I believe the MW is finished adding full programs. I suspect we might add a basketball or football only program for a partial share though.
Official : NIU to the Mountain West
- Thread starter WYNN or Dye
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It is part of the Texas A&M school system and easily would be able to fund moving up to a higher level. The positive is that Texas is football crazy and they already have a very good sized crowd for a lower division program. The main negative is the school is located in a relatively small town which may cause issues in regards to attendance growth. The question would be could they build a stadium or expand on the existing stadium to seat at least 30K? Would enough people be willing to travel for a couple of hours to attend games so that the attendance could jump up to at least 25K? In regards to the stadium, it is built in a way that they could easily expand from the 24K that it currently seats to over 30K with a minimal cost, and could likely expand to around 40K by leaving the main stand area as is and expanding in the open areas without a total rebuild. In regards to people willing to go to the games from further out, this is Texas where people travel 6-8 hours for high school football games. Finally they have around 18K+ in attendance at the school which is a little on the small side, but isn't horrible.
My feeling is that Tarleton would be a good second football program in Texas which could help expand the MWC footprint and if handled correctly could help increase the TV contract.
Tarleton has made some big investments recently, pointing to them wanting to move up and get out of the FCS.
There's some things that make them interesting. My biggest issue and you touched on it a bit is what would they bring to a media deal.
If they had already been in CUSA/FBS for a few years and there was some type of gage on what type of viewership they might bring I'd be more excited about potentially seeing them added. Just a lot of question marks.
Yeah but attendance that exceeds the dregs of the conference not really a selling point.
No it's not..But points to how bad the bottom of the MWC is when a school none of us has probably ever heard of in FCS is out drawing them. And they just recently moved up to FCS I believe.
I dont know how adding 9am games for mostly mountain and pacific games is a good thing?
Time slots don't matter as much as people watching. You have to sell to advertisers that people will actually watch the game. Going against noon games in the east coast against schools that demand the eyeballs during a much more digestible time frame for the vast majority of the fans doesn't seem like it will help our bottom line at all.
Time slots don't matter as much as people watching. You have to sell to advertisers that people will actually watch the game. Going against noon games in the east coast against schools that demand the eyeballs during a much more digestible time frame for the vast majority of the fans doesn't seem like it will help our bottom line at all.
Here's where I see some value. You're up early. You turn on TV. 'Your Team' plays at 1pm. You can theow on pregame shows or you can throw on actual games for background noise until your game is on.
Again I don't think we can extrapolate too much for any game that was on ESPN2. It was in the bottom 5 watched games on that channel all year long, with over 70 games. Every sports bar in the country has that channel on by default. To really compare we need to see averages and really what kind of streaming numbers each team gets. To see a real fan base, see how many watch crappy broadcasts fans will watch, not look at numbers for channels that will get numbers by default.
I don't know that is somewhat flimsy.
The NFL games in Europe that start at 9:30 am, are some of the least watched games in recent history. Typically they involve some bad teams (cough, Jaguars, cough), but that doesn't change the fact that the same games get significantly more viewers when they play at normal time spots.
I just don't think that is a PRIME spot for capturing a ton of fans. I think much more people will watch college game day, vs a 9 am game for instance.
For a conference that has 90% in western time zones, more early morning games seem to be bad, not good.
If the MWC is going to go the FCS route, then I don’t care what the market size is. You go after either NDSU, SDSU, Montana or Montana St. or any combination of the 4. Nobody else will move the needle.
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Yep. I know they are all tiny markets. Even combining Montana and North and South Dakota you don't get to 3 million people. North and South Dakota each are roughly the size of El Paso in terms of population. However you would absolutely own those three markets. There are no other FBS schools to compete with.
Plus all four are solid programs as close to FBS level as you could be as an FCS program.
I keep seeing Tarleton State brought up. I looked into them a bit and they have definitely invested heavily in sthletics recently. Their avg home attendance is better than a few of the current MWC/PAC schools at around 18k. Being a Texas school I get some of the appeal. Texas is football crazed. The state is massive in terms of population. But at some point there are diminishing returns. I can't imagine they would have much market penetration. Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, TCU, Baylor, all eat up a lot of the viewership. And then you have North Texas, Texas State, Rice, Sam Houston State and UTEP taking up even more. Tarleton is interesting but I'd much rather have any of the Montana or Dakota schools.
Tarleton St. is being thrown out there because they have that Texas market/money... you're not talking about UT or even TT but these Texas school alumni bases move into those large markets and you then you get people tuning into Dallas or Austin or SA market...yes, not as great a share or anywhere near the people watching those big schools, but Texas market on a sports network is still the Texas market.
All of those move the needle, but the wrong direction, that doesn't even consider the 5 million upfront fee to elevate each school.
I am not a fan of upgrading a FCS school. They rarely come out successful, most struggle, and they all start in weaker conferences than what the MW will be. Not a lot of historical evidence to prove that they will be good enough.
And that is just competitively. I cannot see any individual school being better than the new MW mean in terms of media value. I think they are all below the new MW mean, which is already low. Add those 4 and that is 20 million dollars gone from the upgrade fees ( unless these schools can afford to pay that themselves) Likely it will be taken out of the MOA bonus we have all been counting on. Add those for and take a 1.5 mill over the base media easy.
I just don't see the point.
Hell, even if UCDavis or GCU wants to get into FBS football, I think they need to prove it in the CUSA or Sunbelt or something before the MW takes them as a full member.
Just for giggles..Let's say NDSU and Tarleton both get the MWC invite.
What gets more TV views..
NDSU VS anybody in MWC?
Or
Tarleton vs anybody in MWC?
Im guessing a tie...
Again though... Were not necessarily talking about TV viewership directly speaking. You're talking about markets you are penetrating with ad sales at a network. CBSsports Network for example probably draws similar TV views for MWC games regardless of the teams playing. Sure maybe one fan base or another has more viewers, but ultimately its a 3rd or 4th tier network that you watch on BWs TVs or at a bar along with ESPN, F1, and Fox... But as an ad salesman, you are selling the "Dallas market, the Houston market, the SA market, etc..." during prime time slots on your network... Thats the only difference. NDSU might have a name recognition but how many people watch FCS football outside the playoffs?
Ndsu 2.41 million viewers last night. Only football game going helped of course. https://www.sportsmediawatch.com/20...ence-highest-five-years-sans-nfl-competition/
It's also the FCS championship game.. FCS doesn't draw that viewership on a weekly basis.
