Q & A with Mac Commish.....

Strouse · Post by **Strouse** » Sat Mar 15, 2008 12:41 am

my biggest problem as a current student reading that is that he does not view scheduling from a student's perspective, instead he views it as someone who is only wanting one thing....The Almighty Dollar. I don't know much about him other than the fact that he tends to get blamed for our schedules getting screwed up every year. But just from that article, he obviously doesn't seem to care about the fact that our athletes are students first, and that personally bothers the hell out of me.

ZuluWarrior · Post by **ZuluWarrior** » Sat Mar 15, 2008 9:00 am

"Chryst is the Dakich of commissioners. Great at the begining, but then things unravel"

I believe Gary Blackney should join Dackich in this threesome.

redskins4ever · Post by **redskins4ever** » Sat Mar 15, 2008 12:37 pm

The coaches want these TV games, because they can use it for recruiting. I think its horrible for the fans and the Athletic departments that try to build a loyal following and strong attendance numbers for Bowl games. I think the MAC has competing interests in wanting to be on TV while also building season ticket sales. It can be one or the other, but probably not both.

bgsufalcon24 · Post by **bgsufalcon24** » Sat Mar 15, 2008 1:45 pm

redskins4ever wrote:The coaches want these TV games, because they can use it for recruiting. I think its horrible for the fans and the Athletic departments that try to build a loyal following and strong attendance numbers for Bowl games. I think the MAC has competing interests in wanting to be on TV while also building season ticket sales. It can be one or the other, but probably not both.

I do know that mid-week tv games suck. They suck for the students, especially the student players. They suck even more for the townspeople/outside alumni who can't get to the games on a weeknight. However, I find it funny that we've had a few of our biggest crowds at BG recently on weekdays. The Miami game is 2006, crappy weather and all, we actually had a large number of fans in the seats for much of the game in addition to the announced total of 22000+. We had a very good turnout for the Toledo game in 2007 as well, even though the announced was only 19000-something I think the attendance people botched that total. There's NO WAY we had more fans at the WKU game this year than the Toledo game, yet that's what attendance told us. I also think they badly botched the attendance for the 2005 Toledo game, the whole stadium was packed outside of the East side upper corners. So playing on the weekday hasn't necessarily meant bad crowds here. (unless we're playing Akron)

Have weekday games really crippled the attendance down in Oxford?

San Diego Falcon · Post by **San Diego Falcon** » Sat Mar 15, 2008 2:12 pm

If the weekday TV games are so great for recruiting, then why has the product on the field not reflected that? I wonder if the MAC office even considers that puzzle, let alone try to answer it.

If you're going to be 2nd-worst (and not by much) DI-A conference whether or not you're on TV, just play the games on Saturday so that you don't keep embarassing yourself in front of the rest of the country.

Peregrinner · Post by **Peregrinner** » Sat Mar 15, 2008 3:15 pm

bgsufalcon24 wrote:The Miami game is 2006, crappy weather and all, we actually had a large number of fans in the seats for much of the game in addition to the announced total of 22000+.

Considering the situation we were in, I'd be more likely to believe this number was fudged than any of the others. From what I remember, the stadium was pretty freaking empty for that game. Also, I know that I counted for 4 people that day, so you never know.

PGY Tiercel · Post by **PGY Tiercel** » Sat Mar 15, 2008 5:56 pm

Peregrinner wrote:
bgsufalcon24 wrote:The Miami game is 2006, crappy weather and all, we actually had a large number of fans in the seats for much of the game in addition to the announced total of 22000+.
Considering the situation we were in, I'd be more likely to believe this number was fudged than any of the others. From what I remember, the stadium was pretty freaking empty for that game. Also, I know that I counted for 4 people that day, so you never know.

Yes. That was the game in which a massive, buy cheap tickets/donation campaign was waged. We count paid tickets, so a couple people may have accounted for a couple thousand in paid attendance.

redskins4ever · Post by **redskins4ever** » Sun Mar 16, 2008 3:46 pm

I know that I dropped my season tickets along with at least ten other young alums who just refuse to pay for five or six home games if we can only make two games at most. Oxford isn't easy to get to, regardless of what anyone says, and there are people who just can't make it from work in Cincinnati at 5:00/5:30 up to Route 27 and in to Oxford by kickoff. Others of us were driving from Columbus and as far as Cleveland four or five times a year. I vote with my wallet and Im not buying one game for $100.

