What you're missing is the bigger picture and the years ahead. Sibs Weekend is a great recruiting tool for the university and in many cases, gets current students in the Convo who might not normally go. When you have all those new eyes on the game and you lay an egg, many of those folks just won't come back.
Over 6,300 in the Convo today, a good crowd size in 2025, but a so-so, weeknight crowd in the previous century.
Alan's point stands, however. You want to put your best effort forward in front of the largest crowd of the year, or one of the largest crowds. Send them home happy.
By comparison, 9 of the 12 games in the SBC-MAC challenge today (all at MAC sites) had crowds less than 2,000. Miami, giddy about drawing 7,900 last Saturday for its game v. Ohio, drew a whopping 1,800 today.
UT (4,400) and Ball St. (3,400) joined Ohio in getting crowds that topped the 2,000 threshold.
Boy, has the MAC fallen big time. Not just in quality of basketball, but also in getting fans in the door.
On a positive, the MAC did win 8 out of 12 today v. the Sun Belt. And, a MAC team, Akron, now holds the nation's longest winning streak with Duke and Auburn losing today. Although that might be more of an indictment on the strength of the league than a compliment for coach Groce's team.