Also, per a WKU fan, some perspective:
Hard to believe where WKU was to where we are.1993 - football program was one vote shy of being cut by the board of regents.
2006 - Playing in a one-sided stadium in the FCS Gateway Football Conference (now the MVC Football Conference)
2008 to 2010 - 26 game losing streak during our transition from FCS to FBS
2015 - CUSA champions in only our 2nd year in the conference and in the Top 25 8) ;D
They hired Ross bjork as AD in 2010 and a lot changed for the better at that school.
Ross would only remain at WKU for 3 seasons because a bigger school would identify him, Ole Miss. Bjork hired Hugh freeze and is overseeing a huge athletics expansion at Ole Miss.
[quote=“ninerID, post:2, topic:30025”]They hired Ross bjork as AD in 2010 and a lot changed for the better at that school.
Ross would only remain at WKU for 3 seasons because a bigger school would identify him, Ole Miss. Bjork hired Hugh freeze and is overseeing a huge athletics expansion at Ole Miss.[/quote]
I’m unaware of that the bolded/underlined phrase means?
[quote=“ninerID, post:2, topic:30025”]They hired Ross bjork as AD in 2010 and a lot changed for the better at that school.
Ross would only remain at WKU for 3 seasons because a bigger school would identify him, Ole Miss. Bjork hired Hugh freeze and is overseeing a huge athletics expansion at Ole Miss.[/quote]I bet he didn’t push for football for 20 years though.
That’s all fine and dandy but how do you not even get close to selling out a 22,000 seat stadium? YOU’RE HOSTING THE CONFERENCE TITLE GAME!!!
Sad.
[quote=“SteauA, post:5, topic:30025”]That’s all fine and dandy but how do you not even get close to selling out a 22,000 seat stadium? YOU’RE HOSTING THE CONFERENCE TITLE GAME!!!
Sad.[/quote]
This is why I want to be conservative with our expansion.
They’re in a pretty small town, so a lot of their regular fans likely had to come in from out of town, so I’ll give a little bit of understanding for that…
…but I don’t want that to ever be us. I’d rather have visitors complaining about not being able to get tickets than haveempty seats for a conference championship game.
[quote=“SteauA, post:5, topic:30025”]That’s all fine and dandy but how do you not even get close to selling out a 22,000 seat stadium? YOU’RE HOSTING THE CONFERENCE TITLE GAME!!!
Sad.[/quote]
Student tickets are probably handled differently, season ticket holders have to buy another ticket, opponent allotment probably different, short notice that it was a game weekend, on TV, at noon, in an MSA half the size of Hickory, NC.
[quote=“ninerID, post:7, topic:30025”][quote=“SteauA, post:5, topic:30025”]That’s all fine and dandy but how do you not even get close to selling out a 22,000 seat stadium? YOU’RE HOSTING THE CONFERENCE TITLE GAME!!!
Sad.[/quote]
Student tickets are probably handled differently, season ticket holders have to buy another ticket, opponent allotment probably different, short notice that it was a game weekend, on TV, at noon, in an MSA half the size of Hickory, NC.[/quote]WKU fans were blaming it on HS football championship games being the same day.
That’s where we are though. HS football championship games > CUSA championship games.
[quote=“Niner National, post:8, topic:30025”][quote=“ninerID, post:7, topic:30025”][quote=“SteauA, post:5, topic:30025”]That’s all fine and dandy but how do you not even get close to selling out a 22,000 seat stadium? YOU’RE HOSTING THE CONFERENCE TITLE GAME!!!
Sad.[/quote]
Student tickets are probably handled differently, season ticket holders have to buy another ticket, opponent allotment probably different, short notice that it was a game weekend, on TV, at noon, in an MSA half the size of Hickory, NC.[/quote]WKU fans were blaming it on HS football championship games being the same day.
That’s where we are though. HS football championship games > CUSA championship games.[/quote]
I just looked it up that WKU only had 5 home games before this weekend, so that makes it a little odd.
I looked b/c i was curious if they had played 6 or 7 home games already. A 7th or 8th home game would have exhausted some fans that travel.
Excuses are cute. If you can’t sell out your stadium for the conference title game you should probably disband the program.
I agree with Lew by the way, we should not look at expanding, like ever. We would need like 5 consecutive 9-3 or better seasons to start thinking about it realistically.
These are just facts, not opinions. We averaged under 15k this season.
[quote=“SteauA, post:10, topic:30025”]Excuses are cute. If you can’t sell out your stadium for the conference title game you should probably disband the program.
I agree with Lew by the way, we should not look at expanding, like ever. We would need like 5 consecutive 9-3 or better seasons to start thinking about it realistically.
These are just facts, not opinions. We averaged under 15k this season.[/quote]
I second the motion. Or third, or whatever.
[quote=“SteauA, post:10, topic:30025”]Excuses are cute. If you can’t sell out your stadium for the conference title game you should probably disband the program.
I agree with Lew by the way, we should not look at expanding, like ever. We would need like 5 consecutive 9-3 or better seasons to start thinking about it realistically.
These are just facts, not opinions. We averaged under 15k this season.[/quote]
I understand this train of thought, but I also think we have to expand for 2 reasons - recruiting andOOC games. I expect that the Duke and Chapel Hill games have a clause in them about stadium size. Hell the App one might too. if we want to bring high level competition into campus we have to be bigger. No other way around it. The second is recruiting. Playing in the smallest FBS stadium has got to be a challenge for recruiting.
We don’t have to go to 35k or 40K but I do think we need to get north of 20K if we expect to recruit talent and land bigger home games.
Here’s another excuse: if you could only go to one, do you go to the CUSA championship game or the bowl game?
[quote=“ninerID, post:13, topic:30025”]Here’s another excuse: if you could only go to one, do you go to the CUSA championship game or the bowl game?[/quote]Not all bowl locations are created equally.
HS FB Championships? If WKU fans like HS better than college, then they should commit hari kari.
HS football is like a religion in some states. No idea if Kentucky is one of those states though.
C-USA championship game. Not even close. Bowls are glorified exhibitions.
C-USA championship game. Not even close. Bowls are glorified exhibitions.[/quote]
Outside of the Rose Bowl, Cotton Bowl, Peach Bowl, and like 3 others I agree with you.
Our first bowl game - I dont care where it is, I will be at. After the first one though - much will depend on bowl location and opponent.
I don’t think there’s anything that could get me to pass up on our first Conference Championship. Unless it’s a bowl game in the south east or one of the bigger bowls I can miss that.