College Sports / Conference Realignment
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ACC Conference Realignment News: The Future Of ACC Football Teams Beyond 2024 Remains Uncertain
Clemson and Florida State are both suing the ACC. Read more about how that affects the FBS college football landscape.
herosports.com
Illini in Italy
- Illini HQ, Florida Panhandle
Another nail in the college sports coffin . . .
House et al plaintiffs request judge consider allowing collective bargaining
House et al plaintiffs request judge consider allowing collective bargaining
UC Davis joining Mountain West for all sports, except for football in 2026. Aggies will stay in the Big Sky for football.
Ah yes, I've always said that DeKalb has the most beautiful mountains
You mean you don't enjoy that Atlantic view you get in Palo Alto or Berkeley or Dallas?
U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken. My cousin.
not much about college football making any sense lately
Illini2010-11
- Sugar Grove
Not sure where to put this, but apparently Ohio legislature has nothing better to do:
www.espn.com
Bill would make flag planting at Ohio St. a felony
An Ohio state representative has introduced a bill that would classify flag planting at Ohio Stadium around Buckeyes football games as a felony.
Illini2010-11
- Sugar Grove
I agree and disagree at the same time. I kind of like the Tuesday and Wednesday MACtion. They are really the only games on during these time slots, so there are more potential viewership than on a traditional Saturday. I think the lack of fans in the stands has much less to do with the time and more to do with the actual demand.
Illwinsagain
- Cary, IL
Not to mention the Big 10 having 18 teams.
They would at least have a history with schools like Nevada, San Jose State, and UNLV when they were conference rivals n the Big West during the mid-90s.
The good old big west. NIU joined after most of the originals dropped football, but I think they played big west teams in a few bowls prior. At least one. It is more history than cal and Stanford in the acc.
Shief
- Champaign Area
If NIU will be a Mountain West football member, I wonder how long it would be before North Dakota State, South Dakota State, Montana, Montana State, and other western FCS leaders consider moving up.
I said this a while back, I wouldn’t be against Illinois State, Southern Illinois, MO St., SDSU, NDSU, ... moving up from FBS together and having an FCS Missouri Valley Conference or whatever name would be used. Maybe Montana and Montana St participate in this north central conference also. MO St. is moving up next year, CUSA I think, but I'd like to see a conference of the midsized Midwestern and nearby state schools.
I said this a while back, I wouldn’t be against Illinois State, Southern Illinois, MO St., SDSU, NDSU, ... moving up from FBS together and having an FCS Missouri Valley Conference or whatever name would be used. Maybe Montana and Montana St participate in this north central conference also. MO St. is moving up next year, CUSA I think, but I'd like to see a conference of the midsized Midwestern and nearby state schools.
Certainly, demand for NIU football isn’t astronomical, but the weekday night games certainly have an impact. Makes sense considering quite a few people on here don’t seem to like Fri or Sat night games cuz of the time. Imagine how unpopular Tues or Wed night games would be with Illini fans. Here is comparison of attendance for some of Huskies’ games.
NIU Saturday Home Games
WIU — 10,800
Buffalo — 18,700
UMass — 12,500
Toledo — 18,400
CMU — 5,900
NIU Weekday Hime Games
Akron — 6,800
NIU Weekday Away Games
WMU — 10,300
M-OH — 5,900
Illini2010-11
- Sugar Grove
Not sure the weekday is the reason for the dropoff in attendance in the numbers you have shown, but more so the time of year. Mid-November games are always difficult to fill, regardless of when the game is played (weather related issues, team record, etc.). The three games that have attendance below 10,000 were all the November games. I really do not think it mattered if the game was played on Tuesday, Wednesday, or Saturday.
The bolded above does not really impact NIU as much, as much of the alumni base and fans that would attend games are a fairly close drive (relative to the drive for Illini alumni to Champaign). I am a member of a country club in DeKalb, and those members that do go to NIU football games actually prefer the weeknight games (probably due to wanting to golf on Saturdays).
This is pathetic for a school that's made the Orange Bowl relativdly recently and beat multiple ranked teams to be honest. If they have to slightly sidestep to move on up - they should.
I disagree. I’m sure as you say, the time of year has some impact, but even with the expected poor attendance for the Sat after Thanksgiving game, NIU averaged nearly twice the home attendance for its Saturday games as it did for the home weekday game. Find it very difficult to believe a 6pm start time on a Weds doesn’t suppress attendance. Not to mention the weather is likely more impactful in the evening than the day during Nov.
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Illini2010-11
- Sugar Grove
Having kickoff below 50 degrees is definitely the biggest factor for lower attendance (kickoff temp was 48 degrees), as well as playing a very bad Akron team. The Toledo game (where they had near sellout) had a much larger attendance because of the quality of opponent, as well as temperatures being in the 70s for a mid-October game. I believe they would have had a fairly high attendance if it was a weeknight as well with decent weather.
It simply is not fair to compare one cold Wednesday game in mid-November to the average attendance and then claim it is primarily because the game was played on Wednesday. I highly doubt that NIU would have had much larger attendance if that game was played on Saturday either where the weather was also in the 40s. I would be more interested in the correlation to weather temperature and attendance compared to day of game and attendance. A mid-week game for programs like Illinois is not a good idea, but schools in the MAC are generally much smaller, and having near exclusive football media monopoly for MACtion is great for the players to showcase their skills.
BZuppke
- Plainfield
So would the new regime in House replace NIL?
‘The settlement includes provisions that would cap how much each team could pay its athletes and restrict boosters from paying more to players as a recruiting incentive, which athletic directors and conference commissioners say is necessary to maintain competitive balance.’
‘The settlement includes provisions that would cap how much each team could pay its athletes and restrict boosters from paying more to players as a recruiting incentive, which athletic directors and conference commissioners say is necessary to maintain competitive balance.’
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