Who’s coming? Looks like perfect weather. No hotel rooms appear to be available in Oxford or Hamilton.
Where is everyone going to be?
1 Like
My son goes to Miami now so we are coming to the game as part of parents weekend
2 Likes
Is it weird to anyone that this is the 100th meeting and there is no rivalry trophy?
1 Like
They kept trying to light it and inject it in between their toes. It’s all they know.
You should get a brick for winning it (all sports) and both campuses should have a wall/street where the bricks are placed
7 Likes
Does the student body understand the Battle of the Bricks is at Yager and not at Brick Street uptown?
4 Likes
Parents weekend will be the only thing keeping Yager pretty full, if it was a regular weekend attendance would be no different than an FCS school coming to town. For some reason the only rivalry current students care about is Cincinnati
3 Likes
Not saying that isn’t the case, but this is our first Saturday home game against OU since 2016 and just our second since 2012. With good weather I’m semi-optimistic that the crowds will be closer than something like Toledo last year rather than UMass two games ago, even if the 2-4 record isn’t going to drive much excitement.
Just ran into a Miami alum at my dog park in NC. She is from the class of ‘96 - from Tennessee.Said she couldn’t remember attending a Miami football game the four years she was there. Her husband was with her. He’s an ECU Pirate. She had a purple ECU shirt on. She was amazed I go to Miami’s games from down here. She did remember Miami beat Northwestern when they went to the Rose Bowl but the name Randy Walker didn’t ring a bell.
Somehow Miami athletics lost a whole generation of Miami students in the past 25 years or so.
2 Likes
That’s not unique to her generation, or any other Miami generation.
2 Likes
I know more than a few super wealthy Miami alums from my grade who spend lots of money traveling to watch other college football teams play
There is a disconnect- Miami alums I know all say they love Miami but there isnt a strong bond per the endowment stats or sports or trips back to Oxford.
2 Likes
I just wanted to post the current MAC standings as it point out just how important this game is to our season.
UB 2-0
OU 2-0
WM 2-0
UT 1-1
NIU 1-1
MU 1-1
EMU 1-1
CM 1-1
BG 1-1
BSU 1-2
KS 0-2
UA 0-3
Buffalo’s 2-0 is very powerful because they beat Toledo and NIU and do not play MU or BG. Their schedule is pretty soft the rest of the way. Our loss to Toledo is likely to cost us several tiebreakers… If we lose to Ohio not only do we have to hope for a 6-2 finish, we would also lose a tiebreaker with Ohio and Toledo. Western has played Ball state and Akron so far, we don’t play them but they are likely to lose several games yet. We do not control our fate if we win out, but it would give us a good chance at making the MACC.
5 Likes
Back in the day, there were a number of Miami alums who made regular trips to watch us play significant road games and made frequent trips to Oxford. I don’t know if there are many these days.
I’m not wealthy - a retired public administrator. But since I moved back east from Seattle I have made an effort to get to several marquee games and back to Oxford as often as practical in September of October. I don’t anticipate making any MACtion game ever.
I came up to Oxford for the UC game this season, flew to Detroit for the Toledo game and I’ll be up this weekend for OU. That’s it unless we make the MACC again. I did that last season.
I’ve done the St Pete Bowl, the last Mobile Bowl and last year’s Cure Bowl weather event. Hoping to get to a bowl this season.
I am thankful for the folks who care enough to attend our games and wish more Miamians - and local football fans - would join us.
5 Likes
I feel like we’ve repeated this ad nauseum but I’ll say it again: Kids who come to Miami don’t come for the athletics experience. They come for the college experience, prospect of finding a good job, or a leg up in heading on to grad school. Work hard, play hard. Some of the kids who come were the ones weren’t big supporters of their high school teams. They would go to high school games, make sure they were seen, make their entrance and leave shortly thereafter. That’s just how it is and Miami has never, despite multiple organizations (including mine back in the day) made a consistent, well thought out effort to hook those students into being athletics supporters knowing what the general profile of a Miami student is. Of course this is my opinion, but I tried to study it as carefully as possible in trying to grow the organization I started.
7 Likes
I don’t think the apathy tied to the psychographic of a go-getter student is correct. Vandy students just carried the goal posts 5 miles. Duke has kids camping out for hoops tickets.If we are brutally honest, we have not given the students much reason to cheer the last 25 years save mainly for hockey. This is my honest assessment:
Football: from 2000 to now: 4 great seasons and a lot of not so great. And if you look at those great years, we had pretty nice attendance.
Basketball: 1 good season where Doug P banked a winner and nothing else to remotely care about. That changes this year, but I digress. Attendance was mediocre that last tourney season but to be fair we snuck in the tourney.
Hockey: Uncle Rico had at least 8 good years and the place was rocking to standing room only.
Master of the obvious conclusion:
Too many lag years. And in the MAC, it’s hard to care about beating a directional school unless they are ranked hence why no one shows up. I’ll frame it differently: if we were playing UC, X, Dayton, every year in hoops, people would absolutely show up. I know this because I’ve seen it happen. Shit, we saw it happen the last time UC came to town. When hockey gets back to top 25, it will be standing room only. Football had it against UC this year via last year’s success. It seems obvious what has to happen. As a guy I used to know often said, Just win, baby. And schedule better local schools when you can.
14 Likes
It’s sports on digital platforms,in your pocket,on huge TV’s, in your room.
I’ll bet Uptown will be packed Sat at game time also.( what a distraction)!
3 Likes
She realizes that ECU sucks in most sports, right?
1 Like
Rico delivered pizza to students CAMPED OUTSIDE GOGGIN in TENTS overnight
to get first shot in line for student seating.
5 Likes
I’m not saying Rico didn’t deliver pizzas to students camped outside of Goggin for the #1 vs #2 showdown with Michigan, but the idea to have pizzas delivered to those students waiting in line was hatched and carried out here on MHT.com. I personally had two large Domino’s pizzas delivered, and I know a few others here did the same.
5 Likes
We’ve had this discussion here off and on for at least 20 years now. Mz343 is largely correct. Some individuals here, yourself included, continue to believe that the lack of winning is what is driving the lack of student/fan interest. For those of us who have followed Miami for decades, we know that peak student/fan interest does not parallel winning. In my four years at Miami (1983-87), we won one MAC title in football and finished 8-2-1 in another year. We won two regular season MAC titles (and one MAC tournament title) in men’s basketball and made three straight NCAA tournament appearances. I would estimate that in my social and academic circle fewer than half ever attended a Miami football or men’s basketball game. If anything, peak student/fan interest is almost always short-term and largely driven by the presence of one very outstanding and nationally recognized student/athlete (e.g., Harper, Szczerbiak, or Roethlisberger).
2 Likes