sunbelt attend.

[tsufl]

For everyone screaming we need a new arena b/c everyone in the sunbelt has one and b/c they sell it out every game here are the avg. attend. numbers team by team from the sunbelt. if you think im making this sh*t up Im providing a link too.
http://basketball.sunbeltsports.org/x/article/3391

Team | HOME GAMES Avg
Arkansas State | 14-59388 4242
Arkansas-Little Rock | 14-60058 4290
Denver | 13-24260 1866
Fla. International | 15-16768 1118
Louisiana-Lafayette | 12-57543 4795
Middle Tennessee | 14-53030 3788
New Mexico State | 14-66940 4781
New Orleans | 12-14180 1182
North Texas | 15-34271 2285
South Alabama | 14-33036 2360
Western Kentucky | 15-75090 5006

only 5 teams killed us in attendance this season and thats partly b/c our team wasnt to great and nobody wants to pay to watch a loss. WKU has a great basketball tradition while ASU moved into a new building this season. Considering the student population at most of these schools is at least double what we have in troy not to mention in much bigger metro areas, I think we do pretty damn good.

[Hector]

Hey Sherrill, it would appear that you are spinning your point of view. This Sunbelt attendance doesn't look much better than ours over the last three seasons. I'll grant you that we need a new arena, but when SBC teams play to a mausoleum, wouldn't it be better to have a smaller place to play, so that it would at least look full?

[TROYgirl128]

Nice job tsufl. I'm glad to know that I agree with SOMEONE on this.

[Osage]

Actually we have been in the Convocation Center for 18 years. It seats close to 11,000 and yes it has been full. This was our worst year for attendance. In years past we usually led the SBC in attendance. Our problem is our BB program is stagnant. A lot of us are hoping for a coaching change. Once that happens our wins will come back and so will our fans. Hopefully. Dickey Nutt is very personable but as one of our fans said he can no longer sell us hope. Anyway welcome to the SBC in BB. As far as an arena you may be thinking of UALR. Next year they move into a 5600 seat arena on campus. Supposed to be very nice...private boxes and all. We have our schools with attendance problems..FIU,USA,Denver, and UNO to name a few. Like football we are slowly growing. Glad to have you for the ride

[TrojanWar]

Like football we are slowly growing.

Huh? Growing from what? ASU has not been worth a hill of beans since the mid-seventies (football). I know, you beat us, but I don't think there are too many analyst that would not tell you that was a fluke. I don't see it happening again for a very long time. In BBall, ASU has been good from time to time, and that's probably what your athletic department should focus on strengthening. I can't see ASU ever being in the upper half of the Sun Belt in football.

[Osage]

[quote="Osage"]Like football we are slowly growing.

I just came over to welcome you to the SBC not start flaming. But then I saw your name. Same guy that came over to Tribalgrounds spouting off the week that we beat Troy. Should have known. BTW we had great teams in '80's..played in championship game once..unfortunately unsuccessfully. Sorry buddy but we are getting better. Should be fun this next year. Also you don't have to be such a jerk it doesn't impress us much. Anyway welcome to the Belt. I am sure you will dominate the conf. like you did this past year. Wait you graduated a few folks right. OK. You did have a good year and I was rooting for ya'll to win the Bowl Game ..not sarcasm I really was. This year visit us again..but if you come decently our guys will not eat your lunch again. I hope you have a good baseball season. Seeya.

[TrojanWar]

I don't remember your people eating my lunch at all. I saw some very poor smack from your people, and luckily your team pulled out a win so you were able to gloat a little. I came back and took my medicine and showed sportsmanship and courtesy after our loss. What more did you want? I'll be in Jonesboro for the game this fall as well. I've got tons of family in Jonesboro. Heck, I was born there. My parents both graduated from ASU and I went to school there for a year. I know all about ASU's "storied" football history and there isn't much to it. The school went undefeated back in the 70's and still did not get invited to a bowl game. Not much good has come from ASU football in the last 15 years or more. I think a 6-5 season at ASU would be as exciting to the fans as any other school winning the national championship. Your offense showed signs of hope last year from time to time, but then typical ASU football would take over the games went about the same as they always have.

Like I said, if ASU ever wants to be a nationaly known name in college athletics, it's going to have to be in basketball. The school needs to invest in that direction. I don't think giving Dickey Nutt an extension was a smart move either. You could have at least hired his brother instead. No, not Houston or Danny. I'm talking about the long lost brother, Busta.

[Osage]

One thing we can agree on (actually two) I did not want Dickey back either. Also you did come back after the football game last year. Gotta give you credit for that. We have made some very bad coaching decisions in football since Larry Lacewell left. I believe that has ended at the present time with Steve Roberts. Things were really bad so it is not a quick fix. Basketball sometimes can be healed quickly, football usually takes longer. Also we are getting away from so many money games. We have Army home and home. SMU home and home coming up. Oklahoma St. home and home. That one should be a load but they have a new coach so who knows. We will still play some games against the superpowers but not as many. When we play each other I sure like to beat any team in the SBC but when playing out of conf. I always root for the SBC team. Good for the conf. In football ya'll add a lot. BTW you said us beating ya'll last year was a fluke. You had no offense. Get that fixed you would have really had a great team. I think you beating Mizzou was the same. Everything that could go right for you did and just the opposite for Mizzou. They thought they had the game wrapped up with their early scores and when it wasn't they could not get the game back. Way to take advantage.I will say I have never seen a big man run like the kid did with the fumble(?).

