Are SWAC fans expectations too high?


kendrick said:
You can say that about every group from mid-major FBS/D-1 to DIII. The only game in town that matters is the BCS level in major college football and basketball.
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SMU is suffering from that... When the Mustangs were kickin tell in the Pony Express days, DFW was a 2 horse sports market. Dallas Cowboys, SMU Mustangs.. The Rangers were bad, the Mavericks were new, the Stars weren't here, North Texas was an FCS program, and TCU was below average...
 
the band fan said:
Have you all watched a Tuesday night MAC football game? Nothing special about that...
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Yea but they're fans dont complain about that time slot.. They make the most of it.. Its advertising... Its promotion and marketing.. Its exposes all those good 3 Star and 2 Star recruits in Ohio and Michigan to other schools in that region besides the Big 10 schools... Its a great model that works for them...
 



the band fan said:
the SWAC school's next step is to seriously challenge the small PWCs in an area for market share and brand awareness...not hard if you win and spend wisely along with hiring the right people...not hookups
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Take the small pwc's here in Texas... Sam Houston State is out in front and running.. North Texas is D1, Texas State is now D1... UTSA is about to be D1.. Hell, like I always say, Some of the D2 Lone Star Conference Schools could come the the SWAC and DOMINATE...
 
Are expectations too high??? Hell naw!!! I don't think they are high enough!

-Is it too much to ask everybody to have a competent field goal kicker?

-Is it too much to ask coaches to have decent time management skills?

-Is it too much to ask coaches/ad's to go out to the various alumni chapters in the community to show their faces and ingratiate themselves with alums and possible donors?

-Is it too much to ask athletic departments to use FREE SOCIAL MEDIA to help form campaigns to keep the student body and prospective youngsters engaged?

-Is it too much to ask special teams not to be an adventure every time the ball is snapped?

-Is it too much to ask coaches to actively recruit diversity and start offering kids earlier instead of waiting their senior year to start recruiting them?

-Is it too much to ask teams to play with simple fundamentals and demonstrate some kind of football/basketball/etc. IQ on the field?

-Is it too much to ask the President, AD, and Head Coaches to all be on the same page in promoting their school/program?

None of what I said even remotely starts to deal with resources/money yet. There are things that we can do as schools to improve our positioning going forward. If people don't see a vision or organized plan who do you expect to support you? Just like in teaching, if you expect a kid to do bad, GUESS WHAT?! He's gonna do bad. We have to expect more from ourselves and our institutions. Stop dwelling on what we don't have and make sure we are operating efficiently and effectively with what we do have. Take advantage of the free things (internet and etc.) we do have and find better ways to market and brand ourselves. If you keep doing the same thing you've always done, you are gonna keep getting what you have always gotten.
 
Devil's Gun Trigger Man said:
Are expectations too high??? Hell naw!!! I don't think they are high enough!

-Is it too much to ask everybody to have a competent field goal kicker?

-Is it too much to ask coaches to have decent time management skills?

-Is it too much to ask coaches/ad's to go out to the various alumni chapters in the community to show their faces and ingratiate themselves with alums and possible donors?

-Is it too much to ask athletic departments to use FREE SOCIAL MEDIA to help form campaigns to keep the student body and prospective youngsters engaged?

-Is it too much to ask special teams not to be an adventure every time the ball is snapped?

-Is it too much to ask coaches to actively recruit diversity and start offering kids earlier instead of waiting their senior year to start recruiting them?

-Is it too much to ask teams to play with simple fundamentals and demonstrate some kind of football/basketball/etc. IQ on the field?

-Is it too much to ask the President, AD, and Head Coaches to all be on the same page in promoting their school/program?

