Great point. I don’t think Miami has ever done an exceptional job of creating a non-alum fan base among locals who live within an hour.
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That area is flooded with media coverage of UC and Dayton. Xavier, Reds and Bengals. Basically zero Miami coverage. I would say most people who live more than 45 minutes from Oxford have never been there and probably would not know how to get here without GPS.
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There was football apathy during the Ben years. The exodus of students at halftime of the Akron Hail Mary game in 2001 and NIU debacle of 2002 come to mind. I think that had at least some to do of why we blew sizeable leads in both games with only the Hail Mary bailing us out.
We were good in basketball from 2000-05, beating some well-known teams, but those years ran up against the Kent team of Huffman/Mitchell/Gates that we had trouble with. We drew pretty decent crowds but they could’ve been better.
Who fucking cares? We have bobcats to drown on Saturday. Get your heads in the game.
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Back in ‘86 when Miami won in Death Valley over #8 LSU, students went down to Yager after the game ended at like 10pm, tore down the goalposts and carried them Uptown, placing them beneath the old water tower.
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And the only ones left are us old farts (class of 63)
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Must disagree. Meet fellow Miamians regularly traveling around the country. Always a good reminiscing conversation. Generally starts something like me mentioning I live in Ohio, or Cincinnati. New person comments they went to school in Ohio or near Cincinnati - which always turns out to be Miami. Have met a few OSU alums, but almost never a Bearcat (or Xavier). More likely to meet another MAC alum once I get outside greater Cinti.
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That place was at least 1000x better than the new Goggin….
Sorry, I wasn’t trying to imply I don’t meet other Miami grads at all. Quite on the contrary, I do come across quite a few - especially in the three C’s of Ohio + Chicago. My point was that when we connect about Miami, the discussion is virtually never centered around athletics specifically. Our alumni network is vast and prideful. And it’s always neat to see. But that pride doesn’t typically have anything to do with Miami athletics. There’s no “remember this one time at Yager,” type exchange - at least in my experience anyway.
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And that’s on us. But close to a million people live within 45 minutes…
I have to admit that when I grew up in Cincinnati I knew very little about Miami sports, even though their football program was already very good. There just wasn’t much news coverage and of course Miami football hardly ever saw a televised game.
I only learned about Miami because I went to their basketball camp the summer after 8th grade. We stayed in dorms on the former Western campus and I was just wowed by the overall campus and feel of Oxford. Miami quickly became my #1 choice for college although I did dally with many D3 schools due to my desire to play college baseball.
In today’s sports world, you can watch 12 college football games every weekend, and the MAC has its share on ESPNU and CBS Sports net. So, you could say Miami has a better chance to be seen now, but there are so many big time P5 games on, I am not sure how you get noticed. Part of the way has been MACtion, but watching teams play in a dead, empty November stadium hardly makes for an exciting atmosphere. So, not really sure what schools like Miami can do, other than win regularly and somewhat enthuse their own fan base and students.
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Why not let high school students in football game for $1? Might get some college applications
We’d have room for many,typically.
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So many Miami students grow up in the shadow of the Big Ten that to them everything about MAC sports says second rate. They see Big Ten crowds, they see the presence on TV. We’ve discussed the OSU thing ad nauseum.
I became a Miami sports fan because I was a fan of my high school teams and figured that’s what you did in college. I didn’t follow any other college teams growing up. I found other like-minded classmates early freshman year. I benefited from following some good teams. I remember good crowds, but by no means was it consistent.
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I’m inclined to agree with @MrMiami on this one too. I graduated within a couple years of you and will pretty regularly get a “love and honor” or at least a hello when wearing Miami gear around. And that’s not just in Ohio - I spend a decent amount of time in SF, Boulder/Denver, and NYC for work. I would actually say I hear it more away from Ohio.
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The problem is that the mini-cult following is just a collection of gambling addicts who don’t have any sustained ties to any MAC team, only whatever direction their bets are flowing toward. I don’t mind it; it increases the conference’s revenue. But we should also be honest that the long-term gain beyond that is minimal.
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bump…this is Summer talk
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In Ireland, I wore a Miami polo shirt 1 day and got multiple love and honors.
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I wore a Miami beanie in Edinburgh, Scotland and got a love and honor
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1). I was walking to a waterfall in Vermont a few weeks ago and was greeted by a “love and honor “ along the trail.
2). I was at a Michigan game several years ago and when I discovered the guy next to me was a Toledo alum asked if he went to Toledo games. He replied he didn’t want to watch minor league football. I was stunned into silence. Unusual for me