I happened to catch the tail end of the game between UAB and Central Florida last week, wherein the former got their first win of the season upsetting the latter. It was a great game that came down to the final minute of play. Though the network (something called “CSS”) was loathe to show wide-angle shots of the stadium, I would guess that maybe 500 people were there to see it. This was an intraconference game with a big opponent (UCF is likely headed to the Big East soon).
At least they aren’t Eastern Michigan. UAB claimed that there were 8,000 people there, but I doubt it. At least they have the excuse that it was a weeknight game in somewhat crummy weather. EMU has to hit up their sponsor to buy tickets. Tickets cap out at $9 and they still can’t get people to show up.
I am loathe to say that a school should give up its football program because people aren’t showing up, but… geeze.
Meanwhile, an SMU player called his team’s atmosphere a”pee-wee league experience.” SMU, like UCF, may be headed to the Big East. Their attendance isn’t as dreadful as UAB’s, but it would likely stand out in the BE (which itself is no SEC, attendance-wise).
Southern Tech pushes hard to get people to show up, though is not in the position of EMU, UAB, or SMU. Though University of Delosa people look at any empty seats as a sign of abject failure.
It’s all relative, I suppose. But when you’re being beaten out by high school football and college basketball in attendance, you have something to answer for in a way that West Virginia (whose coach complained about fewer than 40k showing up for a game) doesn’t.
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UAB? I’m not sure who that is. As for UCF, they at one time used to play USF, but for some reason that’s fizzled out. Considering that one is in Orlando, and the other in Tampa, I’m at a bit of a loss as to why they don’t play one another any longer.
As one wit said, “That would guarantee a 50% sell-out!”
UAB is the University of Alabama at Birmingham. It’s actually a really good school.
USF only played UCF because it was required to. USF made a deal with Conference USA when it left that it would schedule a certain number of games against Conference USA teams (which UCF had just been invited to be one). They played the games to meet their requirements and then stopped.
It’s one of the more frustrating aspects of college football. A team like USF will refuse to play a team like UCF for fear that it will give UCF (which is in a lower conference) more credibility. USF wants to be central florida’s premier team and doesn’t want competition for that spot.
However, the way that things are shaking out, UCF is poised to get an invitation to USF’s conference (which USF opposed, for the same reason they don’t want to play UCF, but backed down for various reasons). If that happens, the two will start playing one another every year.
I’m trying to figure out why a university in Tampa is called the University of South Florida. It’s not just a matter of geographical mismatch. South Florida is a term in common use, which refers to a part of the state that most emphatically does not encompass Tampa.
According to Wikipedia:
Although located in west-central Florida, at the time of its establishment USF was the southernmost public university in the State of Florida, a geographic situation that lent USF its sometimes confusing name.
Apparently, other considered names were: “Citrus State University,” “Sunshine State University,” “The University of the Western Hemisphere,” and “The University of Florida at Temple Terrace”
Geographical oddities aside, they did good. Would that Florida International University and Florida Atlantic University had done so well.