Feel free to skip this. It's a musing.

This kind of language in a contract always sends me on a tangential daydream: if a program like Ohio were to make a run and win, let's say, a men's basketball national title (and we were three wins away in 2012 if we make a free throw), how much money would that be worth? I know gigantic programs can print money once they've won it, but would Ohio have the fanbase size and corporate sponsors to adequately capitalize on something that monumental? Would Columbus businesses suddenly be putting advertising money into OU sports? Would bandwagon become so big suddenly that Ohio would instantly be a gigantic program? Because we have a such a large arena for a MAC school, that helps. I think the student body suddenly becomes pretty fanatical. But would it be sustainable? I guess Butler is the closest comparison, but that's a small university that's in a big city. Florida Gulf Coast is an outlier, in my mind. There was no way for THAT school to capitalize on it. That campus, in that state and what was clearly a weird firecracker program that was never going to maintain a great college basketball program isn't a good comparison to Athens.

Ohio would be an interesting test case to answer my question: Can you flash fry national prominence and could a place like Athens instantly build the mechanisms needed to create an athletics money-printing machine?

Great point with the Zags. They're probably the equivalent.

And the biggest, No DI Football to take revenue

Yesterday's Plain Dealer published recruiting classes for OSU, Akron, Kent. Only 4 of OSU's class are from Ohio high schools.

Really?? It's the capital and a huge metro area. More like Columbus or Indy than Athens.

We are unique in that Athens is not just remote, but also the poorest county in the state and one of the poorest in the US. The other poorest counties? They're our neighbors. That means limited disposable income for tickets (which we've conquered somewhat with low price options) and also donations/sponsorship.

On top of that, O$U is just over an hour up the road and has a stranglehold on the entire state. The closest analogy I can think of for us in FBS is App State. Small, remote town in a state with lots of other FBS schools and (in their case) multiple Power 5 schools. But even they have a couple advantages over us: their county is quite a bit wealthier, and the Power 5 schools are hours away.

We truly are in a unique situation. There's positives and negatives to it, but quite a few factors that likely keep us from becoming a powerhouse program.

In discussing poverty in Athens County, it's important to keep the following in mind, from an article in the Athens News in 2013. In bringing this up, I do not mean to dismiss the problem, or to say that more doesn’t need to done to address the issue. This is just put it into proper perspective.


"With a high number of college students at Ohio University and Hocking College, Athens County poverty has traditionally been difficult to gauge precisely, as many students are supported by their parents and/or student loans.

"Community Research Partners, which conducted the study on behalf of the OACAA, said Wednesday that their poverty data from the U.S. Census Bureau includes all people except those living in group quarters such as college dormitories, military group quarters or institutionalized people.

'This means that students who live in college dormitories would not be included in the calculation of poverty data in Athens," the CRP said in an e-mail. "However, students who live in houses and apartments that are independent of a college or university would be treated the same as any other individual in the calculation of poverty for Athens.'"

The full article can be read here: http://tinyurl.com/j78mxl8

True, but one of the counties that Athens borders is Washington, which ranks 34th out the 88 Ohio counties; and part of Athens County (Hockingport area) borders one the wealthiest counties in West Virginia. As an aside, I always thought we could do a better job of marketing in the Parkersburg-Marietta SMSA. Anecdotally, I remember at the heyday of Ohio basketball toward the end of the Snyder Era, when we were getting very good and growing attendance, especially for weekend games, I ran into a group of fans who had come over from Marietta. They told me that the had attended most of the games that year, and most of this group were not OHIO graduates. So, I think it's possible to appeal to fans in this nearby area that is significantly wealthier than some of our other surrounding counties.

What the hell is with The Post? Once again, an article with a completely arbitrary and out-of-place ohio state comparison. Who gives a sh**?

There is an increasing OHIO presence in the Columbus market. The number of alumni in the market is increasing. The matriculation agreement with Columbus State. Campuses in Pickerington and Dublin. Companies could get better advertising rates per dollar than adverting through Ohio State. Cincinnati can put dollars into both UC and Xavier athletics. There aren't any other Division 1 schools other than Ohio University near the Columbus market. Athletics needs to work the Columbus market regardless if a national championship is won or not.

[/QUOTE]Great point with the Zags. They're probably the equivalent.

[/QUOTE]Gonzaga has a few things going for it that Ohio doesn't:

-Athens is remote, but Spokane is even more remote. It's four hours from Seattle by car according to Google maps. Ohio's proximity to Ohio State kills Ohio. And Spokane is a pretty decent sized city is it not?

-I don't have the figures in front of me, but Gonzaga doesn't have to compete against anywhere near the number of other D1 basketball programs that Ohio does. It's bad enough that you have the rest of the MAC and OSU, but then you sprinkle in UC, Xavier, Dayton, Wright State, Cleveland State, etc and it gets pretty competitive market-wise.

-Just the name Gonzaga or Zags is a distinguishable name to begin with. No one can replicate that. Unfortunately for Ohio, there are some out there that will always think of OSU first. Xavier is capitalizing on this a little bit by using the brand "X" as much as they can. It distinguishes them from the rest of the pack.

I'm trying to think of an even more comparable program to Ohio. I was gonna say VCU? Although I'm not sure how big the city of Richmond is.



[/QUOTE]
Gonzaga may be far from Seattle/the civilized world.. but it has several things going for it.

* A town of 100,000+ and growing.
* No other (strong) local competition (EWU is the only comparable school) within an hour and a 1/2
* No football program to dilute resources
* Southwest Airlines flies there!

I agree that Ohio is unique and there is both good and bad with that. Agree with OCF that while rural Athens is definitely poor the data isn't an accurate picture because of how college students are calculated... Agree that The Post is trash. Also agree with Uncle Wes on Cbus...

Yes, cbus is OSU's home turf... Yes, they have fans we have no chance of converting... BUT there is also VERY sizable and growing alum market in Cbus that wants to support OHIO. The Nelsonville bypass is done. The drive is easy. An hour and change. Ohio needs to make bigger push there... It'd be a lot easier if we just started winning... Winning would make it a sure thing.

I remember years back on here having similar conversations, there was some popular thinking that Ohio is in a quasi similar situation as Virginia Tech in terms of geography and profile-being a larger university but located in a more rural/isolated location. I can't speak with certainty what the socio-economic profile is in Western VA compared to SE Ohio but I doubt it is vastly different based on my travels through that region.

Obviously VT is in the ACC and has a much higher national profile but they were not always that way. If you are not familiar look up their history before Frank Beamer and even his early years. They are closer to an interstate in I-81 but the closest "major" city, Roanoke, a 45-60 minute drive, is only the 159th MSA. Alumni and fans travel a good distance to fill Lane Stadium on Saturdays-likely mostly coming from Richmond/Tidewater region, Metro DC etc.

Columbus MSA is 32nd and while OSU is certainly a national leader in fan base, no place larger than Columbus, I do think there is enough pie in central Ohio for OU to carve out some. There are new converts that need to hear the message. Do they know the beauty that is only 1 hour plus from their home in SE Ohio?

Would we have a better situation if campus was located in say Springfield?

Bottom line I think we all are well aware of is that as long as we are in the MAC and not playing a home slate of higher end opponents (even if in name only that a Big Ten or ACC would offer) our reality will remain status quo. In defense of attendance, it would help if we didn't play 1/3 of our home games on odd ball nights. I think our Saturday home game attendance is pretty darn good given the competition we play and other factors.