Author Topic: Future Football Schedules  (Read 27959 times)

RecoveringHillbilly

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Re: 2012-2015: Football Schedules
« Reply #90 on: December 25, 2012, 07:39:22 am »
I was an undergrad during UB's 1-AA days so I've seen the program from both sides. We were destined for a return to 1-A/FBS. We had played in the University Division in the 60's and sent guys to the pros. But when SUNY banned athletic scholrships in '78 we had to battle all through the 80's to reverse that move. It stunted our AD development waiting that long. When we moved to 1-AA (straight from D3) our AD budget was ~$5M so there were many growing pains. But there were usually decent crowds of 4k-7K and some good times like beating YSU/Tressel the year after they won the title.

But spirit was tough to find. Budget cuts under Pataki led to regular arguments that football should not be funded over academic programs. We had a doughnut-hole of alumni support, with alums who had been around in the 50's and 60's loving the move, but very little support from the D3/non-football era of alumni. But our leaders back then knew being AAU and the largest public in NY/New England meant we belonged. We went after the MAC and it was a unanimous vote. The commish back then had a UB connection and touted our institutional profile and access to Upstate NY markets.

It was rough being a fan a decade ago when we had bad hires and inept AD's. But when we finally won the MAC you could see why it was all worth it. The local sports radio who only talked Bills/Sabres suddenly got sick of the Bill's losing and started talking up UB. Local and national media really became interested in Turner Gill and our past, which would never happen if FCS:



And that season began to show the potential of our market and alumni, and why FBS is worth everything. We have 70K alums living in WNY and 210K+ overall so:

*The MAC title game win against Ball St stands as the most-watched game between two MAC programs ever
*We sold our full allotment of 10K bowl tix. And of the 40K who attended the game, ~30K were supporting Buffalo
*"The University at Buffalo’s loss to UConn on Saturday afternoon in the International Bowl was a local ratings hit. The game on ESPN2 averaged a 16.5 rating, representing 16.5 percent of Western New York homes. To put that in perspective, UB’s afternoon game on cable outrated San Diego’s overtime victory over Indianapolis (16.2) on Channel 2, the local NBC affiliate. It also outrated Arizona’s earlier win over Atlanta (12.6)" -Alan Pergament, Buffalo News
*"Time Warner Cable reported that the game drew the largest local cable broadcast audience in four years" (Per UB Athletics)
 
Only FCS fans see smaller bowls as minor. Nearly all draw better ratings and attendance than the FCS final. Exposure is everything and it helped our AD brand and school spirit obviously soared. There was nothing minor about this environment:

« Last Edit: December 25, 2012, 07:49:02 am by RecoveringHillbilly »