# Interesting for BYU Football



## willfish4food (Jul 14, 2009)

BYU vs. MSU

As an Alabama resident and a die hard BYU fan, having the SEC and ACC count BYU as a Power 5 team for scheduling gives me hope to see more games down here in the future. For BYU fans in general we'll get to see more of the better quality opponents. Even if they are at the beginning of the schedule instead of the end.


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## GaryFish (Sep 7, 2007)

I think it is really good for BYU. Lots of locals really love to knock BYU's independence - especially the ewet fans that think they are cooler than the flip side of your pillow since they got 5th place in the 12 Pac south. Again. 

But all reality for BYU - the team is playing all over the country, and with the change in perspective from the SEC, we can plan on more games in that region. BYUs fan base is spread all around the country, so this is a great thing for them. And much as I'm not a fan of the SEC in general, I'm excited to see BYU playing some SEC teams, even if it is early in the season. 

The way I see it, only about a dozen or so teams have ANY chance of competing for a national championship - and BYU is not one of those teams. So if not, might as well play all around the country and give your fans all over a chance to see the team. AND give the team a chance to play in some of the great venues across the country. I'd give three toes on my left foot to catch the tailgate party at MSU.


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## Catherder (Aug 2, 2008)

GaryFish said:


> I think it is really good for BYU. Lots of locals really love to knock BYU's independence - especially the ewet fans that think they are cooler than the flip side of your pillow since they got 5th place in the 12 Pac south. Again.


Oh, Gary, Tsk tsk. Its funny how our 5th place finish kept us in the national conversation till nearly the end of the season, and ended with us being nationally ranked and winning a decent bowl game. Your cougs are still smarting from losing both a bowl nobody has heard of and the brawl afterwards. ;-)

In all seriousness. There is one problem that I see the cougs having with the current scheduling trend, and that is the lack of home games. It seems like most of their deals with the "big" schools are either road games with no returns, (Nebraska) two for ones, or a road game in the immediate future and a home game a (figurative) decade from now. (which would be ripe to eventually be bought out by the other school) This leaves them with a road heavy schedule and a home slate filled with boring nonentities like Savannah state and Idaho St. I'm not sure that fan interest can be maintained that way. It also probably adversely affects their win-loss record too. While the "rose colored glasses" cougarfan may not admit this is a problem, I can't see how it isn't. Eventually, there will be a drop in season ticket purchases, attendance, and recruiting.


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## willfish4food (Jul 14, 2009)

GaryFish said:


> The way I see it, only about a dozen or so teams have ANY chance of competing for a national championship - and BYU is not one of those teams. So if not, might as well play all around the country and give your fans all over a chance to see the team. AND give the team a chance to play in some of the great venues across the country. I'd give three toes on my left foot to catch the tailgate party at MSU.


This is the same thing I tell my brother in law every time he complains that BYU should try harder to get into a power 5 conference. Since the formation of the BCS system how many teams would have gone to the title game even in the right conference? None. So what does it matter if they're in a conference so long as there are good games to watch?

I'm glad that since I've moved from Utah there's been a game within driving distance every year. And you better believe I'll be in Starkville in 2017.


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## willfish4food (Jul 14, 2009)

Catherder said:


> In all seriousness. There is one problem that I see the cougs having with the current scheduling trend, and that is the lack of home games. It seems like most of their deals with the "big" schools are either road games with no returns, (Nebraska) two for ones, or a road game in the immediate future and a home game a (figurative) decade from now. (which would be ripe to eventually be bought out by the other school) This leaves them with a road heavy schedule and a home slate filled with boring nonentities like Savannah state and Idaho St. I'm not sure that fan interest can be maintained that way. It also probably adversely affects their win-loss record too. While the "rose colored glasses" cougarfan may not admit this is a problem, I can't see how it isn't. Eventually, there will be a drop in season ticket purchases, attendance, and recruiting.


I'm not in Provo anymore so I can't say for sure, but it seems that home game attendance has already started to suffer. Seems like I heard a lot more complaining from friends still on the front that attendance is low this past season.

