Rivalry Week Game

Mike Jackson · December 2, 2019

Watching the rivalry week games on TV this week and seeing the pitiful attendance as our game got me thinking of solutions. We heavily rely on student attendance for our games and most students go home for the holidays. If we are committed to playing every Thanksgiving weekend would it be beneficial for attendance both in Dentin and Dallas if we played SMU the Friday or Saturday after Thanksgiving? Hopefully someday we will be dominating our conference so these late season conference games will always be meaningful. However I believe regardless of our records more SMU and UNT fans would show up for a rivalry game regardless of our records.

Rudy · December 2, 2019

It takes two to tango. $mut wouldn't want to move the game.

MeanGreenWithEnvy · December 2, 2019

I’d love to see this game on Thanksgiving, but I don’t think SMU has any incentive to do it.

The main reason they have no incentive to do it is that we’re not rivals. Rivalry requires mutual acknowledgement, and no matter how much we talk about them as our rival, they don’t see us as their rival. Beat their pretentious a$$e$ a few years in a row and we might get there, but until that day, I don’t see it happening.

NTSU52 · December 2, 2019

There's no way SMU would agree to this. UTSA might, but I'm not sure we would.

Pavlovs Eagle · December 2, 2019

If you move it to Friday you'll have even worse attendance than Saturday. It's much easier 2 days after Thanksgiving to abandon your family for football. I for one leave town every year for Turkey Day, come Saturday I'm ready to come home or go somewhere else for football.

Personal opinion: we should strive for the last game to be an away game.

Texas Stranger · December 2, 2019

The only opponents that would draw in Denton on Thanksgiving Saturday are in the Big 12, and none of them are coming here. WB needs to continue to use whatever fight is available to keep us on the road that week.

MeanGreen22 · December 2, 2019

I think you have a better chance at getting LA Tech in that slot. Gotta remember that a rivalry doesn’t have to be about hating the other team. It can also be based in mutual respect. Beating SMU is cool and all but I get more pumped on LA Tech game days.

MeanGreenTexan · December 2, 2019

8 minutes ago, Pavlovs Eagle said:

If you move it to Friday you'll have even worse attendance than Saturday. It's much easier 2 days after Thanksgiving to abandon your family for football. I for one leave town every year for Turkey Day, come Saturday I'm ready to come home or go somewhere else for football.

Personal opinion: we should strive for the last game to be an away game.

Everyone believes this. That's why we alternate a home game during that weekend every year.

NM Green · December 2, 2019

It almost feels right for the SMU game to be in the blazing part of the season. It has also a direct affect on a few games after that both sides. So they don't have to call it a rivalry to realize this thing is building. I couldn't spit enough after that loss this year.

I think UTSA would be a natural slot there. They felt weird to be meeting in September but glad we did when we were still hopeful. Frankly this season sucked but beating UTSA down actually made it a little less painful. Maybe its all the roadrunners in the family. I feel better after game when we win.

Now strong is available too - out at USF. Seth could round up some decent talent who has done things before at this level. Time to go shuffle that coaching staff.

UTEP would be a good end of the year game as they always bring fans to Denton and have a lot of local alumni. It is far enough that it doesn't really effect attendance too much on the Green side out in El Paso. People are going to go if people are going to go.

I think almost everyone wants out of a home Thanksgiving weekend game. Maybe a place like Marshall is the only place in the league that can pull it off. Places like Texas and the big boys love it.

GMG

RBP79 · December 2, 2019

1 hour ago, NTSU52 said:

There's no way SMU would agree to this. UTSA might, but I'm not sure we would.

We played UTSA on Thanksgiving Weekend last year in SA. We had a great time.

Mike Jackson · December 2, 2019

9 hours ago, Texas Stranger said:

The only opponents that would draw in Denton on Thanksgiving Saturday are in the Big 12, and none of them are coming here. WB needs to continue to use whatever fight is available to keep us on the road that week.

We aren’t talking sellout just a significant attendance bump without a conference championship or bowl eligibility on the line. I contend that even if go on a run of winning 8 games or more for 5+ seasons most of the time that final game won't mean much. A 9-2 SMU team with nothing on the line drew 20k. If they were a winning UNT team I think it would 25k plus. Boosting your attendance figure by 20% is nothing to scoff at just because the team is "beneath" yours.

I like the UTSA matchup also. But here is my dream list for a rivalry week home and home series.

1. SMU

2. Houston

3. UTSA

4. Rice

emmitt01 · December 3, 2019

1 hour ago, Mike Jackson said:

We aren’t talking sellout just a significant attendance bump without a conference championship or bowl eligibility on the line. I contend that even if go on a run of winning 8 games or more for 5+ seasons most of the time that final game won't mean much. A 9-2 SMU team with nothing on the line drew 20k. If they were a winning UNT team I think it would 25k plus. Boosting your attendance figure by 20% is nothing to scoff at just because the team is "beneath" yours.

I like the UTSA matchup also. But here is my dream list for a rivalry week home and home series.

1. SMU

2. Houston

3. UTSA

4. Rice

If UNT had SMU’s record going into last Saturday we don’t draw 25k. We draw damn near 30k.

SMU is Dallas’ team...they just forgot to tell Dallas

Rudy · December 3, 2019

5 hours ago, emmitt01 said:

If UNT had SMU’s record going into last Saturday we don’t draw 25k. We draw damn near 30k.

SMU is Dallas’ team...they just forgot to tell Dallas

No, no, they tell Dallas routinely. Dallas just ignores them, leading them to really believe that Dallas cares about them.

SilverEagle · December 3, 2019

On 12/2/2019 at 8:07 AM, MeanGreen22 said:

I think you have a better chance at getting LA Tech in that slot. Gotta remember that a rivalry doesn’t have to be about hating the other team. It can also be based in mutual respect. Beating SMU is cool and all but I get more pumped on LA Tech game days.

This