None of what I said even remotely starts to deal with resources/money yet. There are things that we can do as schools to improve our positioning going forward. If people don't see a vision or organized plan who do you expect to support you? Just like in teaching, if you expect a kid to do bad, GUESS WHAT?! He's gonna do bad. We have to expect more from ourselves and our institutions. Stop dwelling on what we don't have and make sure we are operating efficiently and effectively with what we do have. Take advantage of the free things (internet and etc.) we do have and find better ways to market and brand ourselves. If you keep doing the same thing you've always done, you are gonna keep getting what you have always gotten.
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To answer your question. Yes its too much. We got low tier players and low teir coaches. How can a swac coach teach players fundamentals and etc, when our coaches barely know what it is.
 
tweed24 said:
To answer your question. Yes its too much. We got low tier players and low teir coaches. How can a swac coach teach players fundamentals and etc, when our coaches barely know what it is.
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So I guess taking pride in your craft and going to coaching clinics, AND ACTUALLY APPLYING WHAT YOU LEARNED THERE is too much to ask. Like I said, when you expect to fail, guess what you are gonna do with that defeated mindset???
 
Devil's Gun Trigger Man said:
Are expectations too high??? Hell naw!!! I don't think they are high enough!

There are things that we can do as schools to improve our positioning going forward. If people don't see a vision or organized plan who do you expect to support you? Just like in teaching, if you expect a kid to do bad, GUESS WHAT?! He's gonna do bad. We have to expect more from ourselves and our institutions. Stop dwelling on what we don't have and make sure we are operating efficiently and effectively with what we do have. Take advantage of the free things (internet and etc.) we do have and find better ways to market and brand ourselves. If you keep doing the same thing you've always done, you are gonna keep getting what you have always gotten.
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Message! :tup:
 
JR said:
But those are the athletes that do that. Hugh Douglas is one of those cats who thought he was big time after he made it and had nothing good to say about HBCUs. He probably never wanted to go to Central State but his dumb arse had no choice probably.

A lot of folks I went to school with kids have ended up at HBCUs as well. The thing is, a lot of the young HBCU alums just don't be as hyped about our schools as it was back then. What you also have to realize that 40K sitting in the stands at a JSU game in the 80s were not all JSU grads. The kids may have went to those games but if they moved away from Jackson to find work and never went to college themselves either. Chances are their kids grew up in the Atlantas, Houstons, Dallas, Memphis etc where they didn't see the same hype about HBCUs as they may have in Jackson with JSU or in a Baton Rouge with SU. But they no longer have ties to their folks hometowns if Grandma and nem done passed on. We lost a generation of folks after HBCUs stop being popular with the celebs. When you saw Cosby or Different World. Or any Videos from the 80s and early 90s and folks had HBCU gear on it made you even think about it. Videos being shot on HBCU campuses. We lost the black pride movement. It was super cool to be black and down with black stuff in the 80s and 90s. But you could see it eroding away little by little.

There are a boat load of reasons why our HBCUs lost some luster. Honestly it was the kids that came in the 90s during that run that have largely abandoned their alma maters. If you even look on this board. The main ones who are hard core HBCU are mostly early 90s and back grads. The entitlement generation is probably with your group of grads and later. We didn't expect nothing when we got to college. But just glad to be there. LOL. Yall came in wanting all the amenities as you had grown up more than previous generations. I grew up middle class MS. But since our parents were from the old days of hard knocks. You got treated that way. LOL. We learned to love our schools even when they fugged us over on registration. We didn't take it personally. Now you hear grads say I will not send my kid to SU or wherever because they had a bad experience. That's the kind of mentality you deal with. So they promote sending their kids to PWCs. Because they are still pissed with their school. I can understand the athletes somewhat if they are highly recruited and have a possible NFL or NBA future. Since those leagues are not drafting our kids anymore. It is a hard sell to get those type of athletes you mentioned we saw back in the day. But we also had better coaching back then too. Now our better black coaches get snatched up before we can even get them. So now we have subpar product with subpar coaching with already fickle arse fans which = to us not having the same success at gate as we used to. Not to mention so much other stuff you can do these days to entertain yourself. We got work to do.
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JR, you're right on the money! Good thing I came from the School of Hard Knocks or Kick Rocks.
 
