GP1

Depends on who you are selling it to. If you are selling it to dimwitted without an ounce of creativity athletic directors who will destroy the institutions they work for in order to get a higher paying job, it's an easy sell.

Fantastic article.

What's the solution? Well, if this is the case, stop competing against NFL teams, OSU and high school football. Akron already doesn't play on Sunday. HS football is on Fridays. Make Akron football benefit the athletes, students alumni fans and general community around Akron. Make game day a great experience for everyone. Play on a date and at a time that is most convenient for people to attend games. Produce a game that people will be willing to miss or schedule around the OSU vs Purdue,Northwestern, UCLA, Illinois, Iowa, yes.... Penn State is trash, Minnesota, Michigan State, Rutgers, Maryland, Ball State and Kent games.

The number of people deciding between going to a Zips game on Friday/Saturday or a Browns game is irrelevant. The greater Cleveland MSA is 3.7 million people. I'm not asking much out of a day after Thanksgiving game. I would be thrilled with 15,000 of those 3.7 million people showing up to watch them play the second least appealing MAC team in Buffalo. It's a fraction of the population. Don't get me started on yardwork being a significant factor either. It's two hours work at the most for everyone except the worst of procrastinators on the day after Thanksgiving. Someone with this personality deficiency will show up at 5 PM for a noon kickoff. Good grief. You could start raking at 8 AM and be to the game by noon if you lived in Summit County. There are so many problems that contribute to poor late season MAC attendance, it's hard to pinpoint one. The lack of vision by the conference is malpractice. Worst of all, this isn't going to change any time soon.

Maybe, maybe not. I really don't know. I'd like to ask the Sun Belt about this. What I am confident of is the athletic department should benefit the athletes students alumni fans and general community around Akron. The current TV model does not accomplish this. Taxpayers support UofA and their access to the athletic department isn't as great as it should be, and that goes for all schools.

Actually, the last game is on Friday. I think the day after Thanksgiving can be a good opportunity for fans who have the day off and need to get out of the house after a busy Thanksgiving. If I lived in NE Ohio, I think an early afternoon start could lend itself to a potentially nice day outside and maybe eating a nice dinner out after being in all day the day before. Everything I just posted makes sense, which makes me think the MAC will schedule the game when it is most likely rain during the fall, in the evening, so I predict the game will start at 8 PM.

Help me out here. Are the last two games optional to be on a week night or Saturday?

Whenever a MAC team doesn't have to play Sac State, that season should be referred to as a gelding.

They didn't used to. You have to understand, the people working in college athletics don't care about the average fan. They are catering to drunks and degenerate gamblers. Those two groups tend to get their days started later than most. Since they also tend to be life's failures, they don't have much to do on Monday morning.

Didn't know where to put this. Can you still buy a hot buttered hoagie on Exchange?

There are 18 year olds playing in the NHL and MLB. They'll be fine. Also, with the TP, just replace them when they wear down.

Too bad. It's their job now.

If CBB is worried about competing against The Masters, things are worse than I think. I think last year had the most Sunday viewers for The Masters ever. It was still several million viewers less than the final four. People watch The Masters because there is nothing else on TV and there will always be a certain number of people who like trust fund guys chase a ball around. Also, the final four isn't even played on Sunday. If CBB wants to expand the field, fine. They should get rid of conference tournaments if they do that. It would make the regular season more meaningful. Given players are professionals now, I don't think scheduling a 40+ game season would be unreasonable. 40 games is slightly less than half of NBA games. College football plays over half the number of NFL games. The expanded number of games would help weed out the field and give more time for the cream to rise to the top.

I'm not opposed to this, but it doesn't address the major problem college basketball is having. Basically, it's like crapping your pants then changing your shirt. The problem CBB is having is the regular season is getting squeezed out by the college football playoff and NFL playoffs on the front end leaving less time for regular fans to pay close attention so everything becomes about March Madness. My questions are these. Why does it have to be March Madness? Why couldn't it be April Madness? Could it be May Madness? Could the season be pushed back to starting a month later and have more time for fan interest to grow? Is it easier for fans in many parts of the country to get to regular season games in January/February or March/April? Now that the players are professionals, school doesn't matter so play whenever it makes it possible for people to be more interested in the sport.