Hero Sports: HC #6 in Top Ten favorites to be FCS champs

1-0 each week.

Having the FCS title game on a Sunday competing with NFL was not a good idea IMO. At that point in the season, there are a couple of NFL games being played on Saturdays as well but majority of games on Sunday. And it was Week 18 -- fans are locked into playoff scenarios and therefore watching out-of-town games more closely.

I was at Brew City on Shrewsbury Street during the FCS title game because I'd brought my family up to the Hart Center for the HC-Loyola game. And with the Pats-Bills and Jets-Dolphin games having 1pm kickoffs, there wasn't even one TV on the SDSU-NDSU game. A noon start for FCS as opposed to 2pm would've helped -- at least at noon it would've been only live game going for an hour.

So What!! The fact that HC vs SDS drew over 1.5MM viewers shows that there was a tremendous amount of interest in the game (especially on the HC side.) Had nothing to do with Gameday. Plenty of fans, players, coaches from other schools especially the Patriot League had an interest the game. As for interest in an FCS team on TV, how many people do you think would watch the HC/BC game in September?

Don't confuse interest with viewership...the fact that people had TV's on and tuned to ESPN does not necessarily mean they were interested in Holy Cross v. SDSU. You emphasize "especially on the HC side"...we only have 40,000 alums of record, if EVERY SINGLE alum were married, had 2 kids, and had the whole family tune in to the game, that only accounts for 160,000 viewers...hardly a blip.

If you believe the viewership equates to a "tremendous amount of interest in the game" then you must be arguing nation wide there was more interest in a HC-SDSU quarterfinal than there was in the championship game involving 1 of those same teams...nearly 50% more interest...thats ludicrous.

Two random thoughts: It was an entertaining game featuring an underdog with an exciting QB so casual fans may have tuned in and kept watching AND am I the only one flabbergasted that we now have seemingly leapfrogged every team in the entire CAA in terms of talent and national ranking?

Maybe not as ludicrous as you think. The championship game, as you know, was between two state schools - South Dakota and North Dakota. Both of those states' populations are miniscule. I totally agree that we don't have that many alums but my educated guess is that there would be much more interest, casual as it might have been, among residents of New England, New York states (exponentially higher populations) and among Patriot League fans. People who just happened to have the TV on and might very well have gotten hooked on our exciting game,

As for NDSU, a lot of people might very well have said "ho-hum," "they are there every year." I'm also guessing that the typical NFL or FBS fan would have had close to the same level of interest in our game as between two FCS teams that had already played earlier in the same season. 

My hypothesis is like so many things, the truth lies somewhere in the middle. 

The exposure of the South Dakota State game was great.  People reached out to me, 'hey do you know that Holy Cross is on', as if I wasn't watching and screaming at the TV.

Let's not forget that last two seasons, our games against UConn and Buffalo resulted in great air-time on Top Plays on ESPN.

Tremendous exposure for the team and the school.

Absolutely incredible exposure...MUCH better than the 3 FCS games that pretty much all overlapped and competed with each other (plus were on ESPN+ which makes it slightly more cumbersome to switch between games). I had just been challenging that 1.5million viewers did not necessarily translate to interest in HC, SDSU, or FCS football in general, but may have been driven by lack of viewing options, especially among those that were inclined to watch football over anything else. Now is it possible that this EXPOSURE could lead to increased INTEREST for HC, SDSU, or FCS football in general next year?....absolutely! 

I for one DO BELIEVE that the FCS playoffs are not only an undertapped market, but also a growing one. ESPN in particular should be all over this, and if CBS or FOX got in on the action as well, then all the better.

FBS bowl games are being exposed for the frivolous exhibition games they are. Players opting out, coaches leaving. There's discussion of raising the bar for "bowl eligibility" to 7 or 8 wins. Don't see how this changes the fact that these bowl games are still glorified exhibitions, and even if the bar is raised, players will still be opting out and coaches will still be leaving.

I don't think I'm alone in the sentiment that I'd rather watch a meaningful FCS playoff game over a bowl game played between walk-ons in front of a 25% capacity crowd. Not to mention that a good chunk of those FCS teams are on a similar playing field to some of the bowl teams that play, if not better. I mean, we watched Holy Cross beat Buffalo this year, and FCS upsets are a growing trend. If Montana and NDSU are roughly equal to, say, Miami (OH) and UAB, but the former teams are playing in a game that actually matters, well, I'd rather watch the former game in this scenario. Even without affiliation to either of those schools, it's simply a better viewing product.

You essentially have 3 weeks of open inventory that could be filled up by the FCS playoffs. You have the Army-Navy game, then 2 weeks of frivolous bowl games before the NY6. Of course, logistical challenges exist in terms of scheduling around the NY6 and NFL playoffs, but where there's a will, there's a way. Get these games on national TV, they're often more captivating than the dying breed known as "bowl games."

Was it pre-determined this year that two games would be Friday night and two Saturday? Not sure. Last year, they played one game Friday and three Saturday.

Who are our alums that have some position of influence there?   Steve Anderson certainly did, but he retired a while ago.  

Burke Magnus.