Fan Support and NIL

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Originally Posted by StarkVegasSteve

100%. Here is the difference, our fans look for reasons TO DONATE to baseball, a non revenue sport. They look for reasons NOT TO DONATE in football. Mens basketball is thankfully taken care of by Oscar and Richard for the most part.

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We still have basketball fan support issues, but yes luckily those two keep us competitive along with having a competent coach.

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Originally Posted by StarkVegasSteve

You are technically correct, we do need everyone else helping with football. But the problem is that we have these baseball only fans within the fanbase that drives all this conversation to that sport and tries to tell everyone that it would be more important and give us more recognition to be good in baseball, a sport that gets outdrawn by volleyball and softball in TV ratings, than a sport that is the only reason we get a 9 figure check from the SEC every year.

The Dude is cool and it’s an incredible atmosphere, and it is infinitely more electric when you are good. But we could go 50-0 or 0-50 and we are going to average 12-13K every SEC weekend.

You just cannot prioritize baseball in any way in this new era. Especially at a school that does not have a billionaire, or 4, that can fund the non revenue stuff as well as the revenue sports.

None of that will happen though, our baseball team will continue to eat up funding that needs to be going to football. I am glad that we have boosters that are so passionate about a sport that they want to fund it as well as they do. I just wish they would take 75% of what they are giving to baseball and give it to football.

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Agree here, the baseball only types can be down right creepy. That said those guys are not the ones funding it anymore and we have very competent people taking care of that. As far as football goes it?s apparent after today where we stand as far as talent goes. To be at least competitive with the top end of our league we have to find a way to get better up front on both sides of the ball.

How do you come to that conclusion? We could easily have 6 or 7 wins already this year with a decent shot in our last 2 games with the deepest the SEC has ever been.

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Originally Posted by StarkVegasSteve

You are technically correct, we do need everyone else helping with football. But the problem is that we have these baseball only fans within the fanbase that drives all this conversation to that sport and tries to tell everyone that it would be more important and give us more recognition to be good in baseball, a sport that gets outdrawn by volleyball and softball in TV ratings, than a sport that is the only reason we get a 9 figure check from the SEC every year.

The Dude is cool and it’s an incredible atmosphere, and it is infinitely more electric when you are good. But we could go 50-0 or 0-50 and we are going to average 12-13K every SEC weekend.

You just cannot prioritize baseball in any way in this new era. Especially at a school that does not have a billionaire, or 4, that can fund the non revenue stuff as well as the revenue sports.

None of that will happen though, our baseball team will continue to eat up funding that needs to be going to football. I am glad that we have boosters that are so passionate about a sport that they want to fund it as well as they do. I just wish they would take 75% of what they are giving to baseball and give it to football.

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Also this board leans heavy baseball (which is great we have that level of passion) so if you spend all your time here I could see how many would come to the conclusion we don?t care about football

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Originally Posted by DEDawg

Also this board leans heavy baseball (which is great we have that level of passion) so if you spend all your time here I could see how many would come to the conclusion we don?t care about football

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Man that is every board. There are 6 page threads on every board about a 17 alumni baseball game. It is creepy tbh how some of our fans act toward the baseball players, current or not.

And Auburn announces they have 30 million banked to buy next year's team.

Auburn has to announce that if they want anyone to jump into that shit show.

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Originally Posted by Offshore Dawg

And Auburn announces they have 30 million banked to buy next year's team.

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Originally Posted by Pinto

Auburn has to announce that if they want anyone to jump into that shit show.

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Auburn can turn around in one year, we can't do it in three.

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Originally Posted by Bothrops

Auburn can turn around in one year, we can't do it in three.

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Because they understand what sport matters. And somehow do just fine in baseball.

Auburn will be no better next year, no matter who they hire.

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Originally Posted by Bothrops

Auburn can turn around in one year, we can't do it in three.

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Originally Posted by StarkVegasSteve

Because they understand what sport matters. And somehow do just fine in baseball.

