that bowl representatives are not blind when it comes to half empty stadiums. This team is peaking at the right time for a bowl bid. They have a receiver making national headlines and a quarterback who has put up gaudy numbers-both very appealing to bowl reps. The other thing that is appealing to bowl reps is tickets sold to their bowl games. This is where our fan base can have an impact by simply showing up Friday. We all need to encourage others to make an effort to get to The Doyt Friday, support this team, enjoy some outstanding college football and help propel them into the post season.

Falcon84 wrote:I hate to start an attendance conversation, but the reality is that bowl representatives are not blind when it comes to half empty stadiums. This team is peaking at the right time for a bowl bid. They have a receiver making national headlines and a quarterback who has put up gaudy numbers-both very appealing to bowl reps. The other thing that is appealing to bowl reps is tickets sold to their bowl games. This is where our fan base can have an impact by simply showing up Friday. We all need to encourage others to make an effort to get to The Doyt Friday, support this team, enjoy some outstanding college football and help propel them into the post season.

I appreciate the enthusiasm, but our home attendance will have little to no impact on a bowl selection. If we make a bowl game it will be more out of necessity to fill the spot or to see Freddie and Tyler rather than our home attendance.

Besides, I think we have performed decent enough in ticket sales with prior bowl games to make it a moot point.

Redwingtom wrote: Besides, I think we have performed decent enough in ticket sales with prior bowl games to make it a moot point.

Or a "mute" point for those from Toledo...it is that week, ya know.

If we go to a bowl game, it is because they pretty much have to take us. And, it is likely that all the teams similar to use have similar attendance issues.

BGorDeath wrote:Or a "mute" point for those from Toledo...it is that week, ya know.

Or for those from Toledo, "you" know.

Ore those from Toledo, ewe no.

Dayons_Den wrote:Ore those from Toledo, ewe no.

Good point- we do say "no" to ewes, unlike BG guys.

h2oville rocket wrote:

Dayons_Den wrote:Ore those from Toledo, ewe no.

Good point- we do say "no" to ewes, unlike BG guys.

Does it really matter saying no to ewes when you say yes to heifers?

ITs the BG-Toledo Game over the Holiday weekend, of course the stands will be full of Toledo Fans...that is the pure Genius behind this Schedule.

Seeing as how this game is no longer a lock to be on TV we should no longer bend over backwards to move our schedule to appease them. Next year schedule the game for Saturday and if ESPN really wants it on TV then they can show it then.

BGDrew wrote:Seeing as how this game is no longer a lock to be on TV we should no longer bend over backwards to move our schedule to appease them. Next year schedule the game for Saturday and if ESPN really wants it on TV then they can show it then.

exactly

BGDrew wrote:Seeing as how this game is no longer a lock to be on TV we should no longer bend over backwards to move our schedule to appease them. Next year schedule the game for Saturday and if ESPN really wants it on TV then they can show it then.

In 2003 the game was scheduled on a Friday and moved to Saturday the week before to accommodate ESPN. So scheduling it at the best time possible and sliding it by a day can work too. That game was close to a sellout.

That said, I'm not sure 2 pm the day after Thanksgiving is unreasonable scheduling

AyZiggy97 wrote: I'm not sure 2 pm the day after Thanksgiving is unreasonable scheduling

No kidding...only thing worse was the stupid 11:00 start time! Since we weren't going to be on espn, then move the game to Saturday. You'd get a LOT more people there!

My solution is to move the game earlier in the year. Students won't have a reason to go home (Except for those loser who go home every weekend, and miss the entire college experience), and can actually enjoy a rivalry game. On a plus side I would rather watch a game in 50-60 degree weather, than 30-40. I would be smart, but the MAC must think this is OSU and UM to have on this date. Morons

daspollak wrote:My solution is to move the game earlier in the year. Students won't have a reason to go home (Except for those loser who go home every weekend, and miss the entire college experience), and can actually enjoy a rivalry game. On a plus side I would rather watch a game in 50-60 degree weather, than 30-40. I would be smart, but the MAC must think this is OSU and UM to have on this date. Morons

I don't know, I think it makes a lot of sense to have it at the end of the season for the very reason you note. People would rather watch a game in 50-60 degree weather than 30-40. People would also rather watch the BG-UT game than BG-other MAC opponent. So yeah, if you move the game earlier in the year I think you'll get better attendance for THIS game, but you'll also have a late season home game that is a guaranteed stinker as far as attendance goes.

For me it makes sense to get the warm weather people out for the lesser MAC games earlier in the season, then get the people that would always go to BG-UT later in the season.

I just don't get the bitchfest about the day/weekend of the game. History has shown that we can still pull in good crowds for this game on the Friday after Thanksgiving. If the game is meaningful with both teams being good, we've had great crowds. Yeah, they may not approach the record crowds you'll get earlier in the season, but I think in terms of maximizing attendance for a season the current set up makes more sense.

As I've said seemingly every year for the past 7+ students don't have a problem coming out for this game, if they want to. Some of the best, and rowdiest, student crowds I've seen at the Doyt were the '01 & '03 Toledo games. Both of which were played the weekend of Thanksgiving ('01 on Friday, '03 on Saturday). The '03 game was even a re-schedule to appease ESPN the week before, and ended up as a sellout.