That's all I am saying Wes (sometimes I may not communicate it) that preception of full rows in our stadium is many times 60% capacity in a row.  Not sure what you do, bringing the bleacher sizes up to code would reduce the number of seats by 40%. in the East and West Stands.  The North EZ is based on an 18" shoulder.

I, too, thought the reported attendance at MU was a little on the conservative side.  I had eyeballed it before the announcement and had thought about 32,000 would be the number.   Like others in this thread, I was there but my tickets were not counted in the official Ohio total.  We got tickets via friends at Marshall.  I will also have to concur with the statement about Marshall fans being much more friendly than A&M fans.  Last week I had a very obnoxious lady sitting in front of me in the first half (we escaped to my wife's friend's club area in the second half), who turned to me when Ohio made a particularly bone-head play (muffing a pitch) and said in a loud voice, "It sucks to be you, doesn't it?"  My wife gave my great kudos for not decking this b**h on the spot.  I don't use the "b-word" often, but there are times when it is very fitting.  This was not the only obnoxious thing this "lady" said during the game, just the most memorable.  Now, flip forward to this past Saturday.  We have a lady on our left who has done Ph.D. work at Ohio and is now a Realtor in Huntington.  A couple in front of us who were very nice and who we could joke back and forth with the whole game in a very good natured way.  He was an x-Marshall basketball player from the 1970s, who said his highlight films were of pre-game warmups.  It truly enjoyed the friendly banter.  Our section had the kind of atmosphere you'd have with a bunch of friends watching a game together and rooting for different teams.  After the dramatic ending the ex-baskeball player turns to me and says, "That was a very gutsy call."  He repeated the word "gutsy" about three more times and then wished us well the rest of the season.  Somewhere during our conversation he said  that he enjoyed renewing the series with us.  All and all a most pleasant experience, except for the final score.

Go OHIO!
Go Marshall!

I think the whole frikkin season has been painful.

Sad to think that the only thing that has lifted my spirits is the Rufus Incident.

Sounds like a great name for a movie....The Rufus Incident.

If I told you in 2002 that Frank Solich would soon be our head coach and that he would be taking us to multiple bowl games and back-to-back years with first day NFL draft picks for Ohio you would have laughed at that as well.

There is a difference between unlikely and unattainable.  I know it is unlikely that any of the three things will happen, but it could.  It won't in the current setting, but there are a lot of teams doing things now that 20-30 years ago seemed just as laughable.  I am not going to go down the list, but I can name at least 10 programs that were irrelevant when I was a kid that have large capacity stadiums and are recognizable on a national scale now.  Unlikely.....Yes.  Unattainable.....No.

Hey, we agree on something. In order to grow a non-BCS level program, you have to schedule up. Especially when you play in an extremely weak conference.

Kansas State
Virginia Tech
UConn
Marshall
South Florida
Boise State
TCU
Cincinnati
Fresno State
Rutgers

Each has had runs in the Top 20, expanded their stadiums greatly (40,000+ seats), become recognizable as a name nationally and many have either upgraded their conference or jumped from 1AA-D1.  I am sure you can poke a hole in why each situation is unlike ours, but hear me out.  I am 36 years old and at some point in my life each of these teams went from being nobody to being relevant.  Each program was a bottom 10 program, or did not even exist in Division 1.  Each football program is markedly better than ours now.  Each school had an attitude change about football from the fans, the administration and the athletes being recruited to them.

Good list, but let's look closer.
Va Tech
UConn
S. Fla.
Cincy
Rutgers

All moved from weaker or IAA conferences and joined BCS conferences. I get your point, but these schools clearly have an advantage of conference affiliation.

JW is right about the other side of this: They all spend more money on getting better.

Listen, we're not going to see a 40,000 seat stadium at Ohio until there's a demand for it. This commitment has to come from the university and, from what I can tell, they're not interested in doing this in a meaningful way and, quite frankly, playing in the MAC does us no favors.

But, we're not joining another conference because all of these will either be lateral conferences moves or, in the case of CUSA, be a tremendous strain on travel budgets.

As much as I hate to agree with Your Name here, I think he hits the nail on the head with the no man's land comment.  Even without a split, no man's land is exactly where we (and most MAC schools) sit, and I strongly believe it is a monetary issue.  We spend just enough to be competitive with most of FBS, but not enough to elevate to national, household name status.

This will probably prove unpopular too, but I firmly believe if Ohio (and most MAC schools) want to build national recognition and rep, basketball is the place to do it.

Someone in this thread, somewhere, bought up coach Solich's name.  I really thought when we bought him in we had a chance to change our football recruiting and our footprint because I believe he is an outstanding coach.  Now, I'm afraid I've gone to the dark side.  I tend to believe if we don't get there with a coach with his background, we never will.  I think it is largely a matter of resources and location.  Bottom line is we are not getting substantially different athletes than we got before.  We compete with the same MAC schools for most players and the conference situation, in total, seems to be getting worse not better in the two revenue sports. 

1-AA here we come....unfortunately.

I have to agree that consistently selling out a 40k stadium is not realistic. Marshall is probably our best bell-weather as far as attendance goes and they averaged 22,000 last year. My thoughts are on how can Ohio at least maximize its support potential whatever that may be. I like the idea of trying to redo the stands to improve site lines and increase seating width. I want to see Ohio sign a long term series with Navy instead of games against New Mexico St and Idaho. I want to play money games at USC, Texas, and Alabama not Minnesota, Kentucky, and Rutgers. The scheduling and the seats could be better for a start.

Agreed but the Bobcats won the division last year with a 7-1 conference record. Did you expect the top 25 by now? A MAC Championship? What exactly meets your expectations?

I disagree. First off 3 MAC championships in 5 years of coming to Ohio University is an extremely tall order. Yes I know this is not the SEC but there are some good coaches that have graced this conference. Urban Meyer, Nick Saban, and Gary Pinkle all coached in the MAC. Add Jim Grobe and Turner Gill to that list. Secondly, I think the biggest thing holding the program back is lack of a quality OC. This offense needs to be a lot more productive to get this program regularly in the top 40. Third, this program has to now start thinking about life after Frank. Who in the staff is capable of being Frank's successor? I think Dixon may be the best shot. Aside from the tail end of the 2006 and 2009 seasons Ohio hasn't been in the top 40. The goal should be regular top 40 and occasional top 20. Give the fans a program they can respect. Whether or not we rack up MAC Championships or not is immaterial on a national stage.