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Do you really think they understand what a 1% change in price will do to demand?

Slate Article We've already touched on these topics. Just a good article. I love an article that takes a poke at athletic directors because I think they and their endless resume building are bankrupting college athletics. They can only hide in the weeds for so long until people start to see them as a huge part of the problem.

UNCC has done the same thing with their new 15,000 seat stadium. People also had to give a large donation to get tickets. All of it is impressive; however, the jump to D-1A will be a challenge for any of them and losing has a way of thinning out the herd of season ticket holders. I don't think UNCC will win because high school football isn't very good in NC (they will have to get players out of SC). ODU could win, but sometimes programs bite off more than they can chew. Novelty is a good thing and can sell tickets. Winning has to follow long term. Also, 25,000 seat stadiums aren't serious D-1A stadiums. In order to be a serious program, you have to fill up huge stadiums and collect all of the money that goes along with it. UNCC is filling up a stadium smaller than Bobcats Arena five times a year. While it is better that what we have done, it isn't enough. It goes back to the pretense of D-1A vs. The Reality. I wonder if the people at ODU understand the supply and demand curve and take this as an opportunity to bump up ticket prices a little. If you can't have a season ticket bump after success, when can it happen?

It could be, or it could be a load of crap. Either way, I'm a big believer in selling tickets to the masses. Real programs get the masses to attend games at face value for the tickets. Until teams can do that, they are pretenders.

I think it has more to do with quality of play and basic entertainment value. The AFL was a good league with good players playing an exciting brand of football. it didn't take long for the Jets to win the Super Bowl. The world league was a crap developmental league. The USFL had future NFL stars playing in it right out of college in their prime and was providing quality entertainment. To me, it is about entertainment. I'm not a big fan of minor league sports. I've been to games, but my interest falters quickly. I don't like to hear the word professional and see something that doesn't, in my eyes, meet a professional standard. When I watch college, I know I'm not getting a professional standard and it isn't meant to meet a professional standard. There is no pretense for anyone watching it and everyone totally understands what they are buying. That's why I still believe a college spring league would do well. People know the nonbcs teams aren't bcs level but understand it is college football. Americans love football and like to support it. The next time you are in a bar, look at how many people will watch a rerun on the NFL Network or ESPNU and not a live major league baseball game on the TV next to it. It is an addiction. The advantage of a college football spring league is they are taxpayer subsidized just like they are now, which is why to compare failed spring professional leagues to a potential college league isn't a very good comparison. The spring league would allow for more TV revenue and I firmly believe attendance because people won't have BCS games on TV. What the league would do for college football is bridge the gap between expenditures and revenue and give the taxpayers a badly needed break. There was once a book written about industry and the importance of being in the top 3 companies of any industry. A company can make a lot of money in third place. I dare say in the football industry in the US, NFL is #1, BCS is #2 and nonBCS is #3. We are in the top 3, we are being overshadowed by the other two. We would still be #3 in the spring, but out of the shadow. Once in the sunlight, there is growth (for those of you who like "growing and building). Stay in the shadow, and nothing grows. Personally, I'm tired of standing in the shadows and bitching about the bigger trees around me. Other than our own short sightedness, nothing is keeping us from walking out from under the trees.

Good post JZ84. I would only lend some caution. I've spent a lot of time in VA Beach in my corporate life and after living in the south, I see it as more of an area not starving for "big time" college athletics. VA Beach is similar to Charleston, SC in the three types of people who live there: old money, new money, no money. There is a lot more no money than anything. Hard to really support big time sports with that demographic. The old money is in retirement from somewhere else and they aren't interested in spending money. The new money is interested in other schools. The no money in VA Beach consists of poor Navy enlisted (many of whom are out to sea a lot) and poor minority. In areas like Mytrle Beach and Virginia Beach, people only make money 100 days a year when the summer months bring tourists. The other 265 days they hold tight to their money (ever see what a dump Myrtle Beach is 3 miles from the coast?). I don't think the question is whether or not they can get people to games...Give away enough tickets and anyone can afford to go. The question is whether or not they can get people (not just a few really rich people) with money to support the program. There is no doubt the recruiting is great, but the question of the population supporting the team is important.

