The stadium wasn't even half full for the home opener. It was like 2/3 full for homecoming.
That's still a ghost town.
Ridiculous.
Especially since the home opener hasn't happened yet! That's tomorrow, and I'm sure Spike will be there rooting the Salukis on against a good opponent, like thousands of other insignificant students and fans!
There are approximately 858 football colleges spanning five different division levels. There's plenty of people who enjoy FCS football along with D-2-3, NAIA etc. Especially the people who play and coach it. And there are plenty of fans too. Is it a Power 5 draw? Of course not. So what? And it is certainly viable.
A college campus without football in the autumn is a ghost town. Some folks like football and some like to tailgate, but it's always about the football. Americans (and colleges) love football. I'm one of them.
Go Dawgs!
Amen to this, and 100% agree. Not everyone can play SEC, PAC 12, BIG, football. I'm thankful for all levels of college football. There are good players at every level. If they are good enough to be recruited to play at even the smallest school/division, that's pretty cool. For those folks saying FCS doesn't matter, please tell that to the 85 or so Saluki players that represent our team and fine university.
GO DAWGS!!!
I wouldn't mind seeing us in the MAC - we already are in men's swimming. I'm sure they make more money from football due to TV, but I'll bet most of their football programs do not pay for themselves.
BUT
The attendance at MAC games is not great. Usually 4 or 5 MAC teams, including NIU, average less than the FBS-required 15K per game. EMU or Kent usually have the lowest attendance in the FBS, lower than some D2 schools.
From 2018 - 2022, NIU averaged 7493, 132nd out of 133 FBS teams. In 2022 they averaged 9k+, which would be about 5th or 6th in the MVFC.
That NIU win was the highest ranked win in the history of MAC football. UND was greatly overrated IMO and NIU played up to their opponent, their best performance in years.
Maybe we should join the Big 10-14. OSU,UM,PSU average 100K plus!
There are approximately 858 football colleges spanning five different division levels. There's plenty of people who enjoy FCS football along with D-2-3, NAIA etc. Especially the people who play and coach it. And there are plenty of fans too. Is it a Power 5 draw? Of course not. So what? And it is certainly viable.
A college campus without football in the autumn is a ghost town. Some folks like football and some like to tailgate, but it's always about the football. Americans (and colleges) love football. I'm one of them.
Go Dawgs!
For those folks saying FCS doesn't matter, please tell that to the 85 or so Saluki players that represent our team and fine university.
GO DAWGS!!!
Times obviously change, and the college football landscape is much different now than 40-plus years ago, but following up on the above comment I wouldn't recommend telling members of the '83 Division I-AA national championship team in the predecessor to FBS that they were insignificant or irrelevant. Someone doing that better be prepared to duck, or least get ready for a tongue-lashing. I'm pretty sure anyone who was around then would tell you that victory was a great thing for the school and community, especially with the basketball program stuck in a seemingly endless wilderness at the time.
The stadium wasn't even half full for the home opener. It was like 2/3 full for homecoming.
That's still a ghost town.
Ridiculous.
Especially since the home opener hasn't happened yet! That's tomorrow, and I'm sure Spike will be there rooting the Salukis on against a good opponent, like thousands of other insignificant students and fans!
It's quite evident I was talking about last year.
NIU would love to have 10,000 at a game! LOL Might get it when Toledo comes to town now that they beat somebody. Last year they beat Boston College on the road. Their home losses were to Testicle Tech, Tulsa, and SIU.
Canceling football would be a huge mistake.
SIU couldn't even get 5000 for a home playoff game last year. Are you really going to make fun of another teams attendance?
SIU couldn't even get 5000 for a home playoff game last year. Are you really going to make fun of another teams attendance?
Southern does decent in attendance when you take into consideration the population base and compare the numbers to other FCS schools. Attendance wains as the year goes on and the weather turns colder.
SIU couldn't even get 5000 for a home playoff game last year. Are you really going to make fun of another teams attendance?
NIU has a $32 million budget deficit. They've always been delusional about football. They should drop football and put some resources into their embarrassingly bad basketball program.
Same for Ohio State. They make more money from sports than any college in the US but still have a $10 million budget deficit. They should drop football.
Someday this board is going to have an absolute melt-down of epic proportions when we hear the word ISU-red is moving up to the MAC or some other FBS conference. I fully agree with both Spike's assessment* and bigjsaluki's point we need to be agile and prepared to move-on to the MAC. I don't have a solution as to how we find the dollars now to do that but....
*Not so sure the point about alumni stepping up to pay the gap dollars to make the jump up, I don't think it will be all that easy or quick to raise that money. I would love to be proven wrong though.
Go Dawgs!
