I went to the Bobcat game vs Purdue and was impressed with the amount of local town and alumni support. However, the students were gone and there were no cheerleaders and or pep band. Some friends I grew up with who went to UD, were at the Dayton vs Colorado game yesterday at the United Center. They along with about 10-15,000 thousand Flyer fans made the trek to Chicago. A few thousand were Chicago alumni, but according to my friends about 10,000 Dayton fans, flew or drove to the game, which included cheerleaders and the pep band. I watched the game on TV and if one didn't know better, they would have thought the game was in Dayton, from the support the Flyers received.

I have been to a number of Flyer games in my life and I am always impressed with their support. Obviously, they have a lot more local population from which to draw. However, their students have always been behind them as well as their alumni. We are the pride of the MAC with our crowd support, even though we have the most rural location from anyone in which to draw. If I am in the Bobcat athletic and alumni office, I would hope they have studied what the Flyers do and see if we can learn a thing or two. This is especially the case, if I am at another MAC school like Toledo, Buffalo, Miami or Northern Illinois, where they have far more population from which to draw 50 miles from their campus compared to us. Something needs to be done.

Jim Boeheim ripped the Syracuse fans the other night for lack of support. It's not just an Ohio thing.

Both OU1982 and RS Bobcat makes some good points. Having gone to a Catholic high school myself and seeing the support they generally receive from their fans at games, I think that is an important point. I always thought that the Bobcats have that same communal spirit, which was even used in a recent television commercial promoting our beloved Alma mater.

I do believe we are still the pride of the MAC with out support, but we certainly have room to improve. Seeing the large crowd support from the Dayton alums in the Chicago area and the thousands who flew or drove from Ohio is something we should strive to do. I mean our pep band and cheerleaders weren't in Athens for a clash with a Big Ten opponent Purdue, but somehow Dayton's cheerleaders and pep band made it to Chicago the weekend before Christmas.

Again that type of support is something to which we should strive. We are the most rural school in the MAC and we lead the conference in fan support. Why on earth is Toledo, Buffalo, Miami and Northern Illinois with their metro area built in advantages not taking advantage of that, I do not know? A quick trip to Dayton to study what they are doing might be a good start.

I can remember a couple of years ago when Memphis was down struggling to get 5,000 to watch them play. As we know they play in an NBA arena located uptown next to Beale Street. They have a million people in their widely distributed middle of nowhere metro which is about the same as the greater SEO area with a lot of poverty mixed in. The emotional attachment to men's hoops win or lose is just there with a public institution in the same way it is with those catholic basketball schools. Georgetown too has struggled but the community thinks of them more as an elite private school than a catholic university and many people go there who are not catholic. Dayton has a different level of loyalty because of its religion like BYU or ND.

Very astute points Uncle Wes. With regard to campuses in larger metro areas, Buffalo has had a run and so has Akron, but unless Toledo and Northern gets on one, I honestly don't know what they can do to generate any excitement that would cause fans to come out. Dayton has both a communal and religious attachment, we have a communal feel to our campus and as the university's promotional TV commercial so wisely says, it transcends to alums of all ages. I just don't think you can say the same for many other MAC schools.

UD Arena has hosted more NCAA Tournament games than any other building, the history and support of the region is something OHIO University simply does not have.

Here's my two cents worth having worked in public and private schools since 1977. High schools that have great school spirit generally have a large number of parents who went to that school. On the Catholic school level, not only did many of those parents attend a Catholic school but they have committed thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours to the Catholic schools system since their children were in kindergarten. The same can not be said for public school parents.

A prime example of the school spirit continum is right here in Athens County. All four of the "county schools" have a greater sense of identity with the high school than the city school simply because a large number of the parents of students at Athens High did not attend Athens City Schools. That's not the case with Alexander, Nelsonville-York, Federal Hocking and Trimble.

As America continues to be a more mobile society, what someone called "fly over country" will be continue to be the greatest concentration of school spirit.

Jeff Drops 🎤 and walks on.......My comment is “what he said”

Living in Dayton I can tell you the average "Flyer fan" is about 45 years old. Sure they get "good" support from their students too - but MOST of their fan support is from people with jobs and families who live in the metro area.

TONS of alumni who still live and work in the area and continue to support their alma mater (something OU doesn't have due to SE Ohio).

