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Game Thread Game One: #1 Ohio State 35, Northern Illinois 12 (9/2/06)

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Meantime the fact that NIU leads the MAC in attendance is in its own way impressive as these schools are, for the most part,
A - smaller in enrollment,
B - have miniscule alumni bases from which to draw comapred to PSU or tOSU
C - Have not had the years of long success to build that attendance
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NCAA Football Attendance Page

For a school with 25,000 enrolled and a 28,000-seat stadium, there's no reason why there should be 6,000 empty seats every game (NIU averaged 22,176 per game last year), especially when they were MAC West Division Champions.
 
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Bucks07 said:
You're also not that far from Chicago and its suburbs and the 2 million people who live there. And look at some of the other situations MAC schools are in, like my alma mater Ohio University. They struggle for attendance but:

1) Athens is half as big as Dekalb - 21,000 vs. 39,000
2) Its in the middle of nowhere - Columbus is closest big city 1 1/2 hours away
3) The Bobcats suck - they won 7 games in my 4 years, only have 2 bowl appearences ever and none since 1968 (man thats depressing to actually see written out :sad2: )

Congratulations on beating that for attendance.:roll2:
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NIU only has 3 bowl appearances in school history.

We played 3 home games on Saturday's last year, and they were a 1-AA team, Eastern Michigan, and Ball State. Then we played a weeknight games vs. Miami and a WEEKDAY games vs. Western Michigan. When you play weeknight (or day) games, it almost takes the Chicago base out of the equation.

Yet we still led the MAC in attendance. You can get on NIU for many things, attendance is not one.
 
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Bucknut319 said:
We are suppose to pound NIU, so we really have nothing to gain and everything to lose. Walk softly and carry a big stick....
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I think we remember that, but the difference is we were breaking in a new QB, had no difference makers at RB(could argue we have 3 now), outside of Santonio the WR position was a problem, we have a much better offensive line than two years ago and we were breaking in an almost entirely new defensive line.
 
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Attendance by Game:

Game 3 (0-2) vs. 1-AA TTU: 26,123 (Saturday)
Game 5 (1-3) vs. Miami 20, 023 (Wed. night, and the White Sox were playing a home playoff game)
Game 6 (2-3) vs. Eastern Michigan 27,641 (Saturday)
Game 8 (4-3) vs. Ball State 18,732 (Saturday, wow I don't know what happend that game)
Game 11 (6-4) vs Western Michigan 18,361 (Wed. afternoon)

So in 3 Saturday games the average attendance was 24,165
In 2 weekday/night games: 19,192

If the Miami and Western Michigan games were on weekends they are probably sellouts.
 
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G-FORCE said:
NIU only has 3 bowl appearances in school history.

We played 3 home games on Saturday's last year, and they were a 1-AA team, Eastern Michigan, and Ball State. Then we played a weeknight games vs. Miami and a WEEKDAY games vs. Western Michigan. When you play weeknight (or day) games, it almost takes the Chicago base out of the equation.

Yet we still led the MAC in attendance. You can get on NIU for many things, attendance is not one.
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Ok, I'll give you weekday games will hurt (why the hell are you playing on a Wednesday afternoon anyway?), but if you have a loyal fanbase theres no reason not to sellout a weeknight game, especially with the enrollment of the school and the recent sucess NIU's had considering two of those bowl appearances are in the past few years (as opposed to 12-15 years before every current student was even born).
 
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Bucks07 said:
Ok, I'll give you weekday games will hurt (why the hell are you playing on a Wednesday afternoon anyway?), but if you have a loyal fanbase theres no reason not to sellout a weeknight game, especially with the enrollment of the school and the recent sucess NIU's had considering two of those bowl appearances are in the past few years (as opposed to 12-15 years before every current student was even born).
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We've been to 1 bowl since 1983. The 2004 Silicon Valley Bowl.

The weeknight game against Miami of Ohio the White Sox were playing a home playoff game vs. the Red Sox. That'll hurt attendance. If you put the 2 mid-week games on weekends our attendance average is more like 26,500 per game then 22,000 per game.

The reason we played the Western Michigan game on a weekday is because the week before we played @ Toledo on a Thursday night and the Thursday after was the MAC Championship. So we couldn't have played it the Saturday before because it was 2 days after Toledo, but if we played it the Saturday after the MAC Championship was only 5 days after. We could have just played it on Wed. night, but it wouldn't have been on T.V. If we played it on Wed. afternoon ESPN promised to pick up the game. Say hello to MAC football. Prostitute your progam.
 
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G-FORCE said:
Game 5 (1-3) vs. Miami 20, 023 (Wed. night, and the White Sox were playing a home playoff game)
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Sorry, I don't buy that excuse. If I'm anywhere near Columbus for a home game and the Cleveland Indians are playing a playoff game at the same time, I'm in The Shoe watching football and watch the Tribe later on DVR. A true NIU football fan goes to the game, regardless of whether the White Sox or Cubbies are in the playoffs.
 
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MililaniBuckeye said:
Sorry, I don't buy that excuse. If I'm anywhere near Columbus for a home game and the Cleveland Indians are playing a playoff game at the same time, I'm in The Shoe watching football and watch the Tribe later on DVR. A true NIU football fan goes to the game, regardless of whether the White Sox or Cubbies are in the playoffs.
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I agree. My brother is a big Sox fan, and he just brought his radio to the NIU game and had the Sox game on the radio. However many don't feel the same way, and I don't think you can argue that the Sox playing a playoff game, especially at home, hurt our attendance. Now how much it hurt can be argued.
 
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G-FORCE said:
We've been to 1 bowl since 1983. The 2004 Silicon Valley Bowl.

The weeknight game against Miami of Ohio the White Sox were playing a home playoff game vs. the Red Sox. That'll hurt attendance. If you put the 2 mid-week games on weekends our attendance average is more like 26,500 per game then 22,000 per game.
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Still better than 0 bowls since 1968. And if you cant find 8000 more people to fill the stadium the program just isnt what you want it to be. I have a lot of respect for the team, and obviously they have some very loyal fans such as yourself, but not selling out the home games and failing to sell 3,500 tickets to this game just doesnt paint a pretty picture of overall support.
 
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Buckeye Nut said:
You didn't exactly make it very clear what specific aspect you were talking about. What exactly does "size of the program" mean anyway? What do you use to calculate this? Your point is still greatly exaggerated unless you consider them to have the smallest program in the country.
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Nobody ever exaggerates to make a point with you, do they?

You're basically laughing at NIU because they don't have the attendance that we are lucky to have. That's like going to recess at some elementary school and kicking all the 1st grader's asses at basketball. Wow....what an accomplishment. You're bigger, you should win.
 
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