dutchcountry7

I can tell you don't run a business. Revenue is less important than the bottom line. You don't build an expensive facility with a ton of seats for them to sit empty. You want every seat to not only be utilized but also to have the revenue cover the cost of the outlay. You'd have to show me that fans are being turned away because they can't get a ticket to the game. Or that fans would be beating down the door to get into Alumni Arena if they could get tickets for $5 rather than $10. No. The arena is not the problem. The Pavilion is more popular with Villanova fans despite the Wells Fargo Center being 'big time' as you say. The cavernous venues are hard to make a good atmosphere and the seats are far from the court since the court is much smaller than the hockey arena the seats are setup for. You don't understand why Alumni is not sold out every game. And that's the thing. You're a rare fan for a program that doesn't have many fans. Buffalo has a lot of casual observers--a lot of people who would like to see the program be successful. But they have very few actual fans that are going to attend the game. That is changing but it is still a ways off. The Bulls have played at the Sabres Arena before and the fans don't turn out. What do I think the issue is? Well, for one, the program doesn't have sustained success. It is just starting to get into that category where people can expect the team to be good every year. Having four year players and not transfers helps fans to get to know the players. But the biggest issue is the lack of home games and the lack of home games against quality opponents. The St. Bona game has been significant for the program and this year's Southern Illinois game will be big. But playing all the good games away from campus and then playing no-name games at home is a killer. The last four years have been the pinnacle of the Bulls basketball history. Who have they scheduled at home in that time? Le Moyne, Central Penn, Nazareth, Pitt-Bradford... No one is going to get pumped about non-D1 games. Right now, the only thing you can sell fans on is the MAC schedule and who gets excited about teams in the MAC? The fact that the Bulls aren't scheduling Albany, Binghamton, and Stony Brook is crazy. Teams like Vermont, Bucknell, Hofstra, or Harvard should be scheduled. You need teams that people have heard of and that they know can have a good team from time to time. The problem is that you have to give up a game where a P5 pays you to get these games because they would be home/home. And the Bulls just can't afford to turn down the money.

No. That is nonsense. The arena isn’t the problem. 10k seats? Seriously? Do you know anything about college basketball arenas? That would give UB more seats than Duke, Georgia Tech, Miami, Gonzaga, VCU, Notre Dame, Butler, Stanford, Villanova, Virginia Tech, Northern Iowa and many other good programs. Packing in fans and selling out games make a better venue than empty seats. When Gonzaga built their new arena they only put in 6k seats to ensure it would be a good atmosphere and not have empty seats. Buffalo is no where being as hot a ticket as Gonzaga.

No, they were in under the old system. The structure changed with the adoption of the playoff with new contracts for bowls, revenue sharing, and other factors.

Construction on campus would be considered a New York State project and those are notoriously more expensive than similar projects done in other states...

Western Michigan got the one G5 spot. Sure, it is possible to get it, but it would require the Bulls to be the highest ranked G5 teams. So it means not only likely needing to be undefeated but also for no other team like UCF, Boise State, South Florida, BYU, App State, Cincinnati, Houston, North Texas, and others can't have a good season. The path to the Bulls building the program is to regularly win games have to make 8 win seasons the norm. The flash in the pan seasons decimates MAC programs.

Sounds like it wasn't as bad as you thought. I am sure they will be keeping an eye on the Bulls in the future.

So, now that you're back at work. Did people watch? What did they have to say?

The MAC-West is the 14th best division in college football according to Sagarin ratings. The P5 conferences claim the top-9 spots. The MAC-East is lower ranked, coming in between the CUSA divisions. The reality is that the Bulls are playing for a MAC championship in Detroit. There isn't much concern about what happens outside of the conference games. It was a great OOC that will help with recruiting but that won't change what bowls the MAC gets into. The MAC isn't getting into a NY6. Playing for a trip to the Camellia Bowl, Bahamas Bowl, Potato Bowl, or the Dollar General Bowl. It wasn't the strength of CUSA that made TCU make great leaps forward. It wasn't the strength of the WAC that propelled Boise State forward. Just keep putting in the work and doing things the right way. Be a Boise State or a Gonzaga for your conference. The MAC is good enough to build a program in the conference.

