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Post by motorcitysam on Sept 17, 2023 13:51:04 GMT -5
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Post by motorcitysam on Nov 2, 2023 12:35:25 GMT -5
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Post by Commissioner on Nov 2, 2023 13:49:14 GMT -5
I know this is heresy to most mid-major fans, but maybe the solution is to quit trying to play with high majors.
Yes, the NCAA tournament brings in some important revenue to smaller programs, but it's not huge revenue, and while some use it to fund other athletics (guaranteeing they won't ever really compete in hoops) others just plough it back into the basketball program, but of course they still can't begin to keep up. I don't know exactly how much being D1 hoops does for enrollment, alumni giving, student spirit, etc. Certainly a run to the Final 4, to the Elite 8, maybe even to the Sweet 16 helps a lot, but those are rare--especially to the final 8 or 4.
Meanwhile, you're playing way too many games on the road, and let's be honest--there is increasing little that a school like UD has in common with a school like UM, and virtually nothing that a school such as, e.g., Incarnate Word shares with its high major brethren. 50-60 years ago, the bigs didn't sell out every game, and attendance at mid-majors was higher. Our home schedule could feature games with Michigan State, Villanova, Notre Dame. Not any more. NIL is another big separator now added to the mix.
And while in the short term mid-major fans clearly want to see their teams play high majors, I wonder if long-term that's not one of the things eating into the fan base, and leading to the slow, steady decline in mid-major attendance. Because you're never competing for a national ranking or title, you're playing too many road games, you lose too often because you play high majors in road games.
Maybe, just maybe, promoting a good mid-major product freed from the frustrations of the NCAA would be an improvement. I mean that maybe very sincerely, because I suspect that is not the case. The FCS championship game, for example, is usually lucky to draw 20,000, whereas a mediocre D-1 bowl game like the Pinstripe Bowl will draw 30K. One reason the NIT is making the move it is is because--we hate to admit it--a 15-19 Ohio State team will draw more viewers, both live and televised, than the typical 22-9 mid-major regular season conference champ. The CIT never really got a following (although it was choosing from mid-major left-overs--would it have done better getting all the mid-majors?). So I'm hardly convinced of my own logic, here.
But maybe it's at least worth thinking about.
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