Bobcat Attack - Ohio Football - Complete 2016 Schedule is out

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Topic: Complete 2016 Schedule is out

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ou79

2/23/2016 6:54 PM

Last Edited: 2/23/2016 7:12:31 PM by ou79

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Tyler

2/23/2016 7:07 PM

OU_Country wrote:expand_more

+1. There are a grand total of FOUR (4) Saturday games after October 22. A midweek MACtion game on ESPN2 (and to a lesser extent ESPNU and CBS Sports Net) is great for the program. A midweek MACtion game on ESPN3? Not so much.

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Tyler

2/23/2016 7:13 PM

ou79 wrote:expand_more

I have a daughter who is a student at Ohio so I just tried booking a hotel in Athens for each of the 4 Saturday games. I was able to book the Hampton for the Texas State weekend. Then I found that ALL of the hotels in Athens are booked for the other 3 weekends. Seriously??? Exactly one day after the schedule is announced EVERY hotel in Athens is booked??? Is there some type of conspiracy with the locals to screw anyone who wants to come to that dump of a City? Bad food, no hotels and little else besides the University. What a joke!

The September 24 game against Gardner-Webb is Parents Weekend. That date has been posted on the OHIO special weekends page for a while, so I'm not surprised all the hotels are gone.

Homecoming weekend hotels always sell out as soon as it's announced.

Most of the local hotels don't allow you to book October weekends until after the football schedule is realized so they can adjust their prices accordingly. I imagine some rooms for October 15 may open up now that the Homecoming date is set. The Days Inn still has rooms for October 15. Not the best hotel, but there aren't many options in Athens.

Last Edited: 2/23/2016 7:17:46 PM by Tyler

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person

Recovering Journalist

2/23/2016 7:16 PM

Tyler wrote:expand_more

ou79 wrote:expand_more

The September 24 game against Gardner-Webb is Parents Weekend. That date has been posted on the OHIO special weekends page for a while, so I'm not surprised all the hotels are gone.

Homecoming weekend hotels alway sell out as soon as it's announced.

Most of the local hotels don't allow you to book October weekends until after the football schedule is realized so they can adjust their prices accordingly. I imagine some rooms for October 15 may open up now that the Homecoming date is set.

I was going to prepare a long defense of Athens that would probably fall on deaf ears with you, so I’ll just suggest that you stay in Parkersburg or Logan to avoid the indignity of staying in Athens.

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ou79

2/23/2016 10:48 PM

No problem RJ, I will.

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shabamon

2/24/2016 9:18 AM

Diamond Cat wrote:expand_more

BTW...looks like @Miami is Family Weekend in Oxford. Hotels (I think) are already sold out.

Look for hotels in Colerain, Hamilton, or Fairfield.

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MedinaCat

2/24/2016 12:18 PM

OU_Country wrote:expand_more

I'm not against mid-week MACtion at all. It's done absolute wonders for our program and league in terms of exposure. But it's gotten to the point that ALL conference games end up on Tues/Wed now. That's not good in my opinion. Take two primo matchups from each week and stick them on Tues/Wed, and let the remaining 4 conference games each week be on Saturday.

I'm not gonna play the "I won't renew my tickets" card because of this either. I still have a great time with the 3-4 games I can get to. I just find it to be personally annoying, and it affects my interest once late October comes.

I disagree that the schedule has done wonders. Maybe, maybe not, but I don't think there is data to support one or the other. The one area I see it helping is financial security. Not sure ESPN would have coughed up the cash and signed the long term deal had the conference refused to play. I do like your "primo" idea...to me that would be a perfect solution.

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L.C.

2/24/2016 1:29 PM

MedinaCat wrote:expand_more

OU_Country wrote:expand_more

As I've said, you can't go switching teams back and forth to Tuesday/Wednesday and then back to Saturday. That's when you get the games after 5-6 days rest. What they CAN do, however, is only move a few teams teams at the beginning of Novemer. Say, for example, most 4 teams at the beginning of November, which gives ESPN the two games they need, while the other 8 teams can continue to play on Saturday for another week. Then, the second week of November, move 4 more teams, leaving half on Tuesday, and half still on Saturday. Then, towards the end of November, the teams that moved early can move back to Saturday, as other teams move to mid-week.

