Old Miss men's basketball

[wardly]

I just read an ESPN article about coach Beard's efforts in getting more student participation at the Old Miss men's basketball games. He meets with the membership of the fraternities and sororities on an individual basis explaining how important is that their organizations support their men's basketball programs. Just think how impressed they are that he takes an hour of his time to address 125 or so students. At any rate I found it interesting and thought I would share .

[NorthTexasWeLove]

I think they go by Old Piss. 

[Aquila_Viridis]

Or Ole Mess or Old Myth. The 12 years I spent in Memphis, with them only an hour away, did not endear them to me; quite the opposite. On the other hand, the truth is I hate nearly all universities that aren’t North Texas. 😁

Edited yesterday at 04:35 AM by Aquila_Viridis

[wardly]

28 minutes ago, Aquila_Viridis said:

Or Ole Mess or Old Myth. The 12 years I spent in Memphis, with them only an hour away, did not endear them to me; quite the opposite. On the other hand, the truth is I hate nearly all universities that aren’t North Texas. 😁

I was just using this as an example of how one coach took the initiative to try and increase student participation at men's basketball games.I don't know if we have tried something similar but according to the article his efforts were well received.

[Aquila_Viridis]

Oh I got that; I was just inspired by NTWL calling them old piss. Doubtless they have a horde of obnoxious fans who come out of the woodwork when the baseball or football, and now basketball, team does well. They will go to sad and extreme lengths trying to keep up with other SEC schools. I'm not really looking for that sort of end from North Texas, but we could stand to adopt just about any good ideas to get students and alumni to care about the sports teams some more and understand the positive impact they can have as fans.

[greenjoe]

Fraternities always claim to support (attend) athletics but they don’t.  That’s why coaches always approach them and ask them to attend.  If they were already attending there would be no need to ask.

[GMG_Dallas]

Everybody is fighting for customers. Even in DFW, the Rangers, Mavericks, and Stars are constantly advertising home games and TV options. You can support your team/school but when life is busy, it's not always convenient to take 2 to 3 hours out of your day to go to a game.

If I were a student, I'd be more likely to attend a few games if the head coach came and spoke to my organization. If he can take an hour out of his busy schedule to come see me, I can do the same for him. If you don't make time for me, don't expect me to make time for you. These coaches love to cry about attendance during post-game interviews. Good on Chris Beard for putting in the work. What this also shows is even SEC schools have to put in effort to get students to attend games.

 

[MeanGreenZen]

I doubt Ross has done that. But as he grows and improves it can be something that he does that will propel him into a candidate for an elite job. And it is easy and it WOULD make an impact on student attendance. 
Most fraternity chapters have meetings on the same night of the week. You could hit 4-6 meetings in one night and be done in two hours. Do that twice and you have hit most of the fraternities and sororities.
My son goes to Arkansas and for the big games the students camp out for the best seats the night before a game. John Calipari would show up and bring donuts. He didn’t have to do that. But by doing that, he is rewarding those kids for creating demand for seats and they are way more likely to do it again. And they do. 

[GMGGWBG]

1 hour ago, GMG_Dallas said:

Everybody is fighting for customers. Even in DFW, the Rangers, Mavericks, and Stars are constantly advertising home games and TV options. You can support your team/school but when life is busy, it's not always convenient to take 2 to 3 hours out of your day to go to a game.

If I were a student, I'd be more likely to attend a few games if the head coach came and spoke to my organization. If he can take an hour out of his busy schedule to come see me, I can do the same for him. If you don't make time for me, don't expect me to make time for you. These coaches love to cry about attendance during post-game interviews. Good on Chris Beard for putting in the work. What this also shows is even SEC schools have to put in effort to get students to attend games.

 

Grant McCasland reached out to the community personally too.  

I am old but seem to remember them not selling beer at games.  But now, why wouldn't frats go to games?  Any excuse to drink beer and get loud would probably be welcomed.

