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Topic: NY Times article on the rise of Louisville football/athletics

Topic: NY Times article on the rise of Louisville football/athletics

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Ted Thompson
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Member Since: 11/11/2004
Location: MAC Play
Post Count: 7,720

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NY Times article on the rise of Louisville football/athletics

Posted: 8/25/2013 7:24:37 PM

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/26/sports/at-louisville-an-athletic-boom-made-for-and-by-tv.html?hpw&_r=1&

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The Optimist
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Member Since: 3/16/2007
Location: CLE
Post Count: 5,595

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RE: NY Times article on the rise of Louisville football/athletics

Posted: 8/25/2013 8:37:51 PM

Incredibly interesting article.

I think there are some very good parallels that can be drawn between what Louisville has done and what Ohio is doing, albeit on a smaller scale here.

I was highly skeptical of the midweek MACtion games for awhile, but I cannot argue with them anymore. It is going to be hard for someone like me who lives 3 hours away from Athens to consistently make these games, but the exposure Ohio University gets from these games makes it very worth it.

You look at the skyrocketing number of applications to Ohio University that has followed our recent, extremely visible athletic success and you can see why schools feel the high spending on athletics is worth it.

I was long of the belief we (kinda like Louisville, on a smaller scale) had a better chance to get national exposure in hoops. I still believe our hoops program will always be a bit stronger than our football program. But I understand why we are investing heavily in football. America loves football. Throw a random game on Wednesday night and people will watch. The MACtion brand that has developed (like Louisville again, high scoring made for TV) has been awesome. The Temple Blackout game on ESPN put our University in such a highly visible light on national TV, it is awesome.

Even this upcoming game against Louisville... It is the ONLY college football game on ESPN next Sunday. With NFL in the preseason, Louisville in the Top 10 and after our burst into the national spotlight from an ESPN televised opening game last year, this Sunday is going to be a HUGE window to our University.

Two straight football openers on ESPN. Never thought I'd see that 5 years ago.

I've seen crazier things happen.

TWT
General User

Member Since: 12/20/2004
Location: Alexandria, VA
Post Count: 5,171

Status: Offline

RE: NY Times article on the rise of Louisville football/athletics

Posted: 8/27/2013 12:09:14 PM

Louisville is one of those schools that had a perfect storm of public financing, great coaching hires and upwardly mobile conference moves. They've marketed the college athletic programs as the pro team for Louisville with NBA and NFL caliber facilities. It also helps that Louisville is the biggest city in Kentucky always attracting the cream of the state's investment. Cincinnati is trying the same model but with less success because the NFL is already in that city and they've got to compete with a Xavier basketball program that is now in the Big East. The strides at UC regardless have been immense. Memphis was able to do it in basketball but they need a new football stadium. All 3 river cities programs had long pitched their programs to TV with local TV deal's for men's basketball going back to the 60's. Ohio is a traditional small market school that was largely absent during the TV era. The MAC has present us a group of schools in a similar situation that we could compete against. It has started to change in the last 10 years with the conference having a TV package with ESPN. Recruiting in the MAC was spread around evenly before that and any school with a hot QB could win the conference. The MAC today is becoming more like any other FBS conference with dynasties (NIU, CMU) and teams that are every year threats. Basketball has been Kent State, Akron and Ohio for the last decade. I tend to like the Arkansas model for Ohio. Located in a remote corner of the state, Arkansas played half its games in Little Rock until 2000. Today they continue to play 2 home games a year in Little Rock. I'm not recommending 2 home games a year in Cleveland but I don't see why Ohio can't play a 7th home game every other year in Cleveland and one basketball game each year. Host a program like Arkansas or Kentucky up in Cleveland instead of a money game on the road every year. The program is ready to handle something like that and it would be an ESPN game. Make a policy to play Big Ten and SEC schools 1 & 1 with the NFL Stadium in Cleveland while ACC schools have to come to Athens.

Most Memorable Bobcat Events Attended
2010 97-83 win over Georgetown in NCAA 1st round
2012 45-13 victory over ULM in the Independence Bowl
2015 34-3 drubbing of Miami @ Peden front of 25,086

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