Weekday ESPN Games

[thewebboy]

When is the last time we won one of these games? As much as it helps our program get some exposure under a national spotlight, is it really helping us if we can never win one of these games?

2005: loss at Boise
2004: loss at NIU, Toledo
2003: loss at Miami (can't remember any further back?)

I understand our schedule has to be flexible so we can play big games like these on national TV, but would it hurt to play some big games on the day college football was made to be played on... SATURDAY !!!

So can we credit these losses to?
Is it the jitters of playing on national TV ?
Does playing on a weekday throw off our normal schedule?
Or is it just coincidence that we tend to lose these weekday games?

Input encouraged

[Schadenfreude]

When is the last time we won one of these games? As much as it helps our program get some exposure under a national spotlight, is it really helping us if we can never win one of these games?

2005: loss at Boise
2004: loss at NIU, Toledo
2005: loss at Miami (can't remember any further back?)

The GMAC Bowl win over Memphis was on a Wednesday and the Motor City Bowl win over Northwestern was on a Friday.

Okay, so those doesn't count.

I think this does: Our 2003 opener against Eastern Kentucky. Bowling Green won 63-13, on a Thursday night.

[BelieveNBG]

Orig

inally posted by thewebboy:
When is the last time we won one of these games? As much as it helps our program get some exposure under a national spotlight, is it really helping us if we can never win one of these games?

2005: loss at Boise
2004: loss at NIU, Toledo
2005: loss at Miami (can't remember any further back?)

Also...these were all AWAY games in hostile environments and don't you mean 2003 Miami? Let's not concede the game before playing it. I think the key for us is to win a big game on the road. We've won on ESPN several times...NIU, Memphis, Northwestern. Our trouble has been on the road.

[momtartin]

Wasn't 2003 Toledo (home) on ESPN as well? And why wouldn't the Bowl Games count?

[BelieveNBG]

I count the Bowl games too. That's why I say we have more of a road problem than a TV/mid-week problem.

[Schadenfreude]

Wasn't 2003 Toledo (home) on ESPN as well? And why wouldn't the Bowl Games count?

Yep. It was also a Saturday.

[BGSUVA]

yea, weekday games suck. It makes it a lot more difficult for the fans to show if they have to work or go to school the day or or the day following the game. Play them on Saturday, screw ESPN. If we are good enough, we will get noticed by them and they will put us on.

[TG1996]

I count the Bowl games too. That's why I say we have more of a road problem than a TV/mid-week problem.

I think it's both. A "road mid-week" problem. The bowl games shouldn't count in this scenario, because there is SO much time between the last game of the year and the bowl game, it doesn't matter what day it's on. It seems like to get to a road game mid-week (UT aside, and I don't know if I'd put that in the same group as what happened at NIU, Miami(OH) and Boise St), the schedule gets so shuffled around, especially trying to leave on a Tuesday to miss as few classes as possible. Classes are important, of course, that much travel within 24 hours of a game has to be rough. I might be wrong, but with bowl games happening over break, and so much atmosphere surrounding the week of the game, haven't the teams been in town a couple days before the game, instead of showing up the day before?