I think people were not paying attention to how good Army is this year and how much the styles contrast between the teams. Army's schedule made their record deceiving. They are tough and played a tough scheduling coming in. These are the teams Army has played and those team's current records: Duke (4-1), Liberty (2-2), Hawaii (5-1), Oklahoma (5-0), Buffalo (4-1). Nice to see a good crowd. But looking at the box score attendance it is amazing how little the game to game attendance figures fluctuate even when the crowd is visibly different.

Are you hearing a buzz about the Buffalo season from non-Buffalo fans where you're located? Are people noticing that they are undefeated or is it still too early to start hearing an uptick? I am curious what people are seeing in their everyday lives and outside of a bulls bubble like UBfan.

No point in focusing on the past. Let's just say that we should not keep brining up Danny White. Move forward. Let's talk about things going on now with the program. Or things in the future. Bringing him up isn't as great as some people here think and actually alienates some key stakeholders that are vital to the success of these programs going forward. There is nothing to be gained by speaking about him. He was a great hype man. There is no doubt in that. But it is important to remember that many hype men over sell and under deliver and if you're one of those people who were on the wrong side of those things it can leave a bad taste in your mouth and make you more reluctant in the future. Let's focus on the great football and basketball seasons we are in and stop talking about the ex-ex-Athletic Director.

White had some great hires. I agree with that. But a few people act like he was a God and constantly bring him up as if those were the glory days. He is long gone and a lot of what he did was wasted money and lead to a lack of progress. He did some things well--like hiring some coaches--and did other things poorly. While the hiring of coaches is something the public notices, those aren't the things that build a program because without everything else in place you can't scale the program and keep the good hires from being poached. It has been the problem with MAC/Mid-Major/G5 programs for years. Getting a good coach and a few good seasons isn't rare. The rare thing is scaling a program and that requires a lot of things that the public doesn't notice nearly as much as the coaching hires.

Look at the map. Don't talk about being Iowa until you're first Iowa State. Don't talk about being Texas, until you're first Texas A&M or Texas Tech. Don't talk about being USC, until you're first Fresno State, San Diego State, or Stanford. Don't talk about being Oklahoma, until you're first Oklahoma State. Don't talk about being Virginia Tech, until you're first Virginia. Don't talk about being Penn State, until you're first Pitt. Don't talk about being Michigan, until you're first Michigan State. Don't talk about being Alabama, until you're first Auburn. Don't talk about claiming New York State, until you can claim Buffalo and Western New York.

I like how you make the Public school claim as if there is any relevance to that. That is like saying USC isn't competition that is entrenched in Southern California or Notre Dame isn't competition entrenched in Indiana. That is like making the claim that FIU can claim all of South Florida because FSU and Florida--the two entrenched programs you mention, are fixtures in the north. It completely ignores the reality of 'The U' which has dominated Miami for years. It doesn't matter that FIU is the public school in Miami. They aren't Miami's program. You know that New York, especially upstate New York, has a well-entrenched program, right? The further you move away from Buffalo, the more entrenched they are. You want to move into Rochester? They are pretty entrenched. You want to move into Syracuse? That is a lost cause. You want to move into Albany? That's even harder than Rochester. Moving to the Hudson Valley? Well, Army is the entrenched program there. (Do they count as public for you or do we pretend they don't exist too?) Anyone who has spent money on marketing knows that you don't spread your influence (and dollar) thin by trying to market to a vast audience. You focus on saturating one location and cultivating that. When you have won over Buffalo (something the program hasn't yet done), you spread out and start to try to win over the Southern Tier, and move to compete in Rochester. Your fans being concentrated is your best marketing. They market to their friends, family, coworkers, and others. The New York campaign didn't work to draw in Western New York or Buffalo. It was a hail Mary that wanted to attract people in Queens, Sarasota, Ithaca, and Watertown. And it did nothing in that regard. You can't tell me that New York is not entrenched. Take a look at this college football fan map by the NYTIMES and FACEBOOK. Turning WNY from white to blue is how you build the program into New York's team.