In a head-to-head competition for the Dollar General crown, the MAC is winning by 20 lengths....

I don't see how a minor league feeder system will work. I want spring football and I will watch it when it is on (Hell, I watch the CFL), but I don't see how this particular idea will work. NFL careers are extremely short and the best exposure against the best competition a player can get between the ages of 18 and 23 is in college. I actually believe it would not be good for a 19 year old to try to play against a 25 year old with four years of BCS football and two years of "professional" under his belt. The shelf life of most players is pretty short....Especially at the margins. A minor league football system would supply players down the roster. College football mostly at the BCS level would still supply the stars of the NFL.

Only one of these leagues was a serious league. The XFL was more like the WWE. Football in Europe just isn't going to make it ever. See history of AFL for the USFL...it will work. It has to be run by serious people.

AFL The AFL had the same problems early and became so popular they were able to join with the NFL. Had the USFL not derailed itself with trying to compete against the NFL, it would have done well. The demand for football in the US is too great not to have a spring/summer league on a 100 yard field with sane rules. Don't be so closed minded...

I have not. Normally, I drink to get drunk and I can't drink 15-20 of those style beers. I get too full after a small number.

Link Some of you might find this interesting.

EDSBS posted this about conference realignment. Realignment continues to be an exhausting and inefficient way to give us what we really want - a schedule where Georgia Tech plays 11 games against a parliament of owls and goes 7-4. It does, however, serve as an excellent game for road trips! Pass this back to the kids and enjoy the laughter as they put Auburn into the ACC! After months of speculation and rumor, (any team except Notre Dame) announced that it is leaving (conference) for (new conference, or possibly the same conference) starting with the 20(SPF level Bob Davie should use but won't minus number of years Lane Kiffin will get on his contract to coach the Redskins) season. Athletic Director (John) (kitchen tool) said that the move would "provide us with the highest level of competition from long-established programs like (Holiday Bowl loser), (perennial 8-5 team), and (basketball school)." (Transferring school) will move into the (synonym for wizard) Division for football, where they are projected to finish (any ordinal number).

All kidding aside. That league would have to be the A-10 and ONLY the A-10. With the addition of VCU and Butler to the league, it presents a strong challenge and we have the horses to compete. I wouldn't do it for any other league.

Do you mean like the Ivy League or something even better?

Simple.... You address it with a furry mascot with a name not even remotely related to the team.

Link 1:30 commissioner of this league will be on the radio. Listen over the internet. USFL Q&A This guy is looking at cities like Omaha, Akron, etc. I think that could be a mistake. TV networks want viewer and one can't leave out Boston, NY, LA, etc. if the league is going to make it financially. The original USFL had teams in major media markets and was doing just fine. No reason to go away from that design. Funny, they don't seem to think playing in the summer/spring will hurt the players chances of getting with an NFL team...I agree. It wouldn't hurt a college kids chances either.

For the next five years, our entire athletic department is better off in the MAC.

If we accepted the bid with the idea we would have 1-2 more years in the MAC, we wouldn't draw enough players in the next two years to compete early in the BE. No BE player wants to come to the MAC and play against the MAC for half of his career. I'm not willing to risk an immediate jump for a hypothetical that may not pan out and in 20 years we are still in the building process. I've had enough of that. If the odds of Akron moving to another conference in the next decade are 1,000,000 : 1...... I'd like to put $50 on Akron.

We want the same thing. You want it today, I want it when we are ready. Will we have a team to compete in the BE in five years? Not if we run into their league and go at best one year of 3-8 the first 3 years. We don't have nearly the talent to compete with all of their teams right now. It would be even more losing. We need to get winning in the MAC and then turn that momentum into something else. More losing does zero for the program and gets coaches fired...coaches getting fired extends the never ending "building process". No thanks. Some on this board have been obsessed with the BE since I started reading this board years ago. I have a feeling the BE for some would be like the good looking girl in college everyone wanted to have sex with only to find out the girl was bad in the sack once you got her there. If the BE is such a great league, why is everyone leaving?

