I like the idea but it worries me that I might have to be that sober driver. I don't know how any legitimate OU grad can complete an annual pilgrimage to Athens without a post-game shuffle down Court Street. 

It's not that hard.

Yes true but if you bring dads to a big name game they will get more interested in the program and follow the team more. If they see a good game they will want to come back. If they see a bad game they won't. So money wise I don't really know how much we get because we probably cut from future profit. Obviously you cant calculate how many would come back but I feel like once you see one good game in the convo it's hard not to come back. It seems like the biggest gap in our fan base is our parents because they really have no interest because the competition isn't good when they come so they think we're just a small time school.

I've been under the impression Dad's Weekend dates are set years in advance by the university. Athletics then just makes sure they have a game on the schedule. But this year the date fell on "exhibition weekend" (NCAA doesn't allow regular season games), so Marietta was the best option out there. Certainly better than having Wooster or someone like that - Marietta is a draw in SE Ohio.

My two cents....

1. Three's no doubt in my mind that attendance and fan engagement for Saturday games would be better with stronger MAC opponents on those dates. But, winning and winning convincingly, has an impact on attendance.

2. From a student/athlete perspective, I would rather have our teams playing at home mid-week and on the road on the weekend. There are fewer missed classes and our student/athletes have an opportunity to be fresher in the classroom on the day following a game. Exams, presentations and due dates for papers/projects don't flex for student/athletes at Ohio. The only difference with other students that I know of is that academic advisors can administer/proctor exams if they are scheduled on a travel day. Part of the development process for our student/athletes as people is being able to get back to the Convo following a road game at 3 a.m. and being fresh/ready for an exam in your 8 a.m. class that day. But, I would rather have that happen rarely, and, for our players to have as normal a student experience as possible.

A couple of my buddies brought their fathers to Dad's weekend games leading them to become pretty big Ohio basketball fans. Even following graduation, they still follow the program. That isn't to say they are diehards coming to the every game, but I know they have asked me to link them free away steams every year.

I share the outrage over the lack of home Saturday games. It is either the MAC office or our own AD... I would appreciate an explanation from either. Maybe the MAC doesn't want our attendance too far out in front of other inferior programs??

As I have said before, I don't like the good home games while students are gone. Not because students "miss" the game, but because I want our best opponents to face as tough of a home court advantage from us as possible.

...

Negativity aside... Overall, I like the SOS of this schedule. With Hawaii, I think our RPI will be good. I disagree with others who have claimed this team cannot challenge for an at-large. We have a strong starting 5. Our bench is unproven, but no one comes into a season without questions... We need to do well in Hawaii to have a chance for a high RPI, but beat GWU and another good opponent and then make the finals and that'll be a quality OOC showing (assuming we take care of business over the rest of OOC play)
Last year, our OOC showing wasn't the reason we missed the quality tournaments. Our MAC showing was. All on us.

For the life of me, I'll never understand why preferential scheduling, in terms of Saturday matchups, isn't given by the MAC to schools like Ohio, Akron, Toledo, Buffalo, Kent, Western Michigan...etc. They do a very shoddy job of putting their best games on days and in venues that will be the best showcase for the conference. In February and March, when ESPNU has those 11am time slots, the MAC should be purposely scheduling the games that they believe will be the best they have to offer. At this point, there's ZERO reason that EMU, CMU or NIU should ever get a favorable TV slot home game until they prove they can get their students and fans to come out to support the teams.

On top of that, I don't understand this unbalanced 18 game conference slate. In terms of competition, the old 16 game schedule was a better method IMO. Of course, I'd prefer to see the divisions go away altogether.

Maybe everyone realized that spring quarter is not when your parents should really be visiting you...A lot of things to do in the spring that parents don't want to see and kids don't want their parents to see....If my memory serves me correctly :)

Does anyone have a idea on the starting time for the Marietta game? I was planning on going to a Wittenberg football game that day but I am also interested in the basketball game as well as this is my first year with season tickets. I also follow Marietta basketball a little bit being a OAC fan. If anyone has any info it would be appreciated.