[TrojanWar]

I think you beating Mizzou was the same. Everything that could go right for you did and just the opposite for Mizzou. They thought they had the game wrapped up with their early scores and when it wasn't they could not get the game back. Way to take advantage.I will say I have never seen a big man run like the kid did with the fumble(?).

Actually, I thought the same way right after the game. But, as you saw in our other big games, it was not a fluke. We should have won the South Carolina game in Columbia and the LSU game in Baton Rouge. After those games, I knew we were for real. Yes, our offense struggled, but our defense was so good that we were able to win most of our games.

Now, if ASU had gone on to do something after beating Troy, I might give your Indians a little more credit. The truth is, that team got worse every game until the end. That's not a good sign of things to come.

[Osage]

Yeah we did get worse. Our two best d-linemen were injured. One played very little. I think the biggest problem we had though was our QB lost his confidence or something. He did not take care of the ball and kept putting our defense in bad situations. Like I said our football program has been way down. We have been taking baby steps..but they are looking better. We had a very good recruiting year and some young players came on strong for us last year. One was freshman All-American and we have more coming. If you had been following ASU football as I and others over here you would see the growth. Our biggest improvement is a head coach who can do just that..coach. We have been missing that for a long time.

[troymarkus]

You won't hear me saying a thing. You beat us fair and square. The way I see it--you have the better team until we prove it on the fied. Hopefully this year, we'll do just that!!

[arkstfan]

Arkansas State hasn't been any good since the 1970's?

The guys that played in 1984, 85, 86 and 87 might disagree. They won two Southland titles, went to the I-AA playoffs every year including a championship appearance, and never lost a first round game, lost to Texas A&M on a clip that the SWC TV crew couldn't find, went 1-1-1 against Memphis, tied Ole Miss, and lost to them 16-18 when ASU missed a FG.

It's been awhile since we've played GOOD football consistently but it hasn't been since the 70's.

[TrojanWar]

Arkansas State hasn't been any good since the 1970's?

The guys that played in 1984, 85, 86 and 87 might disagree. They won two Southland titles, went to the I-AA playoffs every year including a championship appearance, and never lost a first round game, lost to Texas A&M on a clip that the SWC TV crew couldn't find, went 1-1-1 against Memphis, tied Ole Miss, and lost to them 16-18 when ASU missed a FG.

It's been awhile since we've played GOOD football consistently but it hasn't been since the 70's.

Sorry, you are right about the 80's, but I was talking about D1A football. I don't count the years when ASU fell down to D1AA. Yes, they were very competitive in D1AA. Come to think of it, maybe ASU should have stayed at that level. You guys could then build that UCA rival up and fill the stadium. It's not a knock. To me, that's the only way I see the program having any real success again. Trust me, I wish ASU was a little better now that Troy is in the Belt. I want every Belt school to win except for the one week a year Troy plays them. It helps Troy when everyone else is having success. It's just not going to happen at ASU anytime soon.

[arkstfan]

War, our fan base never supported I-AA.

Our 12-2-1 I-AA runner-up team drew no better than this year's 3-8 team, and well under the prior year's 5-7 team.

ASU's problem in I-A is something that has been foreign to Troy. STABILITY.

Since 1989 ASU has had six head football coaches and seven AD's.

One AD would schedule home/home contracts and before they were played the next one would come in, drop those games and schedule a ton of money games. The next would load up on I-AA's and the next go back to money games.

Kincaid switched us from the bone and we ran a triple shoot for 2 years. Perkins gave us a year of pro I. Bobo switched us to a one back, Hollis switched to a pro I and then announced he was going option I and recruited two option QB's and after signing day hired a new offensive coordinator who put us in a one back offense.

Perkins ran off all the small fast o-line guys to get bulk, Bobo tried to run a one back without any offensive line speed. And so on so on.

From 1987 to 1991 we were a I-AA independent. 1992 a I-A independent. 1993-1995 in the Big West, 1996-98 independent again. 1999-2000 back in the Big West. 2001-to present in the Sun Belt.

North Texas is the only team on the 2005 schedule that we have played every year since 1999.

Roberts in three years has beaten the four year win total of Bobo, and the five year win total of Hollis.

Dr. Lee has revamped the schedule to feature more home and home deals.

Stability has been a major issue. Since moving to I-A our affiliation has changed five times in 13 years.

We don't need UCA to have big crowds, we've had big crowds with New Mexico State, Ole Miss, Memphis, Tulsa, San Jose State, Louisiana Monroe, SE Missouri, and Tenn-Martin.

[TrojanWar]

Yes, I'm very familiar with ASU. I went to school there. My parents are both ASU grads from way back. Until another Lacewell comes to town, there never will be any stability. Speaking of, why did ASU never try to get Larry to come back as the AD at some point? I'm sure the fan base would give 100% support to that move.

[arkstfan]

We had stability with Ellender and Davidson and frankly the first few years Larry botched up what he inheirited, wasn't until his fifth year that he even matched the record of either of the two years before he was hired.

I think we have our Lacewell with Roberts. Like Lacewell he was born in Arkansas and played small college ball in Arkansas.

Roberts took over a South Arkansas program that had lost something like 30 of 31 and by the time he left he had a 35-24-1 record there with a record of 26-5 his final three years. First coach to ever take an Arkansas school to the Division II playoffs. He took over a 4-7 NW Louisiana and went 6-5 his first year and 8-4 and into the I-AA playoffs his second year, losing at eventual national champ Montana.

At ASU, he took over a team that had been badly mis-managed and has red-shirted nearly everyone. The Indians have won more games in his three years than any three year period since 1987-89.