Hats off to those of you ponying up and heading out. I have NEVER been to a bowl game...every time I look into travel costs around the holidays and end up just saying screw it because I just really struggle to get all that excited over it. When it follows a very disappointing MAC final, those emotions are only accelerated.

Ask any football coach in America who has been coaching for a number of years, the percentage of their players who watch college or NFL football compared to 10, 20 or 30+ years ago is much lower. One can mock people for not doing it the way you and your Gen Z friends do it, but the numbers don't lie [/QUOTE]You hear yourself, right?

The older folks who love watching cable TV you keep referring to aren't the target demographic. Not for Ohio University. Not for prospective players.

What you just said is why it makes perfect sense. They're targeting the demographic you dismiss entirely, just because they don't watch TV.

"Gen Z" (ya know, the actual kids who are going to college and playing football) find their sports and entertainment from other media platforms.

Therefore, No.

The bowl ANNOUNCEMENT was viewed more times than any OU game on ESPN this year.

"YOUNG PPL DONT WATCH TV, SO WHY MARKET TO THEM AT ALL??!"

It's about eyes. 30 seconds or 30 minutes. It doesn't matter. This is free publicity for Ohio University. Millions of dollars in exposure. I understand you're upset, but you'll figure it out. You're not the target audience. Hundreds of thousands of eyes ages 16-22 are finding OU, even if by accidentally, that wouldn't normally find it.

[QUOTE=cbus cat fan] It is simply a function of numbers.

It's not just Ohio, it's the MAC. We were basically told that this was our bowl game, so take it or leave it. If the allegations about racism and misogyny are true, the MAC needs to take a stand and boycott this bowl in the future.

Sigh. For anyone who cares about facts...there was certainly nothing nearing "hundreds of millions" ever at play. The most recent criticism was donations to the Fellowship of Christian Athletes & the Salvation Army (gasp!). There are older charitable contributions to other Christian organizations way back in the days that Joe Biden was proudly and loudly fighting against same sex marriage. They've even stopped the Salvation Army & FCA donations, and have always given endlessly to local food banks and other causes...but nothing will ever appease the angry mob.

The attempts to cancel Barstool are also ridiculous on many levels. These people need to find a new hobby.

Can we boycott them on the basis of their chicken really not being all that good?

So if Barstool is such a great bowl broadcast option - then why are we vs a high major/P5 program the team/University on this pain in the ass/extra work-time to get on platform? If it is so great then they should all be clamoring to be on it - eh?

It's interesting reading the comments to Barstool's announcement on its website. I realize they're mostly trolls but there's a general "meh" attitude about this game. The funniest comment was that the teams are the high school from Glee vs a barber college. I guess people want every game to be a marquee matchup, so viewership probably wouldn't be great on any platform. I would rather we have faced a team with a better record but only three MWC teams had better records than Wyoming -- as champs, Fresno was committed to another bowl; Boise, which might have soured the milk after backing out last year; and AFA, which has ties to military-themed bowls.