Boston Globe: ODU Rapidly on the Rise

[TexasTerror]

Interesting read... props to ODU for getting some major national attention! Apologies if this is already up here...


The Old Dominion University athletic department is buzzing, talking about its second-year football program in pinch-me-please terms. Tickets are selling on Craigslist for $200, eight times face value. A moratorium was placed on students camping out for ducats simply because crowds became too large. Fans watch from a parking garage because they can’t get into 19,782-seat Foreman Field.

http://www.boston.com/sports/colleges/football/articles/2010/10/06/ticketed_for_success/?page=1

[JMUNJ08]

Pretty good read about ODU and other start-ups. Really shows how football can spark interest but is a true gamble

[PantherRob82]

Listing for $200 or selling? Big difference.

[danefan]

Why is the Globe so hell bent on FCS football the last two weeks? First the NU article, then the one on New Haven's decision to withdraw its reclassification and now ODU.

I guess its nice to see one paper showing multiple sides to the story, but its just odd to see in a Boston paper.

[Lehigh Football Nation]

Why is the Globe so hell bent on FCS football the last two weeks? First the NU article, then the one on New Haven's decision to withdraw its reclassification and now ODU.

I guess its nice to see one paper showing multiple sides to the story, but its just odd to see in a Boston paper.

Because they're trying to show how Northeastern and BU were right to drop football.

And it's clear to me that the author's opinion is closer to Silber than Larry Coker's.

[DaBigBlue]

Listing for $200 or selling? Big difference.

A ton of tickets sold between $100-$150 on Stubhub and craigslist. The highest listing was $1,000 for a pair on the 50 yard, plus $100 for tailgate pass...crazy as crack. That was the William and Mary game, that was a very hot ticket in the Tidewater area.

The thing that stuck out to me was this quote. "Schools adding the sport at the FCS level — all in the South and Southwest". Does the trend seem to be going that way?

[Jackman]

Why is the Globe so hell bent on FCS football the last two weeks? First the NU article, then the one on New Haven's decision to withdraw its reclassification and now ODU.

I guess its nice to see one paper showing multiple sides to the story, but its just odd to see in a Boston paper.

The same Globe writer wrote all 3 articles. She obviously had a lot of material leftover that didn't serve the purpose of praising BU and Northeastern for dropping football, so she crafted 2 separate articles out of the excess research. If there's a fourth article which praises all the good that FBS football has done for BC's national profile, then the final article will be about how whatever UMass is currently doing or will ever choose to do in the future will always be wrong.

[Maroon&White]

Why is the Globe so hell bent on FCS football the last two weeks? First the NU article, then the one on New Haven's decision to withdraw its reclassification and now ODU.

I guess its nice to see one paper showing multiple sides to the story, but its just odd to see in a Boston paper.

What multiple sides? Aren't they all about money and how FCS teams aren't a financial success? Next article will probably directly call for UMass to drop football.

[danefan]

What multiple sides? Aren't they all about money and how FCS teams aren't a financial success? Next article will probably directly call for UMass to drop football.


The same Globe writer wrote all 3 articles. She obviously had a lot of material leftover that didn't serve the purpose of praising BU and Northeastern for dropping football, so she crafted 2 separate articles out of the excess research. If there's a fourth article which praises all the good that FBS football has done for BC's national profile, then the final article will be about how whatever UMass is currently doing or will ever choose to do in the future will always be wrong.

Yeah after further review its clear they are still somehow spinning ODU's clear success into a failure in their world.

Would anyone in their right mind say ODU's entrance into FCS football has in any way been a negative?

[Lehigh Football Nation]

These institutions decided it was too costly to sit on the sidelines, even in tough economic times. Schools adding the sport at the FCS level — all in the South and Southwest — see oppor tunities to re-brand, raise their profile, and promote academic and athletic initiatives. Those potential gains outweigh the tens of millions invested in start-up costs and the $3 million-$5 million in annual operating costs.

For a more well-researched view of annual operating costs of a football program, you might want to read:

http://lehighfootballnation.blogspot.com/2010/10/fragile-college-football-life-after.html


FCS schools do spend $3 million to $5 million on their football programs. But the expenses are not divided equally between scholarships, travel, coaches' salaries and facilities. The great majority of the money goes towards scholarships. For example, Hofstra's $4.5 million "expense" for football was mostly $2.5 million of scholarship "expenses" - in other words, more than half the entire expenditure of the program. And these scholarships are going partially or entirely to the education of students - some of whom couldn't afford going to the school otherwise. (Isn't this the mission of universities - to educate?)

So let's say that this money instead is put back into the main scholarship pool. This money will go towards all students now - unless the goal is to replace the one hundred or so football players with more well-to-do, less diverse (since, frequently, the football team is the most diverse athletic team on campus), less needy students.

If it's all about saving money, the plan has to be to make the student body less diverse and less needy - the only case in which there is significant scholarship cost savings in dropping football, since "needy" students would be replaced with "not-needy" students (probably students that are whiter and richer, too). Either that, or else the university will use those funds to target diverse students that need financial aid - in which case there will be no savings.

[JMUNJ08]

A ton of tickets sold between $100-$150 on Stubhub and craigslist. The highest listing was $1,000 for a pair on the 50 yard, plus $100 for tailgate pass...crazy as crack. That was the William and Mary game, that was a very hot ticket in the Tidewater area.

The thing that stuck out to me was this quote. "Schools adding the sport at the FCS level — all in the South and Southwest". Does the trend seem to be going that way?

The north has a lot of the old guard professional teams that push college football out of the way. The south lives and dies by their college games. This just isn't seen north of the mason dixon line.

[Jackman]

I guess the writer doesn't consider Division II upgrades like Bryant and the Dakotas to be "new" FCS teams.

[TexasTerror]

I guess the writer doesn't consider Division II upgrades like Bryant and the Dakotas to be "new" FCS teams.

This article was solely 'upstarts'. Neither Bryant, the UxDs are upstarts.

[Maroon&White]

I guess the writer doesn't consider Division II upgrades like Bryant and the Dakotas to be "new" FCS teams.

Those schools didn't require as much money, since as you said, they were changing divisions rather then starting programs. Guess they didn't lose enough money to be considered.

[Jackman]

Going from D2 to FCS is still a huge jump. It involves more scholarship increases and a larger jump in minimum sport requirements than moving from FCS to FBS, and we decry that move as financial insanity (the Globe certainly would if we tried it). It ought to be at least worthy of mention that some northern universities are making multi-million dollar investment increases in football as well, and it's not "all in the south and southwest".

[Maroon&White]

Absolutely not. That would confuse them and might not help their case.