MSU in this case went one and one with Provo coming first. Doubt all schools will do likewise, but it's a start. The down side for this first game is that the only opening State has in their schedule is on the same week BYU is supposed to play Utah. Something's gotta give.


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## Huge29 (Sep 17, 2007)

willfish4food said:


> I'm not in Provo anymore so I can't say for sure, but it seems that home game attendance has already started to suffer. Seems like I heard a lot more complaining from friends still on the front that attendance is low this past season.


Attendance is definitely down, the only three immediate acquantances I have that had season tickets for decades all gave them last year and this coming year. Reasons are:
1=Prices have nearly doubled in the last 5 years despite the ESPN income increasing dramatically.
2-Hardly any Saturday afternoon games, whereas they are now really late Saturday or Thursday or Friday. Very difficult to attend for those who dont live or dont work near Provo.
3-crappy opponents on home schedule
Holmoe has a tough job, but to say the schedule is good.....I think the famous Jack Welch said it best "see things how they truly are and not how you wish them to be." If they can't acknowledge that there is a problem, it will only get worse before it gets better.


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## GaryFish (Sep 7, 2007)

The 2015 schedule has only one Friday Night game, and that is on General Conference Weekend, against U-Conn.

The home schedule isn't much though. Best home game is Boise State. The road schedule is amazing - Nebraska, UCLA, Michigan, Missouri. But the home schedule is no worse than the old WAC or MWC schedules used to be. 

The cost thing is certainly an issue. Though, a HUGE part of that issue is just how cheap the games have been for decades. One of the least expensive for any mid-tier D1 program around.


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## LostLouisianian (Oct 11, 2010)

GaryFish said:


> The 2015 schedule has only one Friday Night game, and that is on General Conference Weekend, against U-Conn.
> 
> The home schedule isn't much though. Best home game is Boise State. The road schedule is amazing - Nebraska, UCLA, Michigan, Missouri. But the home schedule is no worse than the old WAC or MWC schedules used to be.
> 
> The cost thing is certainly an issue. Though, a HUGE part of that issue is just how cheap the games have been for decades. One of the least expensive for any mid-tier D1 program around.


Unless I went wrong somewhere it looks to me the Y has some pretty stout ticket prices. They're significantly higher than LSU for example and LSU's ticket prices have risen quite a lot over the last few years. Of course it's almost impossible to get into the good games like Bama, Auburn, Ole Miss, aTm but you can usually get into the other games without a significant problem. Most games do end up being a sell out in Tiger stadium and that's 100,000+ seats.


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## GaryFish (Sep 7, 2007)

LSU Season tickets are $80/game for end zone, $175/game between the 15 yard lines. (Assuming an 8 game home schedule which is typical for LSU)

BYU Season tickets are $30/game for end zone, $115/game between the 15 yard lines.
(Assuming a 6 game home schedule which is typical for BYU)

Those are general public season ticket prices, and include the required donations to qualify for the ticket prices. For example, a sideline seat season ticket is sticker priced at $425, you are required to make a donation of $975 to get the ticket, to the effective price is $1,400. Only doing the donation thing, $975 of it can be tax deductible.


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## LostLouisianian (Oct 11, 2010)

GaryFish said:


> LSU Season tickets are $80/game for end zone, $175/game between the 15 yard lines. (Assuming an 8 game home schedule which is typical for LSU)
> 
> BYU Season tickets are $30/game for end zone, $115/game between the 15 yard lines.
> (Assuming a 6 game home schedule which is typical for BYU)
> ...


I was looking at the single game individual tickets as opposed to the season tickets. I guess the site I was looking at for BYU tickets was way off because it looked like it was a lot more expensive than that, hence my initial comment. I couldn't imagine that BYU tickets would be more or significantly more than LSU, it just didn't make sense.


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## DallanC (Jan 13, 2009)

People actually pay money to watch BYU play? Wow...


-DallanC


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## GaryFish (Sep 7, 2007)

Even more impressive Dallen - you got top of the page with that comment. Well played. Very well played.


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