FTFY
Here's a fun note. SJU has a home game approaching against NJIT. SJU has only a 60% chance of winning (-3).
Are The "box seats/suites" Sold - They Look Terrible on TV
- Thread starter BuffetParrothead
- Start date
FTFY
Here's a fun note. SJU has a home game approaching against NJIT. SJU has only a 60% chance of winning (-3).
I know what Pitt basketball needs to solve the attendance issue. They need an on-campus basketball arena. Easy access for the students. Because their current location is the problem 
I know what Pitt basketball needs to solve the attendance issue. They need an on-campus basketball arena. Easy access for the students. Because their current location is the problem
Good one.
I'll tell you one thing though, the students that go dont leave early. This is partly due to the fact that the Athletic Dept ensures "casual" student fans dont attend by making the process to obtain tickets very difficult and confusing. No "on the fence" fan is going to create an account on a website, login, request tickets for Wake Forest, check a few days later to see if they got them, confirm the order, then pick up the ticket at the Pete. Only the diehards do that.
SMF's Student Ticket Plan: no tickets. Any student who wants to go pays $50 for the season and the first 1000 students that arrive sit in the Zoo. The next 200 sit in the uppers. The next 1000 get standing room throughout the arena.
So in your mind it's boring for Pitt to play a decent team rather than a crappy one? I mean I could understand someone who doesn't know about or follow college basketball thinking that watch Pitt play Missouri would be more interesting than watching Pitt play Stony Brook, but it boggles my mind that anyone could claim to be a basketball junkie and think that.
I mean I guess I could understand it if it were a crappy team with at least some other hook, like a conference team such as Boston College or a (kinda) local team like Penn State. But who cares about someone like Missouri? Who in their right mind is going to spend some February evening watching Missouri get the crap kicked out of them by someone like Florida just because they played Pitt two month prior?
okay, let's try this angle: I like playing teams that have fans. Then, when Pitt beats their team, it is more fun and it makes our program look better because those fans will grant us respect. Rather than Stony Brook, who i'm not sure has any fans. I visit a lot of airports, and I could walk through airports all year without seeing a Stony Brook fan, but I sure as hell will run into a lot of Mizzou fans. That is a big part of the fun of sports, isn't it?
So you'd like to play a crappy team like Missouri because when we beat them Missouri fans will grant us respect? Good god.
I'd rather beat good teams, because then maybe people who know the game will grant us respect. But that's just me.
I have a GREAT idea to improve Basketball Attendance: Start playing games in Fitzgerald Field House Again. Then the 3,000 fans that attend games in the "Pete" will make the "Fitz" look 50% full. That certainly limited the talent and teams that Pitt had when they played in the "Fitz". I mean I'm sure the Pitt team that had Sean Miller, Jerome Lane, Jason Mathews, Charles Smith, etc. wasn't even competitive.
Maybe, just freaking MAYBE that the fans ( Students, Adults and Children ) recognize and aren't interested in a BAD PRODUCT. MAYBE Pitt's "Customer's" don't support BAD PRODUCT? Nah.
Nerdy and Steve: You demolished Pitt Stadium for this? Tell me again, how many years does Jamie have remaining on his contract? How many fans are going to be there next year after Pitt "makes" the CBI this season?
Just one more expensive mistake Chancellor Gallagher and AD Barnes are going to have to clean up.
Maybe, just freaking MAYBE that the fans ( Students, Adults and Children ) recognize and aren't interested in a BAD PRODUCT. MAYBE Pitt's "Customer's" don't support BAD PRODUCT? Nah.
Nerdy and Steve: You demolished Pitt Stadium for this? Tell me again, how many years does Jamie have remaining on his contract? How many fans are going to be there next year after Pitt "makes" the CBI this season?
Just one more expensive mistake Chancellor Gallagher and AD Barnes are going to have to clean up.
The last 15 years of Pitt basketball have been very enjoyable to watch and we are tourney level team this year. The last 30 years of football do not come close to being as enjoyable. Thankfully PN has us moving in the right direction to no thanks of our fans.
Until Pitt moved to ACC, which team was generating a profit that was used to pay the athletic department bills? It wasn't the football team. Times have changed & with ACC television contract the football team is driving the bus now. Your contempt for everything other than football demeans you.
Nordenberg elevated the school to a first class university. Two of my kids were fortunate to be accepted & wanted to attend Pitt. Twenty years ago, I would have encouraged them to look at their options.
Peterson was a lightning bolt...you either hated the things that he did (drop the script, tear down Pitt Stadium & make poor choices with hiring/retaining football coaches) or you saw some of the positives (replacing an antiquated stadium with the Pete, bringing back the football team back from the ashes of Majors II, or getting the funding to build the soccer, track & baseball fields behind Trees Hall which made Pitt more attractive during the conference shuffle).
Peterson is gone, as well as Nordenberg & Pitt Stadium; it's time to move forward.
Either you bleed blue & gold or you are a quasi fan looking out for your own special interest.
Correct. Let's play the big boys who are on somewhat of an even level as us. Let's measure ourselves against them. Of course with 300+ teams some of the small guys will pop up as quality every year, that is inevitable. But I don't give a damn about Stony Brook and how good they will be in some conference I don't even remember the name of until March. I'd rather play a schedule of only top-conference teams who are big names, have fans, and have revenue comparable to us.
