Lesson in Opportunity Cost

Schedule a home and home with Illinois:
$400,000 for a $400,000 payout(We can factor in time value of money and say we come out ahead...Make 10,000 with 10% interest)
Concession and ticket sales:
20,000(assumption of how many non season ticket sales we make) x $10= $200,000
Then let's say we make $100,000 in concessions(Not a chance, but whatever)
Intangibles:
Get people back to campus that haven't been in a while
Get the students excited
Make season ticket holders happy and maybe even sell a few more season tickets

Schedule New Mexico and BCS on the Road:
$800,000(Assuming a small payout) for road game.

Concession and ticket sales for New Mexico:
10,000 x $10 = $100,000(Assuming 5,000 STH as above. 15,000 total attendance vs 25,000)
Let's say we only make $25,000 in concessions because lower attendance and people leaving early due to blow out.

Intangibles:
We lose student support and don't get as many people back to campus.
We don't sell anymore season tickets.

Assuming all else equal and that we make a bowl game in both scenarios, we have a $310,000 profit versus a $925,000 profit.  Do you value more students, the bragging rights of selling out a stadium and satisfying STH with one big game at $615,000?

VoR, am I reading your post correctly?  Are you actually stating that NMSU is paying us $800K to show up and play them in NM?  Seriously?  I doubt that is true, but if correct, that is fantastic.  On a more realistic side, the amount we get for going to NMSU is probably well south of 1/4 that amount. 

No one is advocating abandoning the annual "money game".  As I read these posts it appears that many are stating we should schedule annually the Penn States, Ohio States, whoever for the big check and possibly a close game or even win.  Even if not a win, and for now that is probably realistic, at least we get money and those games do generate excitement even with OUr casual fans. 

What I get from everyone is that beyond the "money" game, why not dump the Gardner-Webbs, Norfolk States, Idahos and NMSUs on our schedule and try for one-for-one games with either lower level Big Ten-Twelve, Big East, ACC or SEC teams.  Try getting the Indianas, Northwesterns, Vanderbilts, Pitts, Syracures, UConns, Wake Forrests, Marylands, etc. of the BCS world.  I feel these games would go farther in creating a fan base than our current line-up.

Uncle Wes--and I did not know that I had an Uncle Wes--it's bout winning the MAC title, a bowl game and having a GREAT record (max of one loss, hopefully zero).  It's about this year.

I agree about the level that you want--at least 8 or 9 wins every year.  But that's kinda general.  I want the specifics of The Big Year.  This one.  Then let's talk about significant up-scheduling, though I do agree that we gots to get rid of the Gardner-Webbs and Woffords right away.

After it's about One Huge Season, we can talk about The Next Huge Season and bringing Syracuse to Peden, America's finest football venue.

Monroe: The risk of waiting for an undefeated (or nearly undefeated) year before upgrading one of the worst schedules in FBS is that that big season may very well never come.  I hope I'm wrong, but considering we have zero returning starters on the d-line and little quality experience at QB we most likely are not going 12-0 or 11-1 this year.  In any event, I firmly believe that a single home game against a beatable BCS level opponent would do much more to develop fan interest and grow the fan base than do 8-4 or 9-3 seasons against the dregs of Division I. 

Voice of Reason: It has previously been reported on the board that we have in fact turned down offers from regional BCS level programs for home-and-home series.  So a lack of opportunity isn't the issue, and as I've previously argued, neither are finances, since a home-and-home with, say, Louisville would actually cost less than a home-and-home with NMSU given the travel costs, while selling far more tickets. 

One has to ask, though, how long Solich can be expected to continue coaching.  He's turning 67 this year, so I really can't see him sticking around more than another 5 years or so.  Given that we've already booked our OOC games through 2015 with zero BCS home games, I really don't believe Solich is ever planning to upgrade the home schedule during his tenure.

 

This is VERY true! 

We've only had one losing season in the last 5 years, and 3 bowl bids during that time, without any significant increase in attendance or interest.  We also have beaten several mid-to-low tier BCS teams in recent years.  I don't see why you would assume we'd automatically lose to those type of teams at home.

PP: Let's see, we've played, I think, two home BCS games in Frank's tenure in Athens.  We are 1-1.  We beat Pitt in OT.  We lost to UConn in a game that was relatively close.  I don't think your assumptions about the results of such games are really grounded in much fact.  Pitt used to brag that they'd never lost to a MAC team.  Now they are 0-2 playing MAC teams away from the Iron City.  (They've also now lost to a MAC team at home, too.)  Lower-level BCS teams in Peden would usually at least be toss-up types of games.  And, they would, as others have said, give our program a little more "street cred."  What's wrong with that?  Why are you so stridently against it?

