You completely missed the point, Love. No one is questioning the quality of the schedule (at least in this thread), and no one is suggesting that we should be throwing down scheduling ultimatums to our non-conference opponents. Rather, the question is simply whether we could have preserved the existing lineup of opponents while changing a couple of the Sunday games to Saturday time slots.
Why does it matter? Because the difference in our attendance between Saturday and Sunday games is stark. Last year we averaged 7,731 fans in four Saturday games, versus 4,475 fans for the two Sunday games. In 08-09, we drew 6,084 for our four Saturday home games, versus 5,211 in three Sunday games. In 07-08, we averaged 7,051 on Saturdays, but drew only 4,139 for our lone Sunday game (Senior Day vs. Buffalo). In 06-07, it was 4,803 for five Saturday games, versus 3,582 for our one Sunday game (admittedly a November stinker against Yale). That is a significant difference in attendance, meaning that we miss significant ticket revenue and fan base building opportunities by playing on Sunday rather than Saturday.
The five Sunday games this year are:
Sun., Oct 31 2010 - Wooster (exhibition)
Sun., Nov 21 2010 - Texas A&M - Corpus Christi
Sun., Dec 12 2010 - IUPUI
Sun., Jan 2 2011 - Robert Morris
Sun., Jan 9 2011 - Miami (OH)
For some of those games, a Saturday date obviously would not have been practical. Wooster couldn't be scheduled for tomorrow without either conflicting with the football game in the afternoon, or Halloween at night. Similarly, it isn't practical to play Robert Morris on New Year's Day.
But what about the other three? Our game against TA&M-CC falls between a Wednesday night game in Stillwater, OK, and a Tuesday night game in Lawrence, KS on their schedule. Would they have been willing to play in the Convo on Saturday rather than Sunday? Maybe, maybe not, but hopefully we at least inquired. Similarly, IUPUI plays in Columbus the Thursday night before our game. Would they have been open to playing a Saturday game to reduce their travel time, or did they want the extra day off? Again, I don't know, but I hope we asked. Meanwhile, for the Miami (OH) game, both schools have a full week off before opening MAC play, while all but one other MAC contest will be played on that Saturday, rather than Sunday. Why are we playing on Sunday?
Again, it's certainly possible that TA&M-CC and IUPUI would have balked at playing on Saturday. In that case, I would agree that a Sunday game is fine. However, if either school was open to playing a day earlier, there really is no excuse in us not taking them up on it.
And there is simply no excuse at all for the Miami game falling on Sunday rather than Saturday. That is perhaps our marquee home game of the season, and we are shooting ourselves in the foot by needlessly competing with the NFL, Saturday night hangovers, church, etc. Do you really think that the difference between Saturday and Sunday makes zero difference in terms of attendance or fan interest for that game?
Yes, in an ideal world our fan base would turn out in droves anyway. But you know as well as I do that we are still facing an uphill battle when it comes to fan interest and commitment. We need to be doing everything within our power to accommodate as many fans as possible. Why make the process of expanding our fan base any more difficult than it already is?