There is not much football to talk about this week so I thought it would be good to get some opinions on the benefit of BCS home games for the program. Ohio having a BCS school at home would not only be good for attendance at that particular game but also help increase season season ticket sales. Schaus has tried to lighten the schedule with SBC and WAC teams but I think after a 4-0 record in those games, mostly decisive blowouts that its time to upgrade the schedule some. We play the FCS school every year at home to pad the schedule as it is and Marshall is a former FCS team. By no means then substituting a SBC-WAC team for a mid level BCS school is going to lead to an extremely difficult non-conference schedule. Its going to take the easiest non-conference schedule in the MAC up to more the mid level with a Top Level BCS, Mid Level BCS, FCS and Marshall. Imagine the response by fans if we brought in names like Oregon State, Kansas, Ole Miss into Peden Stadium. I would even like to see Ohio try to make a series with all the BCS private schools; Wake Forest, Syracuse, Duke, Vanderbilt, TCU, Baylor, Northwestern, Boston College. Those schools don't have enough home gate to afford to payout the 1 million+ expected for a money game and would be willing to consider a 1 for 1. For the money game try to get a Big Ten on the schedule every year. Playing Kentucky or Rutgers on the road for money doesn't help our image. Playing a Purdue, Wisconsin, Nebraska, Iowa ect every year would help to legitimize the program in a Big Ten state. Would the professors at Ohio like Steve Hays approve if we placed some better academic schools on the football schedule? 

He isnt talking about getting OSU or Alabama in Peden. He is talking about the Purdues, Wake Forests, Ole Miss and Iowa States of the world. They dont have 100k attendance with 60 dollar tickets

I'm not buying that. Toledo is hosting Missouri, Iowa State and Miami Fl over the next few seasons and the Glass Bowl only has 26,000 seats. Some of the schools I've listed to visit like Wake Forest and Duke only play in a 33,000 seat stadium themselves. Schools are willing to come to the Glass Bowl for a shot at an ESPN appearance.

http://www.utrockets.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=18000&ATCLID=1436650

I thought we cancelled games versus Northwestern or/and Virginia Tech because we could afford to pay them to come here?

Seems the same thing to me.

And, I might add that they've played home ESPN games in recent years with Kansas, Colorado, Syracuse, and Minnesota, Pitt, Purdue, Iowa State and Arizona.  Interestingly, Purdue and Iowa State were in the same year (2007). Toledo has won more than their share of these games, too.

Ohio joins the Big XII and that would be an option for hosting Oklahoma or Texas in Cleveland. I'm not sure if there are enough schools out there that would draw well enough in Cleveland to try and play regularly there right now. 

How many do we need to draw to make Cleveland feasible?  From an economic standpoint, I'd guess 45K ??

From a TV or prestige perspective the number could be different.

i don't like the idea of trying to sign Notre Dame or OSU to a game in Cleveland where its going to be 90% fans of their teams. A good idea might be to bring in teams from further away like Oregon or Oklahoma State that will bring some fans but not more than 50% of the crowd. OHIO could sign a 10 year contract with Cleveland Stadium to bring big time football to the city. Part of the contract would specify that no other school is allowed to play in the Stadium aside from Ohio. Ohio would play schools like Oregon, Oklahoma State, Clemson, Virginia Tech, Arizona State, BYU with 1 game away and 1 in Cleveland every season. I bet Ohio Athletics could pull out the stops and promote one mega game like that in Cleveland a year sufficiently to get 40,000 out every time. BG tried it with Wisconsin and could only draw 28k but this is Bowling Green with a lousy fan support. A crowd of 40,000 once a year would work. I don't think we could handle something like that 2-3 times a year. It just takes too much promotion. Its a pretty good idea, I just wouldn't recommend trying it with PSU, OSU, ND, Mich, Mich State because of the hordes of fans drowning out our own.

I would have been temped to punch that guy in the face. He would have remembered OHIO then.

For a game in Cleveland you could bank on 10,000 of the regular Athens crowd attending it with so many driving in long distances to catch a game in Peden as it is. On top of that figure 10,000 local alumni can be convinced to turnout with a strong marketing effort. That gives you 20k Bobcat fans there along with 10,000 visitors and 10,000 local football fans wanting to catch some major college action. The BG vs. Wisconsin game in 2006 drew 30,300 in Cleveland Stadium so I can't see why OHIO couldn't draw 40,000 with a similar opponent in Cleveland with a better fan base than Bowling Green.

Despite that success I would guess that we would draw better in Cleveland. This is completely based on perception (and maybe someone can find the numbers), but I would say we have a lot more alumni living in the Cleveland area and a lot more alumni overall than BG. I also think we have a much more loyal alumni base than BG. I've never met anyone that was proud to be a graduate of BG.

Also, if this actually happened I would try my best to make the trip to Cleveland.

I understand that people love our institution and generally don't care about the football team. However, I think if you put a quality opponent in front of them people will think "Hey I can feel connected with OU again, watch some quality football, and I can do so without driving four hours to Athens! Great!" There has to be like 40,000 OU alumni living in Greater Cleveland right? Surely a decent proportion would jump at such an opportunity.