Buffalo Bills please adopt our Buffalo Bulls

[clodney]

This entire conversation is idiotic. The Bill's success is the reason nobody gives a $hit about anything else in Buffalo right now. We should hope for their demise, not try to ride their wave. I don't know of a single successful college/NFL joint partnership where both draw big crowds and win consistently. And people talking about our students not showing up to games? Are you serious? Go look at the picture on the front of ubbulls.com. It's a few thousand rowdy students and a friggin handful of other folks. Without the students I'm not sure we'd have a crowd at all. 

Buffalonians need to look in the mirror and realize that the only thing holding back this athletics department is their unrelenting commitment to Buffalo. I get Chubby's point about NYBI not getting other NYers invested but honestly it was a 2+ year idea that faced so much local pressure that it was blown up before it could ever gain legs. The funny part is now a bunch of legislators are apparently trying to get Stony Brook changed to the "University of New York"... If that happens we can only blame Buffalonians for falling behind. 

[UBlearns]

15 hours ago, clodney said:

This entire conversation is idiotic. The Bill's success is the reason nobody gives a $hit about anything else in Buffalo right now. We should hope for their demise, not try to ride their wave. I don't know of a single successful college/NFL joint partnership where both draw big crowds and win consistently. And people talking about our students not showing up to games? Are you serious? Go look at the picture on the front of ubbulls.com. It's a few thousand rowdy students and a friggin handful of other folks. Without the students I'm not sure we'd have a crowd at all. 

Buffalonians need to look in the mirror and realize that the only thing holding back this athletics department is their unrelenting commitment to Buffalo. I get Chubby's point about NYBI not getting other NYers invested but honestly it was a 2+ year idea that faced so much local pressure that it was blown up before it could ever gain legs. The funny part is now a bunch of legislators are apparently trying to get Stony Brook changed to the "University of New York"... If that happens we can only blame Buffalonians for falling behind. 

Seems kinda silly to say that UB fans should hope for the Bills demise; I'd wager that most UB football fans are probably Bills fans too.  Sure, plenty of downstate students, etc., but if you're a local and a UB fan, you're probably a Bills fan first and foremost.  It doesn't have to be an either/or.

I was one of the people who said the students don't go to games.  It's not a literal "no students go to games".  Sure, some students go to the games.  But the idea that we shouldn't strive for bigger and better because several hundred to a few thousand (at best, and that doesn't factor in cold weather MACtion games) students go to on-campus games seems very short-sighted to me.  UB Stadium is a dump, straight-up.  It's not a good viewing experience, it's not a good gameday experience.  I would go so far as to say that it's arguably the worst FBS stadium in the country.  Maybe better than the condemned Aloha Stadium and a small handful of others, but bottom 5 at best. 

If the opportunity was there to partner more with the Bills and piggyback off the Bills new stadium deal like a UNLV situation, and if UB athletics could afford whatever up-front cost is required, and UB were to say "no thanks, we're good with what we've got going on here", I believe it would be a ludicrously bad decision.  I have no idea if that opportunity exists, and maybe (probably) it doesn't, but I think UB leadership would be insane to turn down that opportunity because they're worried a few hundred students won't take the shuttle bus (which would definitely be running) out to Orchard Park.  I could be wrong, I don't know.  That's why I'm not in athletics admin, I suppose.

Edited September 29, 2022 by UBlearns

[clodney]

Does anyone know what percentage of the current student body is from the Buffalo area? And what percentage of our alumni base still live in Buffalo?

[rma]

On 9/28/2022 at 10:27 PM, clodney said:

The funny part is now a bunch of legislators are apparently trying to get Stony Brook changed to the "University of New York"... If that happens we can only blame Buffalonians for falling behind. 

https://www.newsday.com/opinion/the-point/the-point-newsday-mike-fitzpatrick-sbu-nick-langworthy-o7kc32fw

"Fitzpatrick says New York ought to have a single flagship university, as most states do, and argues the SUNY moniker carries with it an age-old negative bias. His vision is a University of New York, like Virginia, North Carolina or Michigan.

He wants the whole ball of wax, including a top conference football team with a full-sized stadium and other sports programs."

Agreed.

"And he thinks the University of New York ought to be Stony Brook University, the neighbor of his district."

🤣

 

Just because USNWR ranked SBU highest this one year doesn't mean SBU is now the flagship.

UB is still the largest and most comprehensive. UB's endowment is around $500 million more than SBU's. Stony Brook is slightly more selective.

If you want to put money into elevating a school to be the single flagship with Big Ten aspirations, load up a boat and send that money down the Erie Canal.

[promotherobot]

2 hours ago, rma said:

https://www.newsday.com/opinion/the-point/the-point-newsday-mike-fitzpatrick-sbu-nick-langworthy-o7kc32fw

"Fitzpatrick says New York ought to have a single flagship university, as most states do, and argues the SUNY moniker carries with it an age-old negative bias. His vision is a University of New York, like Virginia, North Carolina or Michigan.

He wants the whole ball of wax, including a top conference football team with a full-sized stadium and other sports programs."

Agreed.

"And he thinks the University of New York ought to be Stony Brook University, the neighbor of his district."

🤣

 

Just because USNWR ranked SBU highest this one year doesn't mean SBU is now the flagship.

UB is still the largest and most comprehensive. UB's endowment is around $500 million more than SBU's. Stony Brook is slightly more selective.

If you want to put money into elevating a school to be the single flagship with Big Ten aspirations, load up a boat and send that money down the Erie Canal.

This would be a perfect "Buffalo" move. Blow off the chance to be statewide just so our B-grade SUNY brother can grab the crown.  "Oh we can't disrespect the city like that! No no no."

[rma]

5 hours ago, promotherobot said:

This would be a perfect "Buffalo" move. Blow off the chance to be statewide just so our B-grade SUNY brother can grab the crown.  "Oh we can't disrespect the city like that! No no no."

Joke's on us, locals would think University at Buffalo is a more prestigious name anyway. Maybe it's time to write to my UB grad assemblymember who represents a toss up district. Unfortunately my state senator is a CC/SU grad.