The trick is that you don't have to get upper tier teams to fill up the OOC schedule, but u do have to make them games which people might care about.
Schedule Bobby Mo, Marshall, Ohio U, La Salle, Drexel, Lehigh, St Joes etc.
(basically small schools who occasionally make the tournament, and have alumni in the area)
-it makes no sense to schedule cupcakes who don't have alums in the region (Eastern Wash, Central Ark, and the like)
Are you ok with losing a fair share of those games? Because that'll be what happens and we'll be the 19 win team in March, hoping our SOS gets us a 12 seed.
But that isn't what you are arguing. Missouri isn't on the same level as us. They suck. If they played Stony Brook they'd be the underdog (even at home). And you know why? They're awful. The notion that Missouri is a "big boy" is laughable. People that pay attention to college basketball ought to know that.
Yeah, I mean just imagine if we could get a top ten type team from a big name conference to come to the Pete. Maybe we should call Purdue and see if they want to play us. I'll bet that game would be packed to the rafters.
I can understand wanting to play teams on an even level, but the reality is that we aren't going to get these games at the Pete. Perhaps we can get one home and home, and what I believe to be in the works with WVU would certainly fit the bill.
We'd have to go on the road and play them, or work to get ourselves into more made for TV neutral site games (or a better preseason tourney). I don't think this is necessarily a bad idea, and most of the national criticism Pitt has gotten for their schedule is that they don't go on the road for the OOC schedule.
But this wouldn't solve the problem of the "boring" schedule at the Pete that inspired this thread.
The reality is that if we got to play Gonzaga as planned this year, and would have replaced Central Arkansas with the road trip to WVU this year (and having them come here next year), this would be a very comparable schedule to anyone's "tough" schedule.
Maybe Barnes will consent to (and Dixon would agree to) give up another home game (like Maryland ES coming up) and replace this with another decent road trip, without a promise to return to the Pete. That's likely the only way we are going to easily get what you are hoping for (and again, I'm not suggesting this is a bad idea).
It doesn't seem that the students have too much trouble figuring it out actually. Pitt's system is designed to give priority to students who attend more games, even if it's slightly convoluted. Your plan would do the following: Guarantee student sellouts for Syracuse, Louisville, Duke, UNC. Guarantee not a single student shows up for any other non-conference game or any game prior to the "big ones" - this problem exacerbated in down years meaning no one shows up to see Georgia Tech, FSU, or other conference opponents.
So it doesn't surprise me to see an idea of yours filled with fail.
Pitt used to sell season student tickets and attendance rose quite significantly after the lottery was installed. Things have tapered since then, but I imagine a full-season ticket would be even worse.
It really isn't a complex system anyway. Students run their entire academic lives online at this point, requesting a ticket via a website is no bother. SMF is also overstating the demand. Many games (if not all, by now) go to an "on demand" period where you just log on, pay, and print your ticket immediately, even on the day of the game. Only in super big games is there more demand than supply.
How are they not on the same level as us??? They make SEC money, which is more than what we make. They have been to the NCAA tournament 5 of the last 7 years, same as us. They made the Elite 8 the same year as us. They have won two conference championships more recent than our last one in 2008. Even their arena is newer and bigger than ours.
You are focused on present state of their team rather than long-term program status. Heck we were in the NIT last year we have nothing to be bragging about.
Because if you are trying to maximize your RPI you can't be playing games against teams that stink, even if they are from a good conference. Playing Missouri hurts you. Playing BC hurts you. Playing St. John's hurts you
And it's not like playing those kinds of teams is any kind of boost anyway. Purdue is every bit the "name" program as Missouri, and there were thousands and thousands of empty seats there that night. If people didn't care about Purdue, who is actually good, why on earth would anyone care about a Missouri team that stinks?
It just boggles my mind that there is someone out there who thinks we need to play more crappy teams.
And it's not like playing those kinds of teams is any kind of boost anyway. Purdue is every bit the "name" program as Missouri, and there were thousands and thousands of empty seats there that night. If people didn't care about Purdue, who is actually good, why on earth would anyone care about a Missouri team that stinks?
It just boggles my mind that there is someone out there who thinks we need to play more crappy teams.
That's what this all comes down to for you, the RPI? For the record I hate the RPI and I could care less. Win enough games and everything will take care of itself.
I thought we were having a debate on what will drive more interest in the sport, not what will get Pitt to move up a seed line in the NCAA bracket. Those seeds haven't really helped us through the years anyway, have they.
No, actually the only reason why I care about the RPI is that the NCAA uses it. What I care about is watching Pitt play good basketball teams. And I have no problem understanding that there are some "no name" teams out there that are better than some of the "name" teams. For instance I know that Monmouth is better than Missouri, even though Missouri is the "name" team. I know that Stony Brook is better than Boston College, even though Boston College is the "name" team. I know that Valparaiso is a better team that St. John's, even though St. John's the the "name" team. I know that Arkansas-Little Rock is a better team than Auburn, even though Auburn is the "name" team. And so on.
I other words I'd like to see Pitt play good teams. You'd like to see Pitt play good names, whether they are actually good basketball teams or not.
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