Predictions: UH vs. Purdue

[damontucker]

Re: Predictions: UH vs. Purdue

Many mainland teams actually look at a trip to Hawaii as a "mini-vacation" for their players.

Many athletes in the mainland will never get the opportunity in their life time to EVER come to Hawaii. I have often heard of Coaches recruiting players, stating that "we travel to Hawaii often."

I remember a few years ago, when Alabama got put on NCAA probation which disqualified them from going to any bowl game, they conveniently scheduled a 13th game in Hawaii and called it their own "Bowl" game that year.

[scrivener]

Re: Predictions: UH vs. Purdue

This is true; but Alabama's program will NEVER hurt for money, the way Purdue's might. Alabama's supporters will go ANYWHERE the team is playing. Purdue's not so lucky that way.

[tutusue]

Re: Predictions: UH vs. Purdue

The Purdue coach was talking about how his football team could always use some money for improvements to his own team's facilities (he's not commenting on the condition of the visitors' accomodations at Aloha Stadium).

Yes, that part I understand. Sorry if I sounded a bit cryptic!

His team's share of the money for the game in Hawaii does not make up for the cost of flying here and staying here, he claims. Usually, if I understand correctly, the home team takes most of the money but the visitors get a cut.[...]

Is there an NCAA contract that spells out how the teams split the money or is it a team by team negotiation? In one of the links I read that Purdue received <x> number of round trip tickets and <x> number of hotel rooms for 100-125 people.

I'm not familiar with the business side of college sports at all and am finding it rather interesting. I don't know if the Purdue coach is whining or legitimately complaining. To me it sounded like he didn't want to play UH because we have a good team this year and he didn't want to lose both the game and money. Then, again, what do I know?!

[Paul Ogata]

Re: Predictions: UH vs. Purdue

Hey! Now UH is #25 in the BCS rankings!

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/BCSStandings?week=7

Right behind Oregon State, next week's opponent. Wish I was there to go see the game!

[pzarquon]

Re: Predictions: UH vs. Purdue

Googling around for more perspectives on the Purdue game, I stumbled on this blog post from a local Christian pastor who was there, and who'll be there for the Oregon game next week.

[tutusue]

Re: Predictions: UH vs. Purdue

Heh! The pastor certainly feels the Purdue coach was whining! Good blog, btw. Thanks for the link, PZ.

[oceanpacific]

Re: Predictions: UH vs. Purdue

Whenever a mainland team plays UH in Hawaii, they are allowed to schedule an extra game. Most often, this is a "home" game for them which can generate the extra $$$$$$ for their program. BYU did this during the 1980s, once playing at Hawaii SEVEN consecutive years. This allowed them an additional home game each season to generate MILLIONS.

Purdue claims that they will lose $40,000 from last night's game. That's chicken feed. If they couldn't cover that with their extra game, that's their own fault, not ours. A lot of the talk from their coach was just SHIBAI!

[tvguy]

Re: Predictions: UH vs. Purdue

Good question tutu...

The big-time programs often offer large sums of money for teams to come play the at their place because THEY CAN. They have the resources, the alumni backers, and most of all, the money tho throw at opponents. They will often schedule teams they are fairly certain they can beat, usually in the early season to use as "warm up games." That's why you'll see the big time teams play some small school you've never heard of and win by 50 or 60 points. But the small schools don't mind the whipping, since they receive a big payday. These teams play in conferences (Big 10, SEC, Big 12, Pac 10) that also receive money through large TV contracts, and monies divided up from these teams playing in bowl games. On a related note, Hawaii is happy for rival and conference mate Boise State to do well this year and crack the BCS standings because they and the rest of the teams in the WAC will divvy up a share of monies brought in by Boise's sucessful season.

