UNC @ VTech...predictions?

USC not as hardcore as advertised

"All you have to do is examine USC’s home game against Auburn a year ago to see why Thursday night games are all about money and exposure, with lesser concern for a school’s fans.

USC entered that game with a 3-1 record. Auburn was unbeaten and ranked No. 2 nationally. It was a big game for both teams and generated excitement for a national TV audience.

Yet USC’s announced attendance was 74,374, meaning in the neighborhood of 10,000 fans purchased tickets to the game and did not attend. The only USC home games that drew fewer fans that season were against Wofford, Florida Atlantic and Middle Tennessee."

http://http://www.thestate.com/sports/story/189200.html

Thursday night plight
Leave midweek games for the mid-majors and the have-nots
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Ron Morris
Columnist
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(803) 771-8432

MUCH IS AT stake when 11th-ranked South Carolina meets eighth-ranked Kentucky on Thursday night at Williams-Brice Stadium. Standing in the SEC East division and national rankings are on the line.

Beneath all that is a chance for each school to take another step toward not needing to play college football games on Thursday nights. The winner presumably can inch closer to being a consistent winning program, and perennial winners in the SEC historically do not play Thursday night games on ESPN.

On only four occasions since ESPN began televising games on Thursday nights in the early 1990s have you seen SEC kingpins LSU, Tennessee, Georgia or Florida. Tennessee has appeared twice, LSU and Florida once each, and Georgia never has played for the ESPN cameras on a Thursday night.

The reason? The SEC powers are in position to tell ESPN they do not want to bother. Those schools raise all the money they need to support their programs without the help of ESPN. Those schools are not starving for national exposure, and they do not need a Thursday night game to help in recruiting.

Florida’s lone appearance on ESPN’s Thursday night programming was in 1992 when the Gators, under coach Steve Spurrier, lost at Mississippi State. Jeremy Foley, Florida’s athletics director, essentially said, “never again.” He believes it creates too much inconvenience for fans and disrupts the campus on a school night.

It is difficult to argue with those points. All you have to do is examine USC’s home game against Auburn a year ago to see why Thursday night games are all about money and exposure, with lesser concern for a school’s fans.

USC entered that game with a 3-1 record. Auburn was unbeaten and ranked No. 2 nationally. It was a big game for both teams and generated excitement for a national TV audience.

Yet USC’s announced attendance was 74,374, meaning in the neighborhood of 10,000 fans purchased tickets to the game and did not attend. The only USC home games that drew fewer fans that season were against Wofford, Florida Atlantic and Middle Tennessee.

Despite pleas from Spurrier this week to give tickets to fans who can attend, USC will no doubt face the same plight on Thursday. The USC fan in Charleston or Rock Hill or Greenville is more likely to watch the game on TV then seeing a game end at about midnight and returning home at 2 in the morning.

Leave it to Spurrier to give a straight answer about why these games are played on Thursday nights. When asked, Spurrier smiled and rolled his thumb with his fingers.

“Why do you think? Money. That’s how it all got started,” Spurrier says. “We all know that. But it is for good national exposure, recruiting. Now, if you get clobbered, it’s not very good, obviously. But you get to showcase your team on national TV. Obviously, it’s some extra money for the schools involved.”

Spurrier then bragged about how USC received more money from the SEC in 2006 because the Gamecocks played two games on Thursday nights. The SEC divides its earnings at the end of each football season. Those appearing more times on TV get a greater share.

USC is going for the loot again next season when it opens with back-to-back Thursday night ESPN games against North Carolina State and at Vanderbilt. That will mean more exposure for USC, which will then have played six Thursday night games in Spurrier’s first four seasons.

“I like them. I like the opportunity to play on national TV,” Spurrier says. “I know that most coaches are like me. We watch about every Thursday night game. Players around the country watch Thursday night.”

Eric Hyman, USC’s athletics director, says he defers to Spurrier when it comes to Thursday night scheduling. If Spurrier does not want to play on that night, then USC will not, according to Hyman.

“Finances obviously help,” Hyman says, “but the driving issue is television (exposure). You don’t want to have a steady diet of that. I wouldn’t want to play more than one (home Thursday night game a season).”

There apparently are no limits for many schools that seem to appear on ESPN Thursday night games as if they are part of a weekly TV series. Louisville will play six games this season on Thursday or Friday nights, all on TV.

Really, Thursday night games were made for the second-tier conferences and those teams in the lower divisions of the big-name leagues, such as the SEC. Conference USA, Mid-American and Western Athletic Conference teams plead and beg to get on Thursday night TV.

Even the Big East and the ACC crave the Thursday night audience. Georgia Tech of the ACC has made 19 appearances on Thursday night football, the most of any school in the country. The Yellow Jackets will play a Thursday night game for the 15th consecutive season when they face Virginia Tech on Nov. 1.

Miami and Virginia Tech of the ACC have each appeared 15 times on ESPN’s Thursday night game. Mississippi State of the SEC has played 13 such games. Clemson has appeared eight times, and USC’s game on Thursday will be its ninth.

We can only hope that as USC continues to win and Spurrier builds his program to championship contention that the Gamecocks’ need to play Thursday night games will diminish as well.

Listen to commentaries by Ron Morris weekdays at 8:05 a.m., 2:05 p.m. and 5:58 p.m. on sports radio 1400 The Team.