OCF- I'm not against home BCS games at all, I just don't think they are the silver bullet to giving us street cred or a more fervent fan base. One game does not a season make.

Flomo- We beat Pitt at home in front of a record crowd. It was an awesome game, no doubt. But the next week we went to VT and got blown out 45-0. Then the following week we were back home against Kent State and the attendance was 16,721. Where's the people coming back for more? Where's the residual effect?

After Kent we played BG and CMU on the road and lost to both. We then came back to Peden for homecoming with a 2-4 record and attendance was 17,959. Again, where's the people that were "excited, talking, and coming back for more"? I'm guessing they were at home, talking about what a fluke the Pitt game was because we couldn't even beat BG or CMU.

You say MAC championships and "lowered tier" bowls mean little to the average fan? Sure, when you win one every 40 years. But win 5 in 6 years and see what happens. Again, go back to my Marshall reference. When they were 13-0 and #10 in the nation no one cared who they played in their OOC. And no one cared that they won the a lower tiered bowl against a lower ranked team. The only thing that mattered was that they won.

The key to building our fan base is by dominating our conference and winning in the post season. Repeatedly. Not by inviting the popular kids to our house once a year. But if it makes everyone feel bettter because you get to tell your friends at work about watching Ohio keep it close against Purdue or pull out a win against Indiana, then go right ahead.

It's time for you folks who want to play a big game in Athens,  to pretend you are Ohio's AD or Coach and you are making the call to one of the teams you folks are suggesting come to town. Perhaps it would go something like this:

Opponent picks up the phone: "Rick BigTime here."

"Hey Rick this is Frank Solich, Head football coach at Ohio University.  We've turned things around here in Athens and want to start playing some quality opponents and treat our fans to the enjoyment and excitement of meeting an institution such as yours on the field.  We're making our schedule for 2016 and beyond and  would like to get together with you to talk about the possibility of getting a couple of games with you.  We've got a great little college town in a very beautiful part of Ohio where your fans would really enjoy visiting and if you bring your band they can partake in the uptown sceen that is rated among the top 5 in the nation--a real must see for your students."

Solich continues--"I'd like to meet with you and tell you why it would be in your team's, your school's, and your fans best interest to come to Ohio and play the Bobcats, if you think of us in the future that would be great.  Would you have some time in the next two weeks?"



Okay now, as good sales people trained in the Sales Center--you need to be prepared with the 5 or 6 possible responses that Rick BigTime will have assuming he's not a former Bobcat willing to help out his Alma Mater.

So what are his objections and what are your responses to overcome these objections just to get an appointment?

Now multiply this phone call by 20-25 teams that would make you all excited about playing--remember this thread started by linking to an article about WMU getting to play Illinois in a 1 & 1 BUT also included WMU being told to pound salt by Minnesota. So how many of you super salesman among you would get an appointment with any of the Rick BigTimes?  How many appointments after the actual sales presentation  would result in a  sale for Ohio?  As in many product segments there is normally lots of competition going after a large list of prospects, but with football games there is lots of competition and a finite list of possibilities.  As a salesman would you like your odds of getting a sale?  Why would Minnesota come to Athens if they told WMU no?

Flomo--Enjoying your arguments here.  But I'd like to know more abut these supposed BCS home-and-home offers?  How solid is the info that that we've had these possibs? Which teams?  Then, we have not had a start to finish winning season.  In 2006 we started about 2-4, then ran off about 7 straight wins.  Average fan had no clue that we were having any kind of year until we were about 7 games into that 7 game win streak.  Last year, we looked poor in our first game (Wofford?), then stunk it out against Toledo and columbus.  Again, season over for the average fan--didn't matter that we had about a 6 game winning streak in which we absolutely destroyed a group of the worst teams in college football (about all MAC teams).

Let's have that start to finish winning season and see how that rouses the average (i.e., uninvolved) OHIO person.

Also, your big opponent Ohio home games (Penn State, UCLA, Tex A&M, etc) are going to take place in a stadium with about a 75k capacity.

In Cleveland.

It's the economics.


p.s.  The Tribe.

Its clear with Frank's success and name recognition many solid BCS programs are interested in playing us. From what I remember about the Louisville game though it may have been UL that got cold feet and instead signed Memphis for the football 1 for 1. UofL is on the schedule in 2013 as that years money game. They have upgraded their football stadium to 55,000 seats growing out of that lower tier BCS label.  

We've already hosted Iowa State and Minnesota and neither was a sell out or resulted in stimulating the "average OU fan." We've tried that route. The Pitt game was huge ONLY because we won. If we don't win that game, the "average OU fan" grumbles a condescending "that's OU football" as they exit Peden. Our strategy is this: just win. As far as I remember, we've never tried that approach on a sustained basis. Let it play out before you rule it unsuccessful.