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What went wrong this year?

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NJOWL said

Aside: Rutgers and Maryland do not get the same money the other B10 schools do, which is another reason why moving up is not all it’s perked up to be. I just wish more of our games were on ESPN. 

Mac games get on tv, lots of them. 
Posted On: Dec 6th 2018, 10:48 AM #384010

I do not 4 of our 6 homes games played on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

If we started playing games in the middle of the week to appease ESPN that will be the end of my season tickets.
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Look, I would not be able to even go to Tuesday games - but I would definitely keep my 6 season tickets.

And unless your season tickets make up the nearly 300k/year difference between the MAC & CUSA media contract, then I don't think the school would mind a few Tuesday kickoffs. Not to mention, the extra exposure from being the only sporting event on TV.

Sources:
- MAC: The New MAC - ESPN TV Deal Explained - Hustle Belt
- CUSA: C-USA Inks TV Deal, Will Appear on Multiple Platforms - Athletic Business



                                         ROLL OWLS
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NJOWL said

Look, I would not be able to even go to Tuesday games - but I would definitely keep my 6 season tickets.

And unless your season tickets make up the nearly 300k/year difference between the MAC & CUSA media contract, then I don't think the school would mind a few Tuesday kickoffs. Not to mention, the extra exposure from being the only sporting event on TV.

Sources:
- MAC: The New MAC - ESPN TV Deal Explained - Hustle Belt
- CUSA: C-USA Inks TV Deal, Will Appear on Multiple Platforms - Athletic Business


Posted On: Dec 6th 2018, 12:06 PM #384013



You would never grow the fanebase.

Those games on Tuesdays get a couple thousand. The MAC accepts what it is as a leuage and realizes they will never grow fan bases so they sell out for TV.
How many maction games did you honestly you watch this year? Those games don’t bring any real ex .
You just make your league a punchline.  

The Mac and the belt shrugs it’s shoulders and the fans and say “we don’t care and rather fill slow ESPN gaps for just a couple hundred thousand extra  per team”

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NIU won the MAC this year.

I can’t name a single player in that team without looking it up and I know more college football than most people.

Please save the “exposure” argument. 
 

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While I agree that the P5 would be extremely hard to get into, and should not be a short time priority, I do think that if Lane turns this around and we churn out some more 11+ win seasons, the AAC will at least be a conversation and people will write articles about us and FIU moving up. We have I think 30k students, and are a very young school. Us and FIU are here to stay and have huge student populations. Also, once the Schmidt center for academic and athletic excellence gets built, it'll raise our profile. We just need now to dominate C-USA and be the premier team for years, which I feel we're capable of doing. Lastly, location matters a great deal. We have the best weather in the country and in a great area within driving distance of Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, and WPB, right smack dab in the middle of the tri county area. There is great value in that. As others have mentioned, getting a signature win can go a long way in establishing a passionate fan base. I see nothing but growth in the next decade.
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The exposure argument was ancillary, even though I usually watched one game a week and could name a few player son Buffalo or Ohio. But I digress and realize I am in the minority. The main argument was the cash. More money would obviously be nice and we could play 2 games per year in the middle of the week: one away and one home. As long as the games are centered around each team's bye week it would not really be an issue.

If C-USA has not even explored this option then we may need a change at the top.

As for moving up, our best bet is UCF & Cincinnati get swallowed up by the Big12 and we take ucf's spot. Otherwise, there is no incentive for the AAC to expand.

Look, we don't have it so bad. Not to mention ODU & Charlotte, added for their media exposure, are pumping a lot into their programs. Who knows, maybe they will be good soon.

Back to the main point of the thread: put yourself back in time to December 2016. Someone comes up to you and says, "Hey, your school is going to hire Lane Kiffin. He will win the conference in his first year. Then win a bowl in our home stadium by almost 50 points. The year after that he won't even make a bowl game."

I would be giddy and gladly accept that, as I do today. This season was a let down, sure. But in the aggregate, I am more than happy with Lane and the direction of the program. Also only one rain delay this year was nice.


                                         ROLL OWLS
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I'm tired of the move to AAC or P5 argument. I'm not taking a position on whether or not we could or should (though I obviously have one for both).

I've shifted my hypothetical why-not to our own conference. There's gotta be another G5 realignment on the eventual horizon (after network contracts expire or maybe attendance dips further or maybe both and more, whatever).

I have nothing against our far-flung Texas partners, but I'd swap'em for some more  Appalachian-based schools (App State, GA State and so on). I'm pro regional conferences, I guess. To me, it implies easier travel, higher attendance, better rivalries (in game and for recruiting). …south Florida schools will always be an outlier.

It doesn't matter, I'm not moving any needles here. And FAU, FIU and MIA won't be together in the ACC anytime soon. So it goes.
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I agree with Art.

Any serious talk about moves are predicated on two things.  First, there has to be a spot.  Second, the conference who has that spot has to be interested in you.  There was a LOT of excitement generated from last season's 11 wins, conference crown, and bowl blow-out.  But it takes several years of continued success for teams to get the call up when (and if) it ever becomes possible (look at Boise State).

So FAU should focus on being the best C-USA team, and should drive getting more than 1/2 the stadium filled, and if they have any pull they should push for Art's regionalization of the conference if they can.  All of that other stuff comes after you become a program with a history of sustained success.  And the Owls need to get really good where we are before we think about being somewhere else.
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No point rehashing a lot of the points already made in this thread. Agree that we aren't moving conferences any time soon and that the goal for the immediate future is to excel in conference, which for whatever reason we didn't do this year. Simply put: Bad coaching (calling it what it is), lack of preparation, inconsistent QB, WR, defensive play, horrific special teams, and a bad case of "rat poisoning" – I firmly believe the team ingested too much, thought they were just going to roll over teams again, got hit in the mouth, had no idea how to respond, and the staff never reigned these guys in to get the focus right.
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I know some gave me a hard time about my "dancing on the sideline" comment, but that was just one sign that this team had a lack of discipline (coaching).  Watching the kickers behave like that, when our kicking game was easily as bad at it has ever been. I 100% blame this season on coaching.
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