TONS of businesses and business professionals (Wright-Patterson AFB, Miami Valley Hospital etc.) all support UD via buying box seats and single game tickets they distribute to employees, not to mention the number of employees who see UD as "the" sporting event/social event/thing to do in Dayton and thus many middle-aged professionals who are making good $ - many of them become season ticket holders.

Then throw in the catholic school and tradition aspect with Alter/CJ....

And then add the fact that while the A10 may not be P5, it's generally just outside that range, and generally gets much more national media attention/respect than the MAC. I mean think of this - in recent years:

1) Davidson made a deep tourney run with Steph Curry (albeit from the CAA at that time)
2) UD is currently ranked and had two tourney runs in the last handful of years
3) George Mason made a Final 4 in 2006
4) Rhode Island was nationally ranked with Lamar Odom in the 90s
5) St. Joeseph's was nationally ranked when they had NBA guys Jameer Nelson and Delonte West
6) UMass went to the Final 4 in 1996 with Marcus Camby
7) VCU with Shaka Smart had multiple good tourney runs

They may be arrogant (read: they are) but ask any UD fan and they'll tell you the A10 is the "best mid-major in basketball" and they aren't probably wrong. Also ask them about the MAC and they'll likely chuckle and say "oh yeah, those party schools - they're cute - and once a decade they might actually have a good team too". Guess what? That's the general feeling among Johnny Fan and Joe College Kid as well.

Oh and guess what else? They don't try to play D-1 football. Just sayin.

I love it when old, whiny millionaires get all entitled.

Yep you're right Davidson was SoCon not Colonial. Mixed that up in my memory bank.

The point remains, that many current A10 members have had lots of NBA players, nationally ranked teams and multiple deep NCAA tournament runs - all of which contribute to them being viewed nationally (rightfully so) as better teams and a better conference than the MAC. That means Johnny Fan knows the teams/players better and has a better general interest in attending a random game.

Back in the 90s OU schedules included: Kentucky, Ohio State, Wisconsin, Xavier, Cincinnati, West Virginia, Virginia etc. Those are teams people "know" and, even if they aren't diehard OU fans like we are, will come out to watch play.

Also back in the day, the MAC had multiple NBA players who were "must see" guys, and guys who Johnny Fan heard about on SportsCenter and read about in Sports Illustrated. Guys like: Gary Trent, Bonzi Wells, Wally Szczerbiak, Antonio Daniels, Brandon Hunter (to a lesser extent), Earl Boykins, Ira Newble, Chris Kaman, Dan Majerle, Ron Harper, Dave Jamerson. These were guys you wanted to go see just to say you saw them play.

There is still good talent in the MAC, but nowhere near like it was. But I don't think this is a MAC problem. This is an NCAA problem. The 1-and-done rule means all the top teams are recruiting a full 5+ guys EVERY year instead of a normal 2-3 man class. Means less talent is falling to the teams below.

Bottom line is - OU doesn't have the population, the local $, or the local alumni base like UD has to support that amount of adult season ticket holders. We have to rely on bringing out casual fans or, more importantly, bringing out the STUDENTS. The students and the band make the atmosphere in the Convo special anyway. Students today, nationwide, care less about sports than ever before. Just more options/important things to do.

How do you get them here?
1) Beer
2) Free stuff - though this only helps so much
3) Play "name" teams (A10 has advantage here)
4) Promote/showcase "name" NBA talent players (have to get them to the MAC first - A10 has advantage here)
5) Win consistently, especially in March when Johnny Fan actually watches (and by this I mean a run of 4 out of 5, or 8 out of 10 years with 24+ wins and NCAA tourney appearances and a couple NCAA wins sprinkled in). One or two years won't cut it. They'll come for that year but it won't become a habit/tradition to STAY.
6) Make it a more social activity. Going to sports used to be the "cool" thing to do. It's not anymore. You've got to find a way to make it the "cool" thing to do on a Wednesday night again. Where people actively WANT to come instead of being dragged in. (Easier said than done - but something UD has figured out).

To be fair, MAC was buoyed last year by Buffalo. Take them out and we're quite below the A10 again. It honestly fits the UD fan narrative I've heard of "you guys have a good team every decade or so". Last year it was UB, but on the normal - the A10 is usually anywhere from 2-6 spots above the MAC. And, over the last 20 years, that divide has gotten wider IMO.

Also have to consider UD's closest MAC point of reference is Miami, and then to a lesser extent Balls. Neither team could get out of the A10 basement.

https://www.daytondailynews.com/sports/dayton-flyers-sell...