Thanksgiving Takeaways

For the first time ever, South Dakota State hosted a playoff football game in Brookings. The game drew 4,367 fans for the 58-10 SDSU blowout, well below SDSU's season average of 13,338 over the course of five home games this year.

Me, the curious type, wanted to put the numbers in perspective. So I rounded up the attendance numbers from the last four years of first round FCS playoff games and compared them to what that host team had averaged during the season. The numbers shine a harsh light on the showing today in Brookings.

(Note: The 2012 season figures are up to Nov. 23 and do not include the playoffs. For the sake of time, I used the NCAA attendance average for each team for 2009, 2010 and 2011 and the season averages include the playoff game and games following. Even though the averages are not perfect, it gives you an idea of what their usual draw is. )

 

A few takeaways here:

• SDSU drew roughly the lowest percentage of its average fanbase for its playoff game at 33 percent. That's not good. I think I remember laughing at Eastern Kentucky for outbidding James Madison in 2011 and drawing as few as they did but that's basically what happened with SDSU, except I think it was worse. As a few pointed out to me today, it only emphasizes the theory that Jackrabbit fans pack it in during the month of November unless it's a rival or Hobo Day.
• Some simple hypothetical math: If every fan in attendance was an adult (obviously we know that wasn't the case) and paid $25 per ticket, the gate would have totaled $109,175. Factor in the minimum bid of $30,000, knowing SDSU likely bid higher and know that the NCAA will take most of it of that end figure. 
• Was the bid worth it? Yes. SDSU was at home and didn't have to worry about travel. They had 4,000 fans who were as loud as 4,000 can be. And SDSU won by 48. It's still a success.
• There was about 12 solid rows of students. Maybe Brookings businesses will pay for students to get free tickets again but I wouldn't count on it.
• Wagner drew a SEASON-HIGH today for the first round. They had some low figures all year and then were able to bring in over 3,000 for their win over Colgate today. I'm impressed. Stony Brook did the same in 2011. The Seawolves charged $14 for adults and $10 for youth during today's playoff game against Villanova. 
• There will be eight games on Thanksgiving weekend next year when the FCS playoff field expands from 20 to 24. 

A B1G Debacle

Why, Jim Delany?

People already believe you, the commissioner of the Big Ten, are an idiot, based on your steadfast beliefs to hold the Rose Bowl and its geriatric leaders to a Big Ten/Pac 12 pairing every year, standing in the way of a playoff for years. It was your idiotic idea to name the football divisions after two non-descript, non-proper nouns and then top that by naming each individual conference award after not one but two former conference stars (Hello, Thompson-Randle El Freshman of the Year Award). You combined letters and numbers in your logo for no real reason.

But you've topped it now.

You're going to add Maryland for athletics to the Big Ten, the major conference I have the largest rooting interest in.

And you're going to ruin it.

Have you watched Maryland recently? They're operated by the biggest headcase in college football, Randy Edsall. That's saying something when you consider Lane Kiffin is still running USC and Bo Pelini has found success at Nebraska. At least, Ralph Fridgen was a decent person and he was run out of town.

You're going to add Rutgers, which is terrible at football and basketball, as well. Greg Schiano left for the Buccaneers, remember?

Well, at least they're an academic school.

Oh, that's right. The Big Ten gave up on academic laurels long ago. 

Yes, I understand you can make $250 million a year on a new TV deal because there's TV sets in Washington D.C., Baltimore and New York City. That's nice. But how does this make the Big Ten better on the field? These are, at best, 7-5 and 8-4 football teams.

Think of all of the other patsies that are already in the conference in a regular year: Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, Northwestern, Purdue and Penn State will soon be in this bunch.

It's currently being said that Maryland and Rutgers will have the 12th and 14th largest athletic budgets in the conference, respectively. In other words, third-to-last and dead last. Ohio State spends more than both schools combined in a single year.

Tell me how Maryland and Rutgers will be able to compete and how they will be better when it comes to winning football games. Tell me it's not about the money, like so many athletic administrators do.

In the arms race with the SEC and Big 12 and Pac 12, does adding the Terrapins and the Scarlet Knights make the Big Ten better? I can firmly say no.

I don't much care for conference expansion. I thought West Virginia being in a conference that was actually in the east made sense. But the only expansion that would have made sense in the Big Ten would be Notre Dame and after 20 years of flirting, the Irish went to the ACC with a sweetheart deal. (I can't blame Delany there. The ACC is desperate so they had to make that particular football deal where the Irish get to eat their cake for the considerable future.) Notre Dame is in the footprint and potentially someone else (Missouri, Cincinnati) would have made geographic sense.

But you blew it, Delany. 

Television is changing the game for college athletics, just like the flashy boxes did for the NFL. Argubly, Delany set the table for the Pac 12 Network and the debacle that is the Longhorn Network when he created the Big Ten Network and despite that success, it's becoming a slippery slope.

They say college sports aren't out to make money but how can it not be.

The actions continue to speak otherwise.