Here's why the students matter

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MinnyGopherfan

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I've read a lot about the students, and one of the excuses I keep hearing as to why they aren't coming to the games is because the team isn't very good. Well, guess what? They play a very important role in helping the team become good. Even beyond the fact that the players get amped up by a bigger crowd on gameday, imagine if you are a recruit and you come to a game and see the students of the university don't even care. We will not get top recruits to come to Minnesota if the student section is empty. How can we compete for recruits when they see our empty seats, but go to competing schools on their recruiting trips and the atmosphere is crazy. And don't give me the Wisconsin section is empty to start the game excuse. Yes, it is. But it is also full by halftime. Ours hasn't been full since the opener, and it's getting worse. I'm tired of the students saying get good and we'll show up. How about you show up, help us get better and then we can all have the team the university deserves.
 

you are correct

Good post, can't be that exciting sitting around the dorm. What about the commuting students?
 

And plus, it's not like we completely suck. 5-5 isn't a terrible year by any stretch of the imagination. We may have wanted more, but to sit there and act like the team is horrible and not worth coming out to support is just a bit much. Perhaps a little more student participation last Saturday could have helped out early in that game. You saw how the crowd carried the team the week before, and carried the team for a time in previous games as well (Cal for instance). Crowd, specifically student, involvement is critical if this team ever wants to get to the level they desire. You can't wait until it's good, you gotta help make it good. And yes, these things take a little time, it won't happen overnight.
 

Northwestern

They get about a thousand students per game; even when they're winning. And they have what, 3 B10 titles the last decade. Student attendance is overated.

Granted, I don't understand why a student wouldn't go to the new stadium. What else are you going to do Saturday afternoon? We aren't going to win any more games if a couple thousand more students go to the game.
 

It will help

A few thousand more students would make a big difference.
1). Louder crowd, more chance of false start penalties
2). Louder crowd, more likely to amp up the players. If you don't think playing in front of a big crowd matters, you probably never played a sport.
3). Louder crowd, more likely a recruit is impressed by his surroundings on gameday and wants to come to the college.
Yeah, if you ignore those three key facets, I guess it doesn't matter.:confused:
 


MinnyGopherfan said:
A few thousand more students would make a big difference.
1). Louder crowd, more chance of false start penalties
2). Louder crowd, more likely to amp up the players. If you don't think playing in front of a big crowd matters, you probably never played a sport.
3). Louder crowd, more likely a recruit is impressed by his surroundings on gameday and wants to come to the college.
Yeah, if you ignore those three key facets, I guess it doesn't matter.:confused:
Click to expand...

Northwestern=no students, 3 Big Ten titles

We had 10,000 students at the Metrodome a couple of years and the team had pretty much the same season as this year.
 

Let's not make too much of this. It takes time-the-great-healer to re-build traditions and loyalty. Over time and with wins Sat football will become part of the subconsciousness of Gopher students and they will walk like robots to the stadium ever Saturday.

It would be great to have seen more from the students over the last few games but the good news is that the issue is fixable. Apart from the above agreement that traditions will be re-built with time, the U has options such as overselling the student section or opening up more season tickets to the general public.

With a new stadium this will not be a long term issue; don't get your respective rattle levels too high right now. There have been way too many posts on this topic, let's get back to football.

Go Gophers.
 

LesBolstad said:
They get about a thousand students per game; even when they're winning. And they have what, 3 B10 titles the last decade. Student attendance is overated.

Granted, I don't understand why a student wouldn't go to the new stadium. What else are you going to do Saturday afternoon? We aren't going to win any more games if a couple thousand more students go to the game.
Click to expand...

Northwestern is a tad bit of a different animal, different culture, but I do see your point. I guess I'm more talking the fact that it's about support for the program. There is just such a negativity surrounding this program, that I don't think exists around Northwestern, and it isn't all about wins and losses. Plus, NU is a private institution, another piece. And it's just one example.
 

Really? Another thread about students? Although in this one the OP blames the team's lack of success directly on us so I guess thats a new one....:rollseyes:
 




Agree....