The best part for me to go to a college football game, isn't just the game its the visit back to the campus, going downtown, and walking around. I can't tailgate/I can't visit downtown, and it makes for a long day going to work, driving four hours round trip, and the game.

hammb · Post by **hammb** » Sun Mar 16, 2008 5:13 pm

redskins4ever wrote:I know that I dropped my season tickets along with at least ten other young alums who just refuse to pay for five or six home games if we can only make two games at most. Oxford isn't easy to get to, regardless of what anyone says, and there are people who just can't make it from work in Cincinnati at 5:00/5:30 up to Route 27 and in to Oxford by kickoff. Others of us were driving from Columbus and as far as Cleveland four or five times a year. I vote with my wallet and Im not buying one game for $100.

The best part for me to go to a college football game, isn't just the game its the visit back to the campus, going downtown, and walking around. I can't tailgate/I can't visit downtown, and it makes for a long day going to work, driving four hours round trip, and the game.

As a BG alum I find the weekday games to be a pain in the butt as well and I only work about 30-40 minutes from the Doyt.

I'm sorry Mr. Chryst but these weekday games are a royal pain in the ass and I don't think they're doing much for getting better exposure for the conference either. The quality of our on the field product has gotten worse, if anything, since the regular weekday games have come along. It also kills fan support and makes going to the games a chore rather than something you look forward to.

Somebody should give Rick a couple bucks so he could buy a clue...

Bleeding Orange · Post by **Bleeding Orange** » Sun Mar 16, 2008 7:33 pm

I think Chryst is missing the point by citing the fact that teams like VT, Miami(FL), and Louisville play weeknight games. The difference between those schools and MAC schools is that they have a large enough fan base to sell out their stadiums on a weeknight. Additionally, schools like BG, Miami, NIU, and Ball State (maybe even CMU and WMU - I've never been to either) aren't exactly located in heavily populated areas, meaning that these schools have to expect a large portion of their fan base to drive at least 30 minutes to two hours each way on a workday to attend the games. It just isn't a reasonable expectation for fans of these schools to have to do that multiple times in any given season, and it erodes season ticket sales and fan loyalty after a while.

It doesn't say much for our conference when people turn on weeknight games and see half empty stadiums 90% of the time, no matter how good the football is. Sadly, there have been many instances over the past few years that have made me question Chryst's ability to think logically, and this is definately one of them.

cph2133 · Post by **cph2133** » Sun Mar 16, 2008 8:48 pm

Bleeding Orange wrote:It doesn't say much for our conference when people turn on weeknight games and see half empty stadiums 90% of the time, no matter how good the football is. Sadly, there have been many instances over the past few years that have made me question Chryst's ability to think logically, and this is definately one of them.

I agree 100 percent! Before coming to BG, I would turn in and see Marshall v. Toledo or whoever and see what appeared to be 600 people in the stands and laugh! Now i made my decision to go to college at BG not based on football, but unfortunately there are those who do this, and having empty stadiums doesn't appeal to future students, nor future student athletes.

"Hey, come to BG we play on Thursday nights on ESPNU. With the 2,000 people in the stands, and the 19 people who get ESPNU, you'll be watched by about 2,020 people!"

h2oville rocket · Post by **h2oville rocket** » Tue Mar 18, 2008 7:01 am

cph2133 wrote:
Bleeding Orange wrote: Before coming to BG, I would turn in and see Marshall v. Toledo or whoever and see what appeared to be 600 people in the stands and laugh!

Nothing funny about faulty eyesight, dude. Get 'em checked. Marshall home games always drew upwards to thirty thousand no matter who they played. when those games were at UT I would venture to guess 25-30,000 for every game. Marshall was the best thing to happen to the MAC attendance-wise and competition-wise. Things went downhill quick after they left,too.

Warthog · Post by **Warthog** » Tue Mar 18, 2008 8:19 am

h2oville rocket wrote:Marshall was the best thing to happen to the MAC attendance-wise and competition-wise. Things went downhill quick after they left,too.

Maybe we should invite them back as the 14th member?

hammb · Post by **hammb** » Tue Mar 18, 2008 9:02 am

h2oville rocket wrote: Marshall was the best thing to happen to the MAC attendance-wise and competition-wise. Things went downhill quick after they left,too.

Agreed.

I hate Marshall and most of their fans, but they were great for the conference. They were the one school that has tremendous fan support regardless of how good they may be. With that fan support they built a great program and caused the rest of the MAC (at least BG, UT, Miami, etc) to get better to compete with them.

Conference has been shitty since they left; not sure if we can point the blame at that or not, but it's certainly something to think about.

tiznow · Post by **tiznow** » Tue Mar 18, 2008 9:39 am

Conference has been shitty since they left; not sure if we can point the blame at that or not, but it's certainly something to think about.

Agreed and Marshall has been equally as bad since they left.