Is it actually exposure if few people see the game? It's like that tree falling in the forest thing.

Many of you die-hards would be surprised to see how low the ratings are, even for ESPN's top channel.

I have never read anything related to profits from a SunBelt televised game. Whatever they are, they could not amount to more than the loss in ticket revenue (based on the low-rent "Fathead" and other commercials that air during these games). The Okla. State game was a rare situation where another entity was bidding for the game in Texas.

In order for recruits (Who care about out-of-state kids when there are so many areas of the state not covered now?) to see the game, they have to know about it. No one thinks of college football on Wednesdays, and the game will get very little pre-press (hard enough to get post-game coverage) outside of Palm Beach County. The ESPN channels may give it a few promos, but many peple will flat out miss the game because they won't know it's being played on a night on which no one expects to see football.

The landscape is changing, College footbal is being played more frequently during the weekdays, Louisville played many games on Thursdays just for TV exposure, regardless of the ratings any exposure for the university is good exposure.

I think there are trade offs that are being made and attendance is one of them - let's look at the recruits, they want to be on TV, if that means playing on a Wed. so be it. Let's not overlook the fact that there are many teams out there that would love the chance to play TV games, lets not take them lightly and the value they do bring - sacrifies must be made. We all know that attendance is not the greatest so the trade off of playing during the week is not that be of a deal where we will lose some tickets sales, but wil gain those in viewers. So lets says we only draw 5,000 for the ULL game and our base avg. is aroung 11,000 fans per game, I do believe we will get more then 11,000 fans watching even on a Wed. night. So, the 5,000 in attendance, plus lets say 30,000 watch us play - that is still a bigger draw then we would have gotten at Lockhart - may not sound impressive, but reallity says 30,000 wacth FAU -vs- ULL instead of 6,000.

We have to start some where and recruits love TV games period, if we want to continue to attract better athletes the TV games are a must - and the sacrifies we make now will have bigger payoffs later.

I have been watching this thread since it was posted. Some good points were made. My take:

We don't have a lot of options right now. We can't call the shots like some of the more established BCS schools. At this point in our growth, we need to give up more than we take in regarding attendance and exposure. We can play hard ball and be stuck in lower level mediocrity or we can take baby steps(like these) to improve ourselves.

Let's hope that the admin put out a good marketing effort to let people know about this game's date. We should have learned from last year's OK State game and make improvements on getting people to the game. The TV part will take care of itself because ESPN would lose out if they don't promote their own game. I'm sure they wouldn't toss this game away like that.

Remember. Only 5 years playing football in on of the hardest fan base markets in the country. This process will gradually build to where FAU can begin to take harder looks at TV options.

BMarkey, I know that the game isn't going to draw millions of viewers. However, even if only 1,000 people nationwide watch the Wednesday game, that is 1,000 more that will know about FAU than if the game weren't televised. Publicity is publicity period.

I like what was said about Louisville and the Thursday night games. They were a fairly well-known team prior to the run of Thursday games. However, after playing numerous Thursday night games and beating FSU of course, they suddenly jumped onto the national scene.

This is free publicity for FAU and it isn't like attendance is dropping from 50,000 to 25,000. It might drop from 12,000 to 9,000. I think it is worth the price. GO OWLS!!!

Considering all the numbers that have been tossed out there regarding potential viewers, what would really make this a success would be an absolute blow-out by FAU.

If we showed up and just demolished ULL, it would be all over the media, to a degree. ESPN would definitely give it air time on Sportscenter and the area papers would pick it up. I'm talking about a truly dominating effort on both sides of the ball.

I'm willing to bet that someone somewhere in the country would be channel surfing and it would catch his eye and spread the word.

Just another spin on taking small steps to make us a great program.

BTW, what one poster mentioned about Louisville is absolutely true. They played ALOT of games during the week to develop exposure and it obviously helped them.

The other thing, college football is moving to more games during the week every season. I remember towards the end of last season before the Bowls, you could see a game almost any night of the week. Oversaturated?? Only if the talent isn't high IMO.

People are watching the weekday games or else ESPN wouldn't spend the money to televise them. There are a lot of serious football fans around the country. GO OWLS!!!

They are televising the games to fill dead air. They are money losers in many instances. The best way you can tell that these games have very low ratings is to look at the Fathead and other pay-per-order commercials. If the big advertisers are not linked to the game, it's a big loser, ratings-wise. If the ads aren't there, neither is the revenue.

As for the opponent, no offense to Louisiana, but I can think of a few colleges that get even less national media attention than FAU. One would be the Owls' opponent.

>>I know that the game isn't going to draw millions of viewers. However, even if only 1,000 people nationwide watch the Wednesday game, that is 1,000 more that will know about FAU than if the game weren't televised. Publicity is publicity period.<<

My argument is that 1,000 (or even 10,000) viewers spread from Fargo to Spokane does FAU just about zero good, while those same numbers at the game, or watching from Florida coulds pay off major dividentds - in revenue as well as recruiting and media/public attention.

Also, the game needs to be good for the fan if the college wants to build a loyal fan base and school traditions. The fan does not want to go (rushing from work and leaving early to beat the traffic and get enough sleep) to a football game on a Wednesday, Thursday or Friday. The fans have been voting with their empty seats on this issue since these made-for-TV game started.

I dont buy that they are filing "dead air". If they just wanted to do that they could put reruns of poker championships and cheerleader competitions that always can be counted on to bring in a small but loyal audience. I cant tell you how many times Ive watched crummy teams playing on Tuesday and Wednesday just because it was college football and I love the sport and would rather watch it than the latest reality show the networks are running. I know there are others like me which is why they televise these games.
Remember FAU is doing this only one game out of 12. It could be worse we could be UCF who's playing three games on weekdays. Even a big school FSU is playing a Thursday night game, even though their fans would rather they play it on a Saturday because they understand the weeknight advantages. The key is not overdoing it and making a schedule full of weekngiht games.
Some casual FAU football fans may actually be more likely to go to the game on a weeknight. On a Saturday there is often much more attractive games available. For example, this year FAU-FIU's game will have a BIG drop in attendance from last year if they dont move it from its scheduled 11/25 4pm slot because the Florida-FSU game is happening at the same time. Only the most hardcore FIU or FAU fan is going to pass up UF-FSU to go to the game. Now if they moved it to Friday or Wednesday they might get a lot more people than they are going to get on Saturday.

The rating may not be the greatest, but ESPN must make it worth their while or they would bother with the production cost. Weekday game is just a way to expand the market and I don't think the school would agree to a weekday game just for TV exposure if the offset of losing a percentage in attendance was not being compensated for in other ways.

For a young program, with so, so attendance I think its a gamble that we can afford to make for the time being.