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Football feeds other programs. And not just from an SEC check. Football does well (i.e. 7+ wins every year) then fans are happy and it creates a sentiment that the athletic department knows what they are doing. This encourages fan support through attendance and donations for every sport.

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Originally Posted by Dawgology

Football feeds other programs. And not just from an SEC check. Football does well (i.e. 7+ wins every year) then fans are happy and it creates a sentiment that the athletic department knows what they are doing. This encourages fan support through attendance and donations for every sport.

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And our fanbase does not understand this and I am beginning to think they never will. We still have fans that think we have the football team TOO MUCH money and we need to give more to baseball. I have given up on some of them ever understanding that baseball does not move the needle the way they think it does

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Originally Posted by StarkVegasSteve

And our fanbase does not understand this and I am beginning to think they never will. We still have fans that think we have the football team TOO MUCH money and we need to give more to baseball. I have given up on some of them ever understanding that baseball does not move the needle the way they think it does

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This is a strawman argument that you won?t let go.

We have been the poor school of the SEC for over 100 years. That's not going to change just because football keeps getting more expensive

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Originally Posted by StarkVegasSteve

And our fanbase does not understand this and I am beginning to think they never will. We still have fans that think we have the football team TOO MUCH money and we need to give more to baseball. I have given up on some of them ever understanding that baseball does not move the needle the way they think it does

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And this is the reason why most of the high school aged kids think that OM is the cool place to go to school. We are the school you go to if you don?t quite fit in. I?m around them all the time and all they know of MState is that we are a baseball school thats a perennial loser in the cool sport. And our good ol boy fans are perfectly fine with that

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Originally Posted by PGHBulldogBG

Today is a prime example of our lack of NIL and talent. Unless we strike lightning in a bottle like Indiana did with Cignetti, we are not going to get much better than 6 wins a year in this current landscape. Cignetti was actually available when we were looking for a coach, but that is here nor there. Blaming Lebby is not the answer to the problem. The issue is that our fans and alumni just don?t care the way the other SEC schools do outside of Vandy. We are the only other SEC school that lets visiting fans take over our stadiums every home game and our fans do not open their pocketbooks to fund football properly. We have the same issue in basketball where except it?s not really visiting fans, it?s just a ton of empty seats unless we are playing a top 5 team or UK or Ole Miss. I actually think Lebby has done a good job getting an SEC win, beating ASU and putting us in a position to win 1 more game. We are our own worst enemy. I am just not sure our big booster fans will ever care enough to provide us a chance to get players that can win 8 or more games a year in this environment. Our fanbase actually always infuriates me more than our teams and coaches because it is just so odd for an SEC fan base

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Here is a list of SEC schools with their approximate enrollment numbers:
Texas A&M University: 76,633
University of Florida: 54,814
University of Texas: 52,384
University of Georgia: 41,615
University of Alabama: 39,622
Louisiana State University: 39,419
University of Tennessee: 36,304
University of South Carolina: 36,200
University of Kentucky: 33,885
Auburn University: 33,015
University of Oklahoma: 32,676
University of Arkansas: 32,410
University of Missouri: 31,121
University of Mississippi: 24,710
Mississippi State University: 23,150
Vanderbilt University: 7,221 (undergraduate only)

So if the big schools contribute proportionally to State:

ATM - 3.3 times as much
Florida - 2.3 times as much
......and so on.
Doesn't mean we're just poor little mstate but it does create a competitive challenge.

As far as fans showing up, UPig has easily 500k people within an hour of the stadium and no other significant AR universities close and stands were still empty. My son bought 2 - 50 yd line tickets online for $32 total for our game last weekend. It's an everywhere issue but Starkville does have an extra challenge compared to most due to population within easy driving distance.

The population along with many other features may make Starkville a better place to live and be better in a lot of ways, but it's not better for trying to get 60k people into a stadium.

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Originally Posted by Pinto

Auburn will be no better next year, no matter who they hire.

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Maybe, maybe not