Devil's Gun Trigger Man said:
So I guess taking pride in your craft and going to coaching clinics, AND ACTUALLY APPLYING WHAT YOU LEARNED THERE is too much to ask. Like I said, when you expect to fail, guess what you are gonna do with that defeated mindset???
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I whole heartly understand your point of view, but after watching these swac games and seeing how terrible coached these teams are. I dont believe coaches even attend coaches clinic and etc. Hell, I dont think they watch NFL football. I am sure its been recommended to them to attend those events.

I wash my hands with swac football when i seen JSU give up that 99 yard TD in Swac Championship game. I dont even think common sense was use then.
 
Alcorn's Situation is very difficult because "GOOD OLE BOY" Politics really screwed our expectations and now the fans have apathy toward ballgames. Alcorn really hurt ourselves from 1995-2002.

Here is how it happened:

From an athletic Standpoint: See, when McNair left after 1994, Alcorn still had Caudill Jones for a couple of seasons before Dr. Johnny. Believe it or not, Jones was working the best with what he had. Contrary to what some in the War Party Room will tell you, we won some good games during Jones last years. May not have been McNair like but he was making the best with what he had. Yet, when he finally got fired, JT got the Job because of "Good Ole Boy Politics". Now tell me what coach is hired back after an 0-11 season. He should have been gone then. If Dr. Johnny had been fired after 2000, Donald Carrie, Nate Hughes, and Charlie Spiller would have won a SWAC Championship for Alcorn. That is what I believe to this very day. We would get hyped up only to have letdowns during Dr. Johnny's tenure. AND...the team didn't seem to have that hunger during some games to win the Championship. You can't play up when we play JSU or SU but play sorry when we are playing TX Southern, Pine Bluff, etc. EVERY GAME COUNTS!!!! In 2013, there is still there certain apathy toward Alcorn football. Instead of saying, "We Will Win This Ballgame", we go into a ballgame saying, "I Hope We Win This Ballgame"...:smh::smh::smh:. This "controlled" support ( I witnessed that at the Soul Bowl. Instead of doing like SU Fans and say, "F*ck JSU", Alcornites would just say some little "nice" smart remark and keep watching. Hell, we needed the hate like Jaguar Nation has toward JSU and we did not bring it).

From a Student/Alumni Standpoint: God knows I don't wish death on no one but the day Dr. Bristow died on that track was the day Alcorn finally saw the light at the end of the tunnel. Bristow gave a DAMN about Student Opinion on campus. A Lot of Alcornites may hate George Ross for how he left us, but the day he walked in Men's Tower (When It was Still Standing, and said he wouldn't let a pig stay in that dorm, I knew just had bad Bristow had been as President.) When these student classes left Alcorn, they would say, "F*ck it, I'm never going back there except for HC". See you have to treat students with respect when they are on campus. Students are just as important as Alumni because providing poor customer service to the student WHILE THEY ARE still a student will result in them showing apathy toward the university when the university asks for a donation. Thus, this is the problem Alcorn faces today in 2013.

HBCU expectations are not too high. In fact like some posters have already said, they need to be higher. But apathy along with other factors is what is destroying SWAC Athletics.

Give more respect to the student WHILE THEY ARE STILL STUDENTS and SWAC Athletic's may change for the better.
 
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Devil's Gun Trigger Man said:
Are expectations too high??? Hell naw!!! I don't think they are high enough!

-Is it too much to ask coaches to have decent time management skills?

-Is it too much to ask coaches/ad's to go out to the various alumni chapters in the community to show their faces and ingratiate themselves with alums and possible donors?

-Is it too much to ask athletic departments to use FREE SOCIAL MEDIA to help form campaigns to keep the student body and prospective youngsters engaged?


