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(Full disclosure – I am a graduate of Conference USA member, Louisiana Tech University).
On Wednesday night this week, Conference USA featured two televised football games. Though each of the four teams received a bit of national television exposure for more than three hours, the two midweek college football games were staged in front of significantly lower home crowds than were played for Saturday games earlier this season.
Wednesday’s first televised Conference USA match-up (a school night, lest we forget) was played at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas. The weather couldn’t have been better. Game time temps fell into the upper 60’s in nearly perfect fall weather conditions. The Sam Houston Bearkats (in their first season at the FBS level) lost a tough 33-27 double overtime thriller to Florida International.
According to the Sam Houston athletics website, the home team’s attendance was a miniscule 7,543 fans for this nationally televised game on CBS Sports Network (which is available on just 2/3 of national cable television systems).
The second Wednesday night C-USA midweek game took place on a clear fall night in El Paso, Texas. The UTEP Miners lost to the improving New Mexico State Aggies by a 28-7 final score. The official headcount for this midweek game in the Sun Bowl (televised by ESPN2) was 19,727.
UTEP’s Wednesday night October 18 game against New Mexico State (played in perfect weather conditions) drew 9,663 fewer paying customers than the Miners’ played in front of during the team’s two Saturday games in September. .
UTEP’s general admission seats are priced at just $10 per ticket. If you assumed that every lost ticket sale was attributable to the lowest price tickets, Wednesday night’s home gate receipts for UTEP were down by a minimum of $96,630 (when compared to an average Saturday game in September).
Since most of the UTEP fans would have purchased concessions at the game, the Miners likely lost at least $150,000 for the night by playing this game on a Wednesday night instead of a traditional Saturday kick-off.
Most football fans would agree that October is the prime month of the football season to attend a game in person. As the temperatures start to cool in the fall (especially here in the South), the moderate October weather conditions brings more smiles to the faces of fans as they mingle, tailgate, and enjoying game day on campus at a college football game.
So…WHY is Conference USA staging mid-week college football games on Tuesday and Wednesday nights during the month of October?
Television money, of course! Athletic directors and administrators of the eight Conference USA schools will proudly say, “We’re getting three hours of national publicity for our school”! That may be true.
A better question might be, “How many people are watching this midweek college football game on TV?”
One week ago (Wednesday, October 11), ESPN2 televised the C-USA football game featuring UTEP at Florida International. According to one report, the football game drew a little more than 330,000 television viewers. By comparison, that total was just 12% of the number of people (2.7 million) watching the Houston Astros’ playoff game at the Minnesota Twins that night on FS1.
Those 330,000 television viewers for C-USA’s Wednesday night game last week seems fairly representative of each week thus far in October, For those college teams which play on Saturday afternoon and evenings in October, viewership ranges from nearly one million to seven million fans at home – depending on the match-ups.
Why would ESPN’s family of networks or the primary Conference USA television partner, CBS Sports Network, want to televise a college football game on a Tuesday or Wednesday night?
That’s easy!
In addition to the reliable beer, automobile, insurance, and fast food commercials aimed toward college football’s primarily male audience, October represents the start of the holiday advertising blitz. Ho-Ho-Ho! Those incremental advertising opportunities give the networks a jump on capturing more holiday advertising dollars from jewelers and other seasonal sponsors.
Having any “live” college football event on a Tuesday or Wednesday night will bring at least twice the average weeknight audience to ESPN2 or CBS Sports Network. Since ad rates are generally based on TV eyeballs, even 330,000 predominantly male viewers is a big deal in mid-week for the marketing departments at the television networks.
Did you know that one Conference USA team just played three college football games in just 11 days?
Long-time Conference USA member Louisiana Tech University did. They were (pardon my pun) Dawg tired last week.
To accommodate television, the Bulldogs played at C-USA member UTEP on Friday, September 29 (CBS Sports Network). They returned to Ruston to play a Thursday night, October 5th home game (ESPN) against conference foe Western Kentucky. Louisiana Tech then suited-up five days later to play a Tuesday, October 10 road game at another C-USA member, Middle Tennessee State (CBS Sports Network).
Louisiana Tech’s football team traveled nearly 3,000 miles on their round trips to El Paso and the Nashville areas last week. The team went 1-2 during that insane 11-day stretch.
The Bulldogs are now 3-5 this season.
After being forced by Conference USA to play three football games in just eleven days, the team will not play another game until next Tuesday (yes, Tuesday) October 24 at home against New Mexico State. Good luck with drawing a good crowd on another school night on campus in Ruston!
Seriously. Who was dumb enough to give up EVERY SATURDAY home game in October?
That is not a typo. Not one Conference USA football team will play a Saturday home game during October – the most desirable month of the year for many football fans to attend a game in person.
This madness is the result of greedy people on both sides of the negotiating table.
School administrators want national television exposure for their programs (mostly for alumni fundraising). Television networks will gladly televise any college football game to double (or more) their advertising revenues on a weeknight approaching the holiday buying season.
As much as I would like to blame the television networks, the schools and their athletic conference deserve the primary blame for not playing ANY of their Saturday football games in front of a home town crowd during the month of October.
Not surprisingly, the eight Conference USA teams are all drawing fewer fans to the stadiums for weekday games this month. The attendance stats back up the claim. Saturday home games played by each Conference USA team in late August and September drew a higher average attendance. The attendance figures and ticket prices used in my analysis are directly from each team’s official football website.
The financial results at the stadiums around C-USA are terrible. The schools are earning some incremental money from the ESPN family of networks and CBS Sports Network for moving Saturday games to midweek time slots in October.
If you are a fan of any of these teams, is it worth it?