I wouldn't make the jump to either right now. Suicide doesn't interest me. If we are good enough for the BE right now (which we aren't and the move would destroy our basketball program), in five years when Bowden has the program turned around and we are comfortable with the shake-ups in college football being over, we would be able to make a better decision. I don't think we know enough about what the BE will look like in five years to make an informed decsion. I don't see how joining a conference on the decline is the solution. Quick decisions and panic result in the current form of the Cleveland Browns. I'm not interested in being The University of Akron Browns. I actually think gozips19 is right on the money with not making any moves on our own. Something bold needs to be done and a couple of conferences acting together is the type of bold move I would like to see. Until then, Captain Smith needs more help on the deck.

Would we recruit better? Yes. Would we recruit well enough? I don't know that and neither do you. Cincinnati is a good example right up until they got absolutely run off the field against Florida in the Sugar Bowl. However, it just so happens they were able to hire an excellent coach and benefit from Va Tech, BC and Miami leaving a few years earlier. Cincy will further benefit from WVU leaving the league and the illusion of them being a national program will continue. UCONN has the attention of an entire state. UofA has the attention of an entire county. What makes you think UCONN and Cincy will be in the BE in five years? L'Ville? Rutgers? We are decades behind these programs. All of them probably have better and bigger stadiums than we do. Do you want to add to the stadium we already aren't filling a section of? Good luck getting the money. Maybe you can take another 20 year building process, but I've seen enough. We need to start winning where we are now. Once we start winning (we will win under Bowden) and the future of college football becomes more clear, then we should talk moving.

I don't know if I was too old, but I was too drunk. I fell down when I jumped over the wall.

I love the listing ship remark. Above is a nice league if UCONN, Rutgers, L'vill and Cincy stay in the league. If they do, it will be years before we could compete for a football championship in this league. That's the pickle we would be in. The BE is not worth being in of these four schools leave...It also could hurt our other sports if they stay. It would be the end of our success as a basketball program if UCONN, Rutgers, Lvill and Cincy stay in the BE. We can't beat the 7th place Big Ten team in the first round of the NIT with the most talented team in recent memory, we wouldn't compete well in the BE at all. Sometimes, the best move is to do nothing. Right now, the nonbcs conferences are either cannibalizing each other, or they are bringing in teams that simply don't belong in D-1A. None of them are getting better in a meaningful way. Everyone at our level needs to stop fighting each other in an attempt to become king of the midgets and figure out a way for everyone to work together to stabilize nonbcs football. I'm going to channel the Dave in Green within me now....We only get one shot at this because of the cost of exiting conferences. We shouldn't rush into anything and should be very careful where we go and have a full understanding of what we are going to will look like in 5 years. Doing nothing and trying to dominate the MAC over the next five years could be our best option.

I don't mean to be a wet blanket, but can anyone describe to me what the Big East will look like in five years? The way I see it, the only attractions to the BE at this point are the remaining schools of Rutgers, UCONN and L'Ville. I would be shocked if any of those schools were in the BE in five years. My guess is they are waiting to see how things pan out for Syracuse and Pitt before escaping the BE...probably a good move on their part. Why would we want to join a league others are trying to escape? This is what I mean by looking at the world in the rearview mirror. Sometimes, people see the world as what it was and want it to be that way forever even after the world changed. Republicans want it to be the 1950s forever and the Democrats want it to be the 1960s forever. That's the way I think some see the BE. Some want it to be Pitt, Syracuse, WVU, Boston College, Miami, VA Tech, etc. instead of leftovers living in a dying, but once really good league. What teams the BE replaces Pitt, Syracuse and WVU with will not be nearly as good as those three so the quality of football will not be any better than a CUSA. If football is the reason we examining options, the BE is not the place to be. We have one shot to get this right.