http://www.umassathletics.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/07...

It's the difference between Peden at 24,000 and Gillette at 68,756; and Athens at about 35,000 and the Boston Metro area at around 1,000,000 (600,000 in Boston itself).  OU could probably get the same deal, if the "home" game were played in Crew Stadium, Cleveland or Cincy.  BSU has IU at "home" this year -- Lucas Oil Field in Indy.

Exactly. Beyond the fact of being in the MAC, perhaps our biggest issue is location. Playing in a major media market or an NFL stadium is attractive to BCS schools. Being 2 hours from the nearest airport and in the middle of Appalachia is not. Like it or hate it, that's the reality.

Indiana, being BigTentwelve, would be a relatively big get.  Not great; but an upgrade.  What does the crowd that 'kron drew for them have to do with anything?

The argument that we're 45 or so minutes from a major airport--what sense does that make.  TOur fans don't fly in.  They drive.  And, in what might be news to some, we have a very small stadium for a team without a solid recent winning tradition (meaning winning from the first game onward) and we are located in a not well populated area which is economically stressed.

It is not realistic to make arguments implying that we should be having success such as Cinci or Pitt and those type schools are having.  It will take some time to make the aura of the program of that size.

This is what UCONN did.  They flew a charter into PKB.

Looks like NIU is planning to play a "home' game in Chicago every year:

http://espn.go.com/chicago/ncf/story/_/id/6809338/norther...

We did that once in the early 1980s.  "Home" game at the 'Shoe.  Drew about 20k.

I'd like us to try it again, but play at the Crew's stadium.  

Now there's a post worth responding to.  If Akron, in only its second game at InfoCision Stadium and in a market that is at least 20 times larger than ours, can only attract 16k, how can we possibly expect to make money in a similar package with IU?

Because we are not Akron. We draw at least that for FCS opponents. I think we had a decent draw for Minnesota a few years back, and that was before we were any good!

As the saying goes, Rome was not built in a day.

I honestly we're thinking at this in the wrong light.  Bigger programs are going to draw a TV crowd regardless of where they play.  If we want bigger teams to play us at home, we don't need a bigger stadium, we need to build our program up so that they want to play us.

As painfully slow as it may seem, the best way to build a program is to have a winning program every year.  Having a great TV market and local population will only get you so far (See Temple.)

Think about Penn State.  Their main campus is located right dab-smack in the middle of Pennsylvania.  For those of you who don't know Pennsylvanian geography very well,  There is Pittsburgh out in the Southwest, Philadelphia in the Southeast, and (almost) absolutely nothing elsewhere. To get there, it's about a 2 hour drive from both Metro areas, yet they draw almost 100,000 people every game.  Why is that?  In the last 50 seasons, Penn State has had 43 winning seasons.  If we had that kind of long term success, I bet we would be a BCS team with a stadium of 50,000 easily.

Will we get a BCS opponent in Peden within the next few years? Maybe.  If we keep a winning record for the next 3 or 4 years, will we get a bigger and better opponent than Gardner-Webb and Norfolk to come play at Peden?  I would say yes.

Absolutely agree that Cleveland is the goal.  I sense that we're building a winning tradition that could get us there in the fairly near future (2-3 years) against a big name opponent.

Again, it's absolutely critical that we start having seasons in which we burn a winning record from game one.

As for programs scheduling opponents off campus in another city for a "home" game, consider this.  L.S.U. will play a "home" game this year against Oregon in, that's right, DALLAS, TEXAS.