EDITORIAL: 2011 home football schedule not favorable to fans
While national television exposure is good for the university and Mid-American Conference, scheduling games at inconvenient times for students and fans is becoming a burden.
The MAC released its 2011 conference schedule Monday, completing next season’s schedule for the football team.
In it, CMU will once again play five home games, a natural trend for teams in lower-echelon Football Championship Subdivision conferences. The football program and athletics department have become dependent on playing three games at major schools to help cover annual costs.
However, what is startling is the number of games scheduled for Saturdays, the traditional fall day for college football. Out of its five home games at Kelly/Shorts Stadium, CMU only has two tabbed for Saturdays.
Meanwhile, the season opener is scheduled for the Thursday before Labor Day weekend — a day which Athletics Director Dave Heeke has said is becoming “tradition.” Two out of the last three years, students and faculty with classes in the evening have had to grapple with the decision of whether or not to cancel — or skip — class for the football game.
Once is fine, but to play a second Thursday night home game, to be televised Nov. 10 on ESPNU, in the middle of November is not only an inconvenience to students and faculty, but a turnoff to alumni and fans from other parts of the state.
On Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2008, CMU hosted Ball State, a team undefeated and No. 14 in the nation at the time, in one of the biggest home games in school history.
Despite the advanced buildup and excitement around campus, attendance suffered. CMU was 8-2 and a perfect 6-0 in the conference, and had not played a home game in over a month — a game in which the Kelly/Shorts Stadium attendance record was set against Western Michigan University — yet only drew a crowd of 20,114.
Since then, the two weeknight games — a Wednesday night game against Toledo in 2009 and last season’s opener against Hampton — have attracted crowds of 18,310 and 17,311, respectively, both below each season’s attendance average.
Hosting evening home games late in the season has proven to affect attendance, all in the name of fulfilling a conference obligation to ESPN.
Playing on TV is always fun for players and the school, but how much of a benefit is the program receiving from showing off a half-empty stadium on ESPNU, a network not even included in many basic cable listings?
Though the glitz and glamour of national coverage might seem attractive, this is a deal we’d rather pass on.