Also, speaking on the PAC 12, that competition for customers is one of the negatives when looking at the DFW market.  One thing is for sure, in CUSA I went to a La Tech game where attendance was over 9000!!!  Last year, I went to an AAC game against SMU where attendance was just over 5000?

If we can get into the PAC 12, maybe that will draw more attention.  It is sad that we need that in order to get the benefit of the doubt on Selection Sunday.

[GMG_Dallas]

31 minutes ago, GMGGWBG said:

Grant McCasland reached out to the community personally too.  

I am old but seem to remember them not selling beer at games.  But now, why wouldn't frats go to games?  Any excuse to drink beer and get loud would probably be welcomed.

Also, speaking on the PAC 12, that competition for customers is one of the negatives when looking at the DFW market.  One thing is for sure, in CUSA I went to a La Tech game where attendance was over 9000!!!  Last year, I went to an AAC game against SMU where attendance was just over 5000?

If we can get into the PAC 12, maybe that will draw more attention.  It is sad that we need that in order to get the benefit of the doubt on Selection Sunday.

That La Tech game was very heavily marketed as it was to clinch the regular season crown. Proof that when the AD wants to, they can successfully market games.

[NorthTexasWeLove]

1 hour ago, GMGGWBG said:

Grant McCasland reached out to the community personally too.  

I am old but seem to remember them not selling beer at games.  But now, why wouldn't frats go to games?  Any excuse to drink beer and get loud would probably be welcomed.

Also, speaking on the PAC 12, that competition for customers is one of the negatives when looking at the DFW market.  One thing is for sure, in CUSA I went to a La Tech game where attendance was over 9000!!!  Last year, I went to an AAC game against SMU where attendance was just over 5000?

If we can get into the PAC 12, maybe that will draw more attention.  It is sad that we need that in order to get the benefit of the doubt on Selection Sunday.

That smu game game had over 7k. 

[GMGGWBG]

3 minutes ago, NorthTexasWeLove said:

That smu game game had over 7k. 

My mistake.  It was also against SMU.  The students definitely showed up for that one!  It was an awesome environment.  You could feel the excitement at both of them.  I would have been happy to see 5000 this year, but 7-9000 seems so far away now even though we had great players and a great team this year and the AAC was supposed to be a step up from CUSA.

[GMGGWBG]

When Ross Hodge can get attendance to 7-9000, then it will be time for him to leave and we will move to a bigger conference.

[MrAlien]

When I was a student at UNT, (fraternity, german club, church group, ROTC, (and half a dozen more)) had a designated basketball game night.  This was before social media, so a physical presence at any student event on campus was necessary to promote your organization and reach out to new members.   

[NorthTexasWeLove]

26 minutes ago, GMGGWBG said:

When Ross Hodge can get attendance to 7-9000, then it will be time for him to leave and we will move to a bigger conference.

Ross did his part. This isn't on him. 

[UNTLifer]

45 minutes ago, GMGGWBG said:

When Ross Hodge can get attendance to 7-9000, then it will be time for him to leave and we will move to a bigger conference.

Why will it be time for him to leave?  Get attendance to that number means we are still winning. Pay the man. 

[GMG_Dallas]

1 hour ago, GMGGWBG said:

 the AAC was supposed to be a step up from CUSA.

Other than Memphis, there was no reason to believe this would be true. The AAC lost 3 of its best programs, two of which (Cincy and Houston) were huge basketball brands. I'm glad we came up from CUSA because the money is better. It's time to do everything we can to move up again, this time to the new PAC. 

[GMGGWBG]

35 minutes ago, UNTLifer said:

Why will it be time for him to leave?  Get attendance to that number means we are still winning. Pay the man. 

Let's hope so!

[NT80]

57 minutes ago, NorthTexasWeLove said:

Ross did his part. This isn't on him. 

Yes, Ross provides a team worth the fan’s and student’s time to support.

The marketing and communication falls on the AD and his department to get people to the Pit.   I don’t see the effort happening.  Attendance is mostly on self-serve.