That way each team has no more than two transitions: one to Tuesday, the other one back to Saturday. That way, also, each team spends no more than about 2 weeks on Tuesdays, and gets a couple Saturday games in November, one of which is at home.

Alternately, they could take half the teams and move them to Tuesdays, and leave the other half on Saturdays, so that one year a team would have 4 mid-week games, and then the next year, no mid-week games.

Last Edited: 2/24/2016 1:31:05 PM by L.C.

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Ohio69

2/24/2016 2:59 PM

L.C. wrote:expand_more

Alternately, they could take half the teams and move them to Tuesdays, and leave the other half on Saturdays, so that one year a team would have 4 mid-week games, and then the next year, no mid-week games.

Hmmm. Nice idea. I'm sure ESPN will hate it.

I despise week night games. Always have. Always will. But, I do believe it has resulted in much more exposure for the MAC. And, I sense it it has helped recruiting.

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L.C.

2/24/2016 6:17 PM

If half is too extreme for ESPN, move eight teams, and leave four on Saturdays. Then one year out of three, each team would have all Saturday games, and two out of three they would get the midweek games.

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perimeterpost

2/24/2016 11:15 PM

The final 4 weeks of the season have non-saturday game but the last week doesn't count because its the week of Thanksgiving and because its the last week. We're not missing a sold out Peden on the last Saturday of November (the day of OSU v UM, btw) because we moved the game to friday or tuesday.

That leaves 3 weeks in November-

Week 1:
The MAC has a game featured on ESPN2, ESPNU, or CBS Sports, on Tuesday(x2), Wed, Thurs, Fri. A solid week of prime time action. That's great visibility for the conference.

Week 2 and Week 3:
Standard double headers on Tues and Wed.

4 teams- Akron, NIU, Ball St, Toledo host 2 home games during that stretch, the rest hosts 1, except WMU that hosts 0. Also worth noting, unlike previous years, none of these games are relegated to ESPN News or ESPN3 only. All games will be ESPN2, ESPNU or CBS Sports.

Thanks to November MACtion ESPN tacked on additional $24M to the last 3 years of the original 10yr/$14M contract and resigned the MAC for 10yr/$100M. Thats what we get out of this.

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bshot44

2/25/2016 12:02 PM

There is somehow, someway that teams have a little bit of control on this mid-week games.

How does WMU essentially only get two of them? (I'm not counting the Friday after Thanksgiving as a mid-week game....a ton of teams play on that Friday)

I wonder if the MAC asks teams their preference?

Miami essentially has one (and one Friday night game....which I would not be opposed to rather than Tue/Wed/Thur)

CMU only has two (and one Friday night game)

Buffalo only has two Thursday games and one Friday game

How is Ohio stuck with two Tuesdays and two Thursdays?

For the league's top attendance team...wouldn't you think they/the MAC would want to give them as many opportunities to fill the stadium when they know that won't happen on a Tuesday in November.

I like one or two mid-week games. Four is excessive, unless you make two of them a Friday night so out-of-town fans have a chance to attend.

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shabamon

2/25/2016 1:53 PM

bshot44 wrote:expand_more

For the league's top attendance team...wouldn't you think they/the MAC would want to give them as many opportunities to fill the stadium when they know that won't happen on a Tuesday in November.

I like one or two mid-week games. Four is excessive, unless you make two of them a Friday night so out-of-town fans have a chance to attend.

They probably feel we have the best chance of attracting a decent crowd to the stadium for a midweek game.

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L.C.

2/25/2016 2:17 PM

It may also be that ESPN has more preference for certain teams.

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OU_Country

2/26/2016 9:22 AM

L.C. wrote:expand_more

It may also be that ESPN has more preference for certain teams.

Then how does EMU get any TV games? ;-)