I actually kind of like the idea. Send the wife shopping at one of the Columbus mega malls while the men head to the game. I would think Central Ohio alums would turn out.

Isn't that weekend also the new A&M / UM (or other season ending Big 12) game now?  Between that and Black Friday, it's going to be tough to garner much attention to OU.

No...this was done back in 1982(?) We played at the Horseshoe versus the Richmond Spiders. 3,000 in attendance and had the smell and feel of a HS exhibition game.

Regardless of calendar, students won't be on campus the day after Thanksgiving under any circumstances.

I'm all for it if it a road game. I'd much rather play at Crew stadium (or heck, a mall parking lot) than another black friday game at Kent.

I would be fine if it wasn't a big rival, ie no fiami and no stupid cow. But rather play in Columbus (or even Cleveland) for the thanksgiving when students are on break.

If Penn is away that weekend we should play a home game at Franklin Field. Think about it... Harvard on the Hocking, the first university in the Northwest Territory, playing at the oldest stadium in college football!

Ok. I have to admit this is a horrible idea.... just trying to get a game close to home

I was at this game, and as I recall the announced attendance was around 20,000, which still looked like a mostly empty stadium.  Maybe Alan Swank can tell us the actual, exact attendance.

I doubt Ohio would want to give up a home game for this, and I doubt that Miami (or Kent) would, either. It would probably have to be a 2 year deal, with each school giving up a home game. Also, another post might be right that it would only work well in years the Michigone-Ohio A&M game was in Ann Arbor, so maybe those two games would have to be a year apart, on a four year rotation with game at Ohio, game in Columbus, game at Miami, game in Columbus. It might be an interesting way to test if Ohio's increased success on the field is leading to more widespread interest regionally.

I guess I'm assuming this would be treated like Spring break and you'd be kicked out anyway.  Would like to know for sure.  I'm betting campus will be pretty closed up (no dining halls, etc.), which would make staying pretty uninviting to those in dorms anyways.  People who live off campus have always had the option to stick around for the game, and not very many did.

I see semesters affecting basketball attendance (still unsure whether it will be positive or negative), not so much with football.

Paging Alan Swank . . . Mr. Alan Swank, please tell us what the attendance was.  Were you in the house that day?  My memory is that it was closer to 20,000 than even 10,000, but I think they were expecting a much bigger crowd (40K or so), and were greatly disappointed.  I do remember that Jody's father was there.  Probably the last time he attended a Bobcat athletic event in his life.  I'm not sure about that but he wasn't a regular at our athletic events, even though he was, as we all know, an alumnus.  

If they could set up an annual game between OHIO and Kent State for Black Friday in Columbus Crew stadium I think it would be a winner. Ohio has 30,000 alumni in metro Columbus, double the amount than what they have in all the counties that comprise Southeast Ohio. A huge local alumni presence, close enough for the local Athens fan base to drive up and do some Christmas shopping and more convenient for most of our alumni across the state to attend then making a game down in Athens. No issues about hotels if you want to stay the night in Columbus. Alcohol served in the stadium. It sounds like a great way to juice up the season ticket packages. As long as the game sells at least 12,500 its better than what sales would be on either Ohio or Kent's campus. Kent is a huge school that could bring a nice crowd, so realistically 8,000 to 10,000 Bobcat fans would be enough interest to make this happen. ESPN might want to bump this up to a game on the deuce instead of ESPNU with it being played in large market Columbus. I wouldn't move the game with Miami off campus but with Kent it makes perfect sense. Then Ohio fans would have a third major regular season series to look forward to beyond Miami and Marshall.