SWAC as FBS


That is what I keep saying SU ticket prices are some of the highest in FCS,.. I think SU goal should be 19,000- 20,000 every home game(non big games)(25,000 or more-large games )that would still put them revenue-wise top in FCS
 
Last edited:
Click here to visit HBCUSportsStore
How can Southern's ticket sales be higher than JSU's, when JSU has an average home attendance of 33,000 compared to SU's 17,000? JSU has to have the highest ticket sales revenue in FCS, and probably more than half of FBS, period. If JSU's average ticket sales is lower than SU's, then those attendance numbers are skewed immensely or something else is going on. Allowing all those school-aged kids free admittance is starting to take its toll!

I think it's the numbers being skewed. They do have something to get to those numbers with Sanders and the price of their season tickets with the only game in town.
 
I think we were set up to have a good attendance this Fall like we had in 2018. LC Classic was against SFA (~12,500), Sep 19th was Southern (~15,000), HC was Alcorn again (~19,000), and Grambling in November (~5,000). With the anticipation and excitement for this year's team you could reasonably expect that our attendance would've been pushing 13K.

So hopefully the AD has learned the formula, and will build upon it.

Looking at those numbers the conference need to look at giving schools equal balance for every year with the type of teams each school gets to host. Why did you have Alcorn, Su & Gsu in the same year as home games? What was the attendance in the odd year for your conference games?

I know it's a imbalance with stu and PV with their home conference games since each has to host each other and Su in the same years (stu - odd, PV - even) which makes their 2 biggest home games in the same year and the year you don't have those 2 games your attendance is down. I think that they should not have to host the 2 biggest games in the same year but host 1 of those games each year which would give each school a more balance attendance and income for each year.
 
I'm not the AD, but believe you me if I were we'd have been had that schedule every year. Also, a lot of the older alumni don't like playing JxSU or UNA due to bad blood from the past, and I can respect that. I can't change their minds, but I'm of the mindset that I'm gonna beat your ass on the field to get my point across.
To answer @Earle ,
and to add to @Mr. SWAC ’s comments,
Alabama A&M’s Ath Director isn’t much of a visionary. Many things under his watch could be done better especially football scheduling. In 2018 & 2019, he had a chance to say “no” on losing home games with Southern & Central State. But he decided to let AAMU play in Gulf Coast Challenge and lose out on home games in back-to-back years.

The UNA games in 2017 & 2018 had great attendance numbers. But AAMU didn’t move swiftly to sign new contracts with UNA. The Lions now have their non-conference slate set for the next few years with Jacksonville State, Chattanooga, Nicholls State & Dixie State. So it will be years before they could play again.

I hadn’t heard much in trying when it comes to scheduling Jacksonville State. But i do know that the gamecocks non-conference slate is full for the next two seasons.

AAMU is rumored to be playing Tuskegee next season in Mobile for Gulf Coast Challenge. I do know that Coach Connell Maynor doesn’t like playing D2 schools (like Miles & Morehouse as he’s done in the past).

Tennessee State would be a good additional for AAMU to the schedule but it couldn’t be any earlier than 2022. No Non-conference in spring 2021 for Tigers and fall 2021 is full.
 
Looking at those numbers the conference need to look at giving schools equal balance for every year with the type of teams each school gets to host. Why did you have Alcorn, Su & Gsu in the same year as home games? What was the attendance in the odd year for your conference games?

I know it's a imbalance with stu and PV with their home conference games since each has to host each other and Su in the same years (stu - odd, PV - even) which makes their 2 biggest home games in the same year and the year you don't have those 2 games your attendance is down. I think that they should not have to host the 2 biggest games in the same year but host 1 of those games each year which would give each school a more balance attendance and income for each year.
I think the SWAC still caters heavily to the "Big 3" schools when it comes to scheduling. There is no logical reason why AAMU has to travel to Texas twice in a season to play both TxSU and PVAMU in football, especially using a scheduling model that rotates opposite division opponents on/off the schedule.

2017 was a combination of a brutal schedule, losing record, and a disaffected fan base (Spady's last year). Our first 3 games of the season were against UAB, Vanderbilt, and South Alabama. By the time our first home game came around expectations for the season were low:

SEP
TxSU (6,356)
UAPB (15,685)
OCT
MVSU (2,265)
NOV
JSU (5,755)
Kentucky St. (789)

That was bad scheduling on our ADs part, IMO. I would never have scheduled 3 FBS teams in a row to start a season, and rather would have pushed for an earlier season ooc home game against a regional rival that would have drawn ~12K, and drop the KSU game in November. For some reason our fans hate November home games.
 
I think the SWAC still caters heavily to the "Big 3" schools when it comes to scheduling. There is no logical reason why AAMU has to travel to Texas twice in a season to play both TxSU and PVAMU in football, especially using a scheduling model that rotates opposite division opponents on/off the schedule.