As for this Purdue situation, the team has their airfare and lodging paid for, which I've NEVER heard a Hawaii opponent complain about. We're considered a "mid-major" school, meaning that we can't offer much in the way of financial benefits along with the travel expenses. That said, we're also now a STRONG mid-major team, which means that schools from the larger conferences can no longer expect a free trip to the islands and an easy win. You have to hand it to Athletic Director Herman Frazier for being able to negotiate with these schools and for us to play some big name opponents. But it looks like some of these schools are wary of us now, like Michigan State wimping out on coming here again next year. He's still having trouble filling out next year's schedule, and with Colt Brennan HOPEFULLY returning, will have an even harder time. And they blame the local officiating....if anything last night, with the neutral Pac-10 refs, it seemed pretty evenly called to me.

So after this explanation, the simple answer was YES, the Purdue coach was whining. i've read articles where even Purdue fans were wondering why the coach was complaining so much and expecting a butt-whooping.

[tutusue]

Re: Predictions: UH vs. Purdue

Good question tutu...[...]

And, thanks for in depth answers, tyguy and oceanpacific! What interesting reads. Even college football is big business.

[damontucker]

Re: Predictions: UH vs. Purdue

Tutu... is HT so boring now that your resorting to Football threads?

I'm glad we have picked up a new fan in our Football topics...

You know what tutu... to tell you the truth... If you wanted you could still even join in on the HT pickem game and possibly win the whole damn thing at this point... it's down to a 1 week advantage with only 7 weeks to go so technically you could still win it...!!!

Even Palama won a week and all he was doing for a while was posting all home teams or all away games...and he still won a week...

$25.00 on the line with a few weeks left.... if you have nothing better to do on HT you can always place a friendly wager....it's not like you have any thing to lose.

P.S. Go Hawks tomorrow!

[damontucker]

Re: Predictions: UH vs. Purdue

I just heard on the radio...that there were season ticket holders that got turned away from being able to attend the Purdue game because the Stadium lot was filled up already.

If I was a season ticket holder and I couldn't even get into the gates of the Stadium I would be pissed!

So just a warning to any HT'ers that may be going to the game this coming weekend... Go early to get parking! I have the feeling that with this being OSU and our last regular season game of the season...the place is going to be a madhouse....

Kind of like when BYU played it's most recent game here and people literally were pulling over on the sides of the freeway and parking just to get to the stadium!

[bueller555]

Re: Predictions: UH vs. Purdue

I heard that some people were bent out of shape that the UH-Purdue game was forced to use PAC-10 officials, but I noticed that the USC-Notre Dame game used Big-10 officials. The game was at USC, so they would have used PAC-10 officials if the contract hadn't required the use of officials from a neutral conference. So that kind of stipulation doesn't only apply to UH games.

[Lei Liko]

Re: Predictions: UH vs. Purdue

So just a warning to any HT'ers that may be going to the game this coming weekend... Go early to get parking! I have the feeling that with this being OSU and our last regular season game of the season...the place is going to be a madhouse....

Kind of like when BYU played it's most recent game here and people literally were pulling over on the sides of the freeway and parking just to get to the stadium!

That's one of the beauties of living within walking distance to the stadium. I usually have someone pick me up on their way there if I have food for the potluck or I just simply walk over.

My friend thought she was going to get a ticket for making up her own parking for the UH-BYU game in 2001. After searching for a spot, she gave up and said "to hell!" with the possibility of getting a citation because she wasn't going to miss kickoff. She was surprised that her car, along with the other cars, were ticket-free. I guess all the cops were either a) all working in the stadium or b) not giving a rip because hey...it's UH-BYU!

ETA: The Advertiser just listed special promotions for Saturday's game

[tutusue]

Re: Predictions: UH vs. Purdue

Tutu... is HT so boring now that your resorting to Football threads?[...]

At the time I logged on that's precisely what happened!

[Palolo Joe]

Re: Predictions: UH vs. Purdue

I heard that some people were bent out of shape that the UH-Purdue game was forced to use PAC-10 officials, but I noticed that the USC-Notre Dame game used Big-10 officials. The game was at USC, so they would have used PAC-10 officials if the contract hadn't required the use of officials from a neutral conference. So that kind of stipulation doesn't only apply to UH games.

FYI... there were Pac-10 officials in the booth, handling replay duties...