regional conferences

TreeFiddy · June 20, 2016

1 hour ago, wardly said:

In a really good program fans comes out to see their team play, not who they play.I mean, why would LSU,Tennessess, Oklahoma,etc. fans come out to see us?

There are lots of ingredients required. Tradition, winning, atmosphere, rivalry, loyalty, opponents, etc...

Arkstfan · June 28, 2016

Conference patches and visiting fans aren't the answer unless the question is "Name two things that are over-rated?"

But proximity does matter. An athletic program only has a certain amount of resources and the choice is spend those resources on things that advance the program or spend it on bus charters, meals and air charters.

On 6/20/2016 at 11:39 AM, TreeFiddy said:

I really don't see having more regional conference mates means that we will fill our stands with their fans. What we need is opponents that will cause our fans to fill the stands. Sorry, but bringing in teams like ArkState, ULL, ULM, etc... are not going to suddenly awaken our fan base and pack the stadium.

We essentially already have ArkState on our schedule and in our conference. They are named Latech. A small, rural university with some limited regional following, but no national appeal. They have a few alumni in the metroplex and they tend to come to Denton when they play. However, we have virtually no alumni in their area. There is no great animosity or rivalry with those schools. Surrounding ourselves with more of them will not move the needle.

Another thought is to decrease the number of conference games to 6 or maybe 7. We already have a regional division. What if we just play our division in conference and send the division winner to the championship game. It will be sort of like having a new conference, without the headache of starting a new conference. By having less conference games, we have more OOC games to schedule and should be able to create more attractive home schedules.

But AState averages about 20% more per game than Tech and they have 160,000 people (and another FBS) within 50 miles vs 375,000 and no other Division I within the area.

I don't know that ANYTHING will move the needle other than more success with a Big XII and AAC in the metro along with MLB, NFL, NBA, NHL, and MLS but at least playing someone in a border state has more meaning than Virginia or Florida.

AState was able to grow its fan base without winning by developing a tailgate culture, that probably doesn't cut it in Denton.

If you are waiting for conference mates that will cause your fans to fill the stand you are in for a long wait, Big XII isn't calling unless it gets gutted the way CUSA did.

We changed the name of our booster organization from Red Wolf Club to Red Wolf Foundation because it goes along with people feeling they have an ownership stake.

We host our Little Rock athletic events in one of two places. Either the university system office or the system president's home. The system president will be there along with all the vice-presidents athletics is viewed as the glue that holds the alumni together and keeps them in engaged. I've stood by as people quizzed the leadership not just on athletics but academic matters. Getting the alums invested starts at the top, if the leadership makes it clear they are in then others will follow and I don't mean the BS lip service about athletics being a window.

Edited June 28, 2016 by Arkstfan

Arkstfan · June 28, 2016

ULL has finished a comprehensive report on athletics.

In self-generated revenue (omitting student fees and university support) ULL produced $81k more revenue than AState but $2.5 million more than the average of UNT, WKU, Marshall, ODU, and Charlotte. Houston's self-generated was $3.6 million more.

The five comparison CUSA schools spend on average $447,941 MORE on travel than ULL.

http://www.ragincajuns.com/documents/2016/4/4//ICA_report.pdf?id=1215