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Watching UC vs ECU on TV and rooting for the Pirates. Seeing the level of talent on this Bearcats team on the heels of their going to the national semis and looking at the fantastic, energetic crowd at Nippert and their obvious high level of support, I simply can’t imagine how we could continue to envision ourselves as a rival program anymore. I really drives home how much has changed in their favor in the last 20 years.
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I take it CM has not been relieved of his duties. Onward medicrity! Watching ECU as well. Pirates dont seem intimidated as we seem to be each and every year. No yeah those guys are crazy good!
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I live a couple hours from ECU and have been up to Dowdy Ficklin for a couple of games.ECU has a rabid fan base built around the Pirate culture. Greenville is in the middle of nowhere and the school Is about our size.
I watched a bit of the ECU vs UC game when I got home. I swear I heard UC fans booing. They are 8-2 and one year removed from a final 4 appearance.
Half this board thinks my expectations are too high when I expect us to win more than 6 games
Two different fan bases for sure
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UC has been squeaking bye these last several games…but they continue to find way to win.
There has been chatter on local sports talk radio of UC fans asking if Fickell (is it spelled right? I don’t care) should be on the hot seat. Now, those people are appropriately ridiculed, but it goes to show that people who say Miami fans are overly negative are living a sheltered sports life.
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Yup…can’t beat OU @ 3-9, nor in year 9…
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Most fan bases and programs that are invested in/committed to athletics aren’t satisfied with mediocrity. Some define mediocrity are not being competitive in the national championship discussion. Some define it as not being competitive annually for a major bowl game and others for their conference championship. Some don’t have a clue that they have already made a commitment to mediocrity by their inattention and inaction. In fact those programs see mediocrity as success. If the shoe fits wear it.
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Wonder if MU has ‘shifted’ their fan base in terms of # of out of state students/international versus more local families more inclined to have been exposed to the legacy Miami winning culture, become part of it, and carry it on?
@Scalper All three of our money sports - football, basketball and hockey - are dominated by US students. Our women’s sports have a heavy international flavor. Although 70% of our football roster is out of state, I wouldn’t imagine that is a direct driver of fan apathy.
I think we’re paying the dues for failing to try to dominate the Southwest Ohio market over the past 40 years. My brother and I often commented that the “season tickets” billboard faced toward Oxford for years instead of toward people entering town. In the 70s and 80s we had some billboards on I-75 but I don’t know if we still buy them over there.
We’ve always ceded athletics dominance to OSU, primarily in football but also in other sports. . In the past 20 years we have given up any claim to our traditional geographic and media market to UC. The harder UC pushed us, the more we gave in. Now - after 16 straight football losses to the Bearcats - we’re not considered even slightly competitive against most UC teams, particularly in football and basketball.
I don’t know why our alumni fail to treat us as a legitimate D1 program and won’t commit to supporting our programs. I think - even when we were good - our fans saw us as a lower division program that could occasionally compete at high levels, but never as a true member of the upper class.
Part of the current epidemic of apathy is probably due to the fact that the old guard that remembers our football and basketball programs with a sense of pride is slowing dying off.
We would be an absolute gem if we were located most anywhere else in the country - with our campus, location adjoining a major metropolitan area, facilities and academic traditions. We’d probably be the flagship state university in a good many states. I just don’t get it.
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Looks like Vandy is going to break its 26 game SEC losing streak at UK - scored a TD with 32 seconds left to take a 24-21 lead. Vandy kicking off in SEC network.
UConn bowl eligible with an upset win over 8-1 Liberty! Jim Mora, Jr took them from the outhouse to a bowl in one season. Improvement doesn’t have to be at a glacial pace!
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With Liberty’s loss that means Tulane and Coastal Carolina have a good chance for the G5 playoff spot. Tulane big game today against UCF.
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@CoolPapa Liberty wasn’t eligible. The bid goes to the highest ranked conference championship. Liberty is an independent.
And with that loss even if they were, they are likely out of it. Thank you for the clarification.
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@NESCACDAD , I think your analysis is on point. My thought on the out of state student base international was pointed towards the average attendee, not athletes themselves. Do you know how much the make up of the student body geographically has changed over the last, hate to say it, 50 years? I don’t but suspect less frosh know our history and I don’t see the effort to teach it to them. At ND, all frosh used to watch Knute Rockne All American. We have some great history for a frosh hype film.
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According to Miami’s matriculation post every year, each first year class is more diverse - geographically, racially and ethnically - than the previous class. I think our student body is 70-75% Ohio but it might be a bit more or less. One exception to increased diversity is the drop off in foreign students post COVID. I’m not aware of any athletics history component to our first year orientation package, although I do think athletes are invited to make presentations.
Lowly Boston College scores with 2:33 left and beats NC State 21-20.
Washington at Oregon on FOX CFB at 7 Eastern. Described by ESPN GameDay as Auburn vs Alabama without the southern accents. I’ve been to the game at Autzen Stadium twice - in grad school and afterwards. Never a welcoming environment for Husky fans - occasional paper bags of dog poop get tossed into the UW section.
Team colors are Lemon Yellow and Emerald Green for the Ducks and Purple and Gold for the Dawgs. A helicopter pilot once described Autzen as looking like a “badly infected boil” from above on Husky-Duck game day. That pretty-well captures the tone of the rivalry.