Torres9 said:
Let's not make too much of this. It takes time-the-great-healer to re-build traditions and loyalty. Over time and with wins Sat football will become part of the subconsciousness of Gopher students and they will walk like robots to the stadium ever Saturday.

It would be great to have seen more from the students over the last few games but the good news is that the issue is fixable. Apart from the above agreement that traditions will be re-built with time, the U has options such as overselling the student section or opening up more season tickets to the general public.

With a new stadium this will not be a long term issue; don't get your respective rattle levels too high right now. There have been way too many posts on this topic, let's get back to football.

Go Gophers.
Click to expand...

This really isn't about the right now in regards to students. It's about the development of the program and a future fanbase. The most likely candidates would be alumni. Alumni will be the most likely to care so much that they will donate and become active participants in the success of the program.

Let us have faith and not abandon ship. The students will come. In the short term, overselling, and cashing in unused tickets for resale could be a start to filling any vacant seats in the student section. This can be easily reversed when the seats fill.
 

I should be clear too, that it takes more than just the student section to be filled to have a great atmosphere. We need the seats between the 20's full as well, but the student section should be so much easier to fill, given the price and the fact it is on campus. It just so happens that with the maroon and gold seats on the sidelines, it is difficult to spot open seats. In the student section with those bleachers, it looks terrible. I also would like to suggest that cutting back on student tickets by 3,000 or so might help, but I'm not so sure those additional 3,000 seats would be sold to the general public as the demand isn't there. No easy solutions.
 

Dunno if you guys have read some of the statistical studies on home field advantage, but research hasn't really shown a statistically significant boost in relative performance for teams at home versus their on the road performance. Atmosphere, a loud crowd and so on make for a great game day experience and it's absolutely something we should want, but the idea that it actually impacts the game in any discernible way isn't reinforced by statistics.

I believe Vegas usually weights home field as worth 3 points.
 




Thanks for the link to the article Khaliq.

I get the article's point and can definitely see (especially with the statistics) that homefield advantage is overrated.

However, I believe there is a homefield advantage and I do see one flaw with the analysis.

Vegas thinks that being at home is an advantage - generally to the tune of three points. I trust the gamblers that have their paycheck on the line when making point spreads.

Now - that three points much of the time is not enough to sway the overall outcome of a game, but that doesn't mean there isn't an advantage to playing at home. An example would be a team at home that would normally lose to a given team on the road by 14 might only lose by 10 at home.

It would be interesting to see if somehow they were able to compare SCORES of games to see if there is a difference in homefield advantage. In football this would be extremely difficult since you generally only play one game a year against a team, and if it is two it is likely one of them is on a neutral field. But maybe you could in basketball, where most teams play 2 conference games against each opponent, one home and one road.
 

Khaliq, the data presented in that article is highly subject to cherry-picking studies to prove a point. A more comprehensive analysis, such as those found in the sagarin ratings, show an approximate 3 point swing for homefield advantage. And in reality, that 3 point swing is a 6 point swing when you compare home vs away instead of home vs neutral.

For example, if the projected score on a neutral site game is 27 (Team A) - 27 (Team B), then adjust for a home game for Team A, the predicted score is 30-27, if the game is at Team B's site, then it is 27-30. Team A gets +3 at home, (effectively) -3 on the road, for a net difference of six points.

Further evidence -- Look at most seasons in the NFL, where much of the disparity between teams is eliminated. You will find that home teams win more often in just about every season.
 

another post on attendance? who would have guessed.

get over it
 

josh087 said:
Vegas thinks that being at home is an advantage - generally to the tune of three points. I trust the gamblers that have their paycheck on the line when making point spreads.
Click to expand...

Point spreads aren't a prediction of what Vegas thinks will actually happen, they're set to inspire as much betting as possible on both sides. If the general gambling public (who probably hasn't looked at studies like the one Khaliq posted) thinks home field means something significant, then that's what the lines will reflect.
 

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