That I do agree on.
You know how the Swac is gonna scew us (Texas & Alabama) with some permanent cross division BS when it comes to the new schedule. Just let everyone rotate on and off, 5 division games and 3 cross division games (rotate 3 on and 3 off every year). If someone is not on that you want to play, do it as a non conference game and be done with it.
 
To answer @Earle ,
and to add to @Mr. SWAC ’s comments,
Alabama A&M’s Ath Director isn’t much of a visionary. Many things under his watch could be done better especially football scheduling. In 2018 & 2019, he had a chance to say “no” on losing home games with Southern & Central State. But he decided to let AAMU play in Gulf Coast Challenge and lose out on home games in back-to-back years.

The UNA games in 2017 & 2018 had great attendance numbers. But AAMU didn’t move swiftly to sign new contracts with UNA. The Lions now have their non-conference slate set for the next few years with Jacksonville State, Chattanooga, Nicholls State & Dixie State. So it will be years before they could play again.

I hadn’t heard much in trying when it comes to scheduling Jacksonville State. But i do know that the gamecocks non-conference slate is full for the next two seasons.

AAMU is rumored to be playing Tuskegee next season in Mobile for Gulf Coast Challenge. I do know that Coach Connell Maynor doesn’t like playing D2 schools (like Miles & Morehouse as he’s done in the past).

Tennessee State would be a good additional for AAMU to the schedule but it couldn’t be any earlier than 2022. No Non-conference in spring 2021 for Tigers and fall 2021 is full.
Can't disagree one bit here. I think you hit the nail on the head. I'd like to see Hicks be more aggressive and strategic in this department. I've been trying to give him the benefit of the doubt, but "isn't much of a visionary" touched my soul just now, lol.

I don't like playing D2 teams either, and it took me until 2018 to change up my position. Now, I still don't like playing D2 schools, but with the exception of Tuskegee, Miles, or Morehouse we can control the home game scheduling aspect and it will draw well regionally. If TnSU, JxSU or UNA aren't available then I'd default to one of those D2 schools.
 
To answer @Earle ,
and to add to @Mr. SWAC ’s comments,
Alabama A&M’s Ath Director isn’t much of a visionary. Many things under his watch could be done better especially football scheduling. In 2018 & 2019, he had a chance to say “no” on losing home games with Southern & Central State. But he decided to let AAMU play in Gulf Coast Challenge and lose out on home games in back-to-back years.

The UNA games in 2017 & 2018 had great attendance numbers. But AAMU didn’t move swiftly to sign new contracts with UNA. The Lions now have their non-conference slate set for the next few years with Jacksonville State, Chattanooga, Nicholls State & Dixie State. So it will be years before they could play again.

I hadn’t heard much in trying when it comes to scheduling Jacksonville State. But i do know that the gamecocks non-conference slate is full for the next two seasons.

AAMU is rumored to be playing Tuskegee next season in Mobile for Gulf Coast Challenge. I do know that Coach Connell Maynor doesn’t like playing D2 schools (like Miles & Morehouse as he’s done in the past).

Tennessee State would be a good additional for AAMU to the schedule but it couldn’t be any earlier than 2022. No Non-conference in spring 2021 for Tigers and fall 2021 is full.
SU game doesn't make money in Huntsville... Central State would be an empty home game. Both of those games did much better in Mobile than they would have done here. As far as UNA.... Remember Maynor said "as long as Im coaching here , we won't play UNA anymore".... so we all knew that was the last game of that series. I would rather see Tuskegee as a home game. Tenn State hasn't wanted to play us in years... it takes two sides to agree to play. Maybe their new AD will work something out.
 
SU game doesn't make money in Huntsville... Central State would be an empty home game. Both of those games did much better in Mobile than they would have done here. As far as UNA.... Remember Maynor said "as long as Im coaching here , we won't play UNA anymore".... so we all knew that was the last game of that series. I would rather see Tuskegee as a home game. Tenn State hasn't wanted to play us in years... it takes two sides to agree to play. Maybe their new AD will work something out.
Well you know that I have a personal factor when it comes to seeing Southern in Huntsville.

I attended the Gulf Coast Challenge in Mobile and honestly, I think that there were slightly moreSouthern fans there than Alabama A&M fans (this was a Alabama A&M home game). Grant it, Mobile to Baton rouge is a 3 Hour drive (2 hour drive for fans in NOLA) compared to a 5 hour drive for Alabama A&M.

i was in the room when Maynor said that AAMU & UNA weren’t going to play anymore. That story was blown out of proportion. Yes, Maynor was mad because he felt that coaches and players were mistreated by the city of Florence. But it was already determined that UNA & Alabama A&M weren’t going to play in the future because Hicks drug his feet during the negotiations to
re-up that game. UNA didn’t waste time filling their non-conference schedules for the next few years afterwards.

i think if Alabama A&M plays Tuskegee every so often, then it will generate good revenue. There’s been some talk that Dr McClelland may limit the amount of games that SWAC teams as a whole will play against division 2 opponents in the future. So keep an eye out on that
 
Back
Top