OK..I was wrong

[daspollak]

I agree with keeping as many Saturday games as possible, but I don't mind weekday games if they are played at 7 or 8. One other way to jack up our attendance figures is to move the UT game to late September or early October. Rivalry game with nice weather, what can be better?

[BGWriter]

One or two of these weekday games per season is more than enough. On second thought, let's keep it to one.

Saturdays are when college football was meant to be played -- and yes, I'm old and a traditionalist.

But the bottom line is this: most people work during the week and can't travel out of town, or often if they have kids may have some conflicts with school-related activities.

Keep the games on Saturdays so people can plan to attend more often than not.

As someone who lives out of town (Columbus) I should be lobbying in favor of more ESPN-dictated games so I can see the Falcons play. But I'd rather have them at times when more people who live in the area can actually attend (or want to), including students.

The MAC perennially struggles with attendance to maintain its status, and I think constantly moving games around is probably not helping.

Keep the games on Saturdays as much as possible.

Oh and screw ESPiN (on general principles).

[JohnnySwoop '85]

It's possible to attend these weeknight games, you just have to have a lot of "want to" when you are out of town...that and some extra vacation days which I have more than I can use (unfortunately).

But make it 1, maybe 2. I agree move Toledo out from behind Thanksgiving. It actually didnt seem to bad on the preceeding Tuesday. If I were a student I'd go to the game then go out and get lost somewhere between Downtown and Howards.

Don't be so hard on ESPN, they offer exposure. If they dont think the content plays well they need to make a business decision. On the other hand, the MAC commisars deserve all they can get dished at them because 2/3rds of the conference schedule after halloween doesn't occur on the day of week where the universe focuses on NCAA football.

Got to go now, Buffalo vs. Miami is on at 6 pm tonight!

[NWLB]

It's possible to attend these weeknight games, you just have to have a lot of "want to" when you are out of town...that and some extra vacation days which I have more than I can use (unfortunately).

But make it 1, maybe 2. I agree move Toledo out from behind Thanksgiving. It actually didnt seem to bad on the preceeding Tuesday. If I were a student I'd go to the game then go out and get lost somewhere between Downtown and Howards.

Don't be so hard on ESPN, they offer exposure. If they dont think the content plays well they need to make a business decision. On the other hand, the MAC commisars deserve all they can get dished at them because 2/3rds of the conference schedule after halloween doesn't occur on the day of week where the universe focuses on NCAA football.

Got to go now, Buffalo vs. Miami is on at 6 pm tonight!

With due respect, kindly don't tell me I have to "want to" more. For some people, extra vacation days are spent taking care of sick kids, compensating for having to run the car to the shop, actual vacation, etc. Then there are also those of us who simply can not be away from work on some days, or if we could, it would require several others not to be.

I'm not being hard on ESPN, but they aren't offering exposure, they are casting drift-nets for cheap Content. And the entire MAC drinks the Kool-aid and says "gee, how lucky we are, let us give them all this wish for and more." We may not yet be past the point where TV "exposure" is passe. But the truth is that day is coming. I'm not sure it helps the MAC to have a buffet of generally piss-poor football paraded in front of a hand-full of people anymore. This includes the Bowl games in my view, but that is another thread.

Now in.....37 minutes, UB and Miami kickoff. I will still be 45 minutes away from home at best. Why the HELL they are starting that game, which only a die-hard MAC aficionado would watch, at 6 p.m. I just don't know. I'm sure a higher-rated basketball game starts right afterward.

[Flipper]

The UT game should definitley be earlier in the season. They play it in the last week because it's the big rivalry like the OSU/UM game and then they contort the schedule in any way possible to avoid scheduling it up against the OSU/UM game. Why bother? Just play it in October....

[Ydfalcon]

The UT game should definitley be earlier in the season. They play it in the last week because it's the big rivalry like the OSU/UM game and then they contort the schedule in any way possible to avoid scheduling it up against the OSU/UM game. Why bother? Just play it in October....

In fairness, the last week or two of the season is generally regarded as "Rivalry Week," so it's not just OSU/UM playing at the end which inspires BG/UT to play the last week of the season. Of course, it doesn't always work out that way with every school. Tennessee considers Florida and Alabama their biggest rivals, but those games are known as the "Third Saturday in September" and the "Third Saturday in October" because that's the date they traditionally fall on. There's not really any particular reason why BG/UT needs to be at the end of the season. Although, in a way, I have gotten to kind of like the game being played the day after Thanksgiving. It could become one of those traditions, where you always know when BG and UT will play, year in and year out.

[thewebboy]

The UT game should definitley be earlier in the season. They play it in the last week because it's the big rivalry like the OSU/UM game and then they contort the schedule in any way possible to avoid scheduling it up against the OSU/UM game. Why bother? Just play it in October....

In fairness, the last week or two of the season is generally regarded as "Rivalry Week," so it's not just OSU/UM playing at the end which inspires BG/UT to play the last week of the season. Of course, it doesn't always work out that way with every school. Tennessee considers Florida and Alabama their biggest rivals, but those games are known as the "Third Saturday in September" and the "Third Saturday in October" because that's the date they traditionally fall on. There's not really any particular reason why BG/UT needs to be at the end of the season. Although, in a way, I have gotten to kind of like the game being played the day after Thanksgiving. It could become one of those traditions, where you always know when BG and UT will play, year in and year out.

From a non-student perspective, I love having BG/UT the day after Thanksgiving (most of us have the day off work). But I agree that it kills student attendance having games over a break. Students in the dorms have no place to sleep, even if they wanted to stay/come back for it.

It'd be great to schedule the UT game for the first Saturday in November every year, then finish up with 2-3 games vs MAC east teams (probably midweek games).

I don't think there should be any East vs West games the last week, since there's a chance you could play that team in the championship the following week.

[NWLB]

The end of the year tends to have lots of rivalry games, but you can lump that into marketing myths as easily as the need to be on TV all the time. In truth the BG-UT game was moved to the end of they year, not out of tradition but the thought that it would draw more attention.

There are ample rivalry games played outside of the final week of the year. I'm not even saying to push it the start, more like a consistent week in Sept. or something.