You act like the NFL facility isn't costly. An extra 10k in attendance doesn't cover the bill and you're getting excited about there being 5k more fans the last time they were there? Also, the novelty of an NFL stadium wears off with added use. Not to mention the fact that it isn't close to the campus. Get the Bills to do something? Why would the Bills do that? The Bulls football program is a competitor to the Bills. They aren't going to subsidize their competition.

Since you added the ADs and the Guarantee Fee for the Rutgers Game, I thought I would add the other Guarantees I know.

Why do you think small? Schools with an on campus stadium do better of building a culture that brings students, alumni, and the community together. Student attendance is low for off campus stadiums. UB needs to play games on campus.

How do you think Army is going to respond after nearly knocking off OU? They are a tough club. This might be the biggest game at UB it some time!

Lesson Learned... Orlando Sentienel: UCF eager to be embraced as Orlando’s hometown team " UCF athletics director Danny White is planting the Knights’ flag firmly throughout the Orlando metro area. The Knights unveiled a new initiative Tuesday with a familiar theme, touting UCF as Orlando’s hometown team. “We believe that we very much should be known as Orlando’s hometown team,” White said.

So I was just told that Delaware has signed deals to play deals to games at Big Ten schools Penn State and Rutgers, just like Buffalo. Delaware is one of the best drawing FCS teams (on par with our Bulls) and in the Big Ten Network distribution area making the games with Penn State and Rutgers a perfect fit.

That is nonsense and is my exact point. Any time something didn't go well, it was other people's fault. It was a great idea but other people some how sabotaged it or just weren't smart enough to be convinced to buy in. There are enough people that know Buffalo is the premier state school in the state. There are many alums all over the state. Additionally, the state denied the use of the New York State moniker to rename the school. The New York designation was never going to be adopted. But I actually didn't have a problem with the effort. It was the stupid NYBI which was literally the internal memo name for the marketing campaign. 'Initiative' was in the name! You can build a big brand without having the state name on your uniform. Syracuse, Louisville, Miami, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Boise State, and Memphis are all examples of schools that built a brand around a city name. If it was a marketing campaign to just draw a connection to New York, it would have been fine. But it was confusing marketing. ESPN would say Buffalo and then people would see Uniforms that said New York. But you couldn't read about New York in the game results in the paper and if you googled New York you wouldn't see Buffalo returned in your search. You actually were directed to NYU. Interestingly, White must have learned his lesson because now UCF is marketed as Orlando's hometown team. Buffalo still can be New York's team. But changing the name on a logo isn't the way to do it. It was just confusing and there were too many different monikers floating around.

Anxious about this one. Will be nice to get this scalp even though it isn't a good program, just getting a win in that market and against the Big Ten will be nice.

One year doesn't make a program. Everyone knew that the program wasn't in as bad a shame as the record makes it seem. UCF has been widely regarded as the fastest rising athletic department in the country by many years. The school is relatively new (built for NASA research) and is now one of the largest schools in the country. There is a reason UCF went from an 0-11 MAC program in 2004 to getting a Big East invitation only 10 years later and consideration for a spot in the Big 12. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_UCF_Golden_Knights_football_team

I have no problem with people moving on. It is just annoying when they keep brining up the past and citing one person as if they were our savior. I don't believe it. And for that we are thankful. The NYBI was horrible. Not only was it a bust but calling it by it's internal marketing memo name in tweets made no sense. #NYBI was literally telling people that the marketing department is pushing an initiative to try to get people to start calling the Bulls New York's team. It was horrible and a failure.

Yeah, in 2013 when we were in the Famous Idaho Bowl UCF was nothing without Danny White, right? Buffalo 2013 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Buffalo_Bulls_football_team#Schedule UCF 2013 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_UCF_Knights_football_team#Schedule Amazing how UCF hires White in 2015 and suddenly people think he is the reason they have a good football program. White really like to promote himself. He is always the reason anything goes well, just ask him.