Florida International – Plays every Wednesday night in October
Saturday Average Attendance: 16,690
Weds 10/11 Home Game: 14,872
Decrease from Saturday: (1,818)
Average General Admission: $17
Potential Gate Loss: ($30,906)
Jacksonville State (AL) – Plays Weds 10/4, Tues 10/10, Tues 10/17, and Weds 10/25
Saturday Average Attendance: 20,075
Tues 10/10 Home Game: 21,745
INCREASE from Saturday: +1,670
Plus:
Tues 10/17 Home Game: 17,977
Decrease from Saturday (2,098)
Average General Admission $: $12
2-game Potential Gate Loss: ($5,136)
Liberty University – Plays every Tuesday night in October
Saturday Average Attendance: 19,467
Thurs 10/5 Home Game: 17,100
Decrease from Saturday (2, 367)
Plus:
Tues 10/17 Home Game: 16,354
Decrease from Saturday (3,113)
Average General Admission $: $35
2-game Potential Gate Loss: ($191,800)
Louisiana Tech – Played Friday 9/29, Thurs 10/5, Tues 10/10, Bye Week, and Tues 10/24
Saturday Average Attendance: 17.628
Thurs. 10/5 Home Game: 13,014
Decrease from Saturday: (4,614)
Average General Admission: $20
Potential Gate Loss: ($92,280)
Middle Tennessee – Played Thurs 9/28, Weds 10/4, Tues 10/10, Tues 10/17, + bye week
Saturday Average Attendance: 18,206
Weds. 10/4 Home Game: 13,066
Decrease from Saturday (5,140)
Plus:
Tues 10/10 Home Game: 9,602
Decrease from Saturday (8,604)
Average General Admission $: $18
2-game Potential Gate Loss: ($247,392)
New Mexico State – Plays every Wednesday night in October
Saturday Average Attendance: 16,650
Weds. 10/4 Home Game: 11,540
Decrease from Saturday (5,110)
Plus:
Weds 10/11 Home Game: 12,812
Decrease from Saturday (3,838)
Average General Admission $: $15
2-game Potential Gate Loss: ($134,220)
Sam Houston – Played Thurs 9/28, Thurs 10/5, Weds 10/11, Weds 10/18, & Weds 10/25 Avg. Home Attendance*: 14,566 (*SHSU had played just one game on campus game)
Weds. 10/18 Home Game: 7,543
Decrease from Prior Home Gm: (7,023)
Average General Admission $: $10
Potential Gate Loss: ($70,230)
UTEP – Friday 9/29, Bye Wk, Weds. 10/11, Weds. 10/18, and Weds 10/25
Saturday Average Attendance: 29,390
Weds. 10/18 Home Game: 19, 727
Decrease from Saturday: (9, 663)
Average General Admission $: $10
Potential Gate Loss: ($96,630)
Western Kentucky – Thurs. 9/28, Thurs. 10/5, Bye Week, Tues. 10/17, & Tues. 24
Saturday Average Attendance: 18,076
Thurs. 9/28 Home Game: 14,712
Decrease from Saturday: (3,364)
Average General Admission $: $25
Potential Gate Loss: ($84,100)
Fortunately for Conference USA, the MAC (Mid-American Conference) takes the greedy Dunce Cap and will have its schools play midweek football games beginning at the start of November. The MAC has billed their November games as being “Midweek MACtion”. It’s a catchy phrase. The Midwest-based MAC schools do a much better job of promoting and marketing their slate of midweek games to their students and fans.
If ol’ SwampSwami was declared “Czar of Conference USA” today, I would gladly offer the MAC an additional month (October) to play their football games on midweek television beginning next season. They can have it!
At this point, the negatives for Conference USA seem to greatly outweigh the positives with this “No Saturday Football Games During October” tragic decision. I would love to know:
- Has any C-USA football program has been able to sign a top (4 star or higher) football recruit primarily due the player’s desire to be seen on midweek TV games next October. Or…
- Has the student enrollment at any C-USA school grown due to increased interest from high school students who have watched midweek football games on TV in October? Or…
- Has there been a significant uptick in alumni giving as the result of seeing their former college give-up playing its Saturday home football games for a month in favor of playing its games on midweek television during October?
My email address is [email protected]. Let me know if you support C-USA’s decision to televise and play only midweek games during October (none on Saturday) and how it helps the players, students, coaches, and fans of the universities. I’m ready to see the conference football teams playing on Saturdays next October – even if that means the loss of a television deal.
When I played high school football with Fred and Barney at Bedrock High, our junior varsity games were played early in the week. That’s because the varsity games were being played later in the week on Friday night.
When I watch Conference USA college football teams playing on a Tuesday or Wednesday night, it feels as if I am watching two schools who aren’t worthy of playing their games on Saturdays like most other major college FBS teams.
Unlike the eight teams in C-USA, the other 125 FBS programs get to tee-up to play their football games in front of larger crowds with happier fans on Saturday afternoon or evenings during this wonderful month of October.
I think it is incredibly unfair to the football players, students, coaches, and ticket-buying fans of Conference USA teams to sacrifice every single Saturday in the month of October for the sake of playing football games on the second-tier (Let’s call them “JV”) television network channels.
As a fan of Louisiana Tech football, I want the Bulldogs playing their October slate of conference games (home and away) on Saturdays beginning next season.
Can you imagine the laughter coming out of Baton Rouge if the SEC told LSU and other conference schools to play their October football games on weeknights starting next year?
I am hopeful that the blowback (financial and otherwise) from the players, students, coaches, and fans at the other Conference USA member institutions will bring an end this October madness before the start of the 2024 college football season.
If not, I hope my alma mater will finally tell C-USA “See Ya!” soon. That’s exactly what several other former members did a couple of years ago as they left to join the American Athletic Conference or the Sunbelt Conference.