I just finished listening to Blacks show. Very interesting and well done. He and Jim Miller interviewed AD's Ed M. from VCU and Wood S. from ODU on why one did football and the other didn't. Listening to ED was like listening to Trump or Clinton. Very slick, fast talking and political. Wood was very down to earth and and informative. He totally shot Ed's reasoning down. I am not a fan of what ODU did but Wood made a lot of sense. It was very obvious that VCU rotates around men's basketball. Bob and Jim do a good job with interesting guests.
bob black show
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basketball was the flagship for both men and women for many years and bet they hate playing in that conf they had to join to play "big time" football which they are not doing very well. down the road it may be the best thing they ever did but right now, kind of stinking the place up.
Like Spinner being from Tidewater plus spending lots of time in the area with the Navy think that there was lots of spectator interest for ODU to have football which was part of the driving force. For years the Oyster Bowl was the "premier" college football game in the area with Navy often being one of the teams that played. Duke was in the game about as much as anybody besides Navy and other teams around the area with the Spiders playing in it three times, losing to East Carolina and beating VMI and the Barneys. It stopped after 1996, resumed in 1999 with lower level competition although it is now back with ODU playing in it every year. It is a tough road to move from FCS to FBS and ODU is going through the "growing pains." Hard to know if there will be "interest" in Broad Street U fielding football. And on the subject of Bob Black broadcasting and interviewing think he is one of the very best in the business. With JM's ties to ODU am sure he did a great job also.
I heard part of the show was well. Most of Greg Burton's show is canned and pre-recorded; it often repeats the same segment later in the day. This was refreshing and balanced. Wood Selig's thoughtful and nuanced discussion of ODU's football decision was very informative. I did not know that they had 50 straight sell-out of home games. Very interesting.
will say that tidewater is a great sports area and not surprised at all that they sell out. norfolk has attempted to lure nba and nhl teams there but just not big enough. REDSKINS used to play a preseason game there each year and the squires of the aba played in scope along with the hampton roads coliseum. va tech recruits tidewater big time and by coming there gets more exposure, a great deal for them.
It'll take some time but ODU will get there. You have to get some wins and bowl appearances. It's a million plus in population, the area likes football, closest FBS competition is ECU (although they are up and coming) the biggest problem is down the road the power 5 may try and limit the exposure of the non power 5 schools. You need some upsets.
Wood Selig indicated that the P-5 conferences were squeezing football revenue away from lesser conferences, like CUSA. He said they were experiencing declining revenues because of changes in media contracts. It was very interesting.
the deals espn is making with conferences, sec, acc, etc., has to be gobbling up money and hurting those fbs schools which are really interested. college football is sitting at the right hand side of the nfl right now, extremely popular and lucrative. certainly other 24-7 sports channel now but people want to see the big boys, not the wannabes.
I heard Bob interview Shaka a couple of weeks ago to get his insight on the Texas/Notre Dame opening week game. Shaka said, "I'm not a football guy". Shaka did say that there was huge interest back in 2009-10 (his first year there) in starting football at VCU, but once they made the Final Four, that talk stopped. That was pre-McLaughlin and during the Norwood regime, though. There's more money floating around the Athletic Department at VCU then there was 25-30 years ago, and if they want to start football there will be donations. They'd be on more solid footing than JMU would be, IMO.
Football has pretty much neutralized ODU's basketball program, which was a solid program. The non-Power 5 conferences (with the exception of the AAC and maybe Mountain West) are super weak in men's hoops. If you go play football with the big boys, you're doing it at the expense of every other sport under your roof.
Football has pretty much neutralized ODU's basketball program, which was a solid program. The non-Power 5 conferences (with the exception of the AAC and maybe Mountain West) are super weak in men's hoops. If you go play football with the big boys, you're doing it at the expense of every other sport under your roof.
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