None of what I said even remotely starts to deal with resources/money yet. There are things that we can do as schools to improve our positioning going forward. Stop dwelling on what we don't have and make sure we are operating efficiently and effectively with what we do have. Take advantage of the free things (internet and etc.) we do have and find better ways to market and brand ourselves. If you keep doing the same thing you've always done, you are gonna keep getting what you have always gotten.
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Good points. No excuse for every SWAC school to not have a presence on twitter and facebook, podcasts and free ipod and adriod apps like ASU.
 
FAB5 said:
Good points. No excuse for every SWAC school to not have a presence on twitter and facebook, podcasts and free ipod and adriod apps like ASU.
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But you guys are asking understaffed departments to do all of that, though. It might not sound like much, but when you have a couple of people attempting to handle all that goes along with every sport, it's not easy.
 
Rated R Superstar said:
But you guys are asking understaffed departments to do all of that, though. It might not sound like much, but when you have a couple of people attempting to handle all that goes along with every sport, it's not easy.
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we don't have a large staff...by a loooong shot
 



tweed24 said:
I whole heartly understand your point of view, but after watching these swac games and seeing how terrible coached these teams are. I dont believe coaches even attend coaches clinic and etc. Hell, I dont think they watch NFL football. I am sure its been recommended to them to attend those events.

I wash my hands with swac football when i seen JSU give up that 99 yard TD in Swac Championship game. I dont even think common sense was use then.
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At least 1/2 of SWAC coaches last year played in the NFL (Barlow, Coleman, Williams, Mitchell, Jones)
 
Newspaperman said:
I hear fans of SWAC teams on here and during games complain.....and complain....and complain. But are we really evaluating our market and product fairly and honestly? First thing is, black people are a niche. We make up less than 20 percent of the population. Secondly, sports fans are a niche. Not everyone that graduates from a university, whether it be a PWI or HBCU, is a college sports fan. And finally, black college sports is a niche. So what we're dealing with is a niche....of a niche....of a niche.

The one thing that separates us from big-time college athletics is that the only fans of our schools are alumni. In comparision, look at Alabama or LSU or even a school like Ole Miss. You can find people with car tags, t-shirts, jerseys, etc. who have no connection with the school, but give regualrly, attend games and represent for that university.

That doesn't exist for black schools.

Hell, even our fans follow Mississippi State and Ole Miss and sometimes attend games. You think you'll ever catch Mississippi State alums at an Alcorn State game?

All I'm saying is that its time that we has SWAC and HBCU sports fans realize what we are. We won't get 60,000 people to our games. Our market doesn't cater to a large audience. Is that too much to get people to understand?
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I mean come on who are we kidding, we only cater to our Swac Fan base...We don't cater to a national level to get more fans like the Alabama or Texas. We don't even help ourselves by getting into the D1-AA playoffs, in the Swac we rather not expand but instead keep playing the SCG which only Swac fans come to and Swac fans care about but then ask why don't other people care about whats going on in the Swac or why do people look down on the Swac... We do it to ourselves, We rather do our own thang, which a lot of people (outside the Swac) don't care about but then get upset, when we feel like we get treated like a D2- or D3...Come on!!!!
 
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tweed24 said:
To answer your question. Yes its too much. We got low tier players and low teir coaches. How can a swac coach teach players fundamentals and etc, when our coaches barely know what it is.
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Look DGTM's response over again tweed. Great response DGTM. Excellent blueprint to start with.
 
Rated R Superstar said:
But you guys are asking understaffed departments to do all of that, though. It might not sound like much, but when you have a couple of people attempting to handle all that goes along with every sport, it's not easy.
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Great point. I encourage each of you to look at the staff directory on your school's athletic website. And compare it to larger PWI's. Take Alcorn State, MVSU, Southern, and UAPB for example, they have ONE person in sports information. ONE. Now look at your white counterparts. You'll see six or seven people in sports information, not including grad assistants. You'll also see a Sports Marketing department, which is exempt all nearly all SWAC schools. Once our schools start investing in sports, you'll see a better product marketed and on the field. Until then, it'll just be the same ole, same ole.
 
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