ChopBlock

December 15th, 2011 at 2:39 PM ^

I'm hiding my kids, wives and husbands as we speak.

To raise another point, though, could the VaTech fanbase be demoralized from getting obliterated in the championship game? I feel like our fanbase is optimistic and resurgent because of, in large part, a couple of signature wins against a good Nebraska team and the Game, which is always huge. Could VaTech's fans be waiting for the other shoe to drop? If so, it seems unlikely that'd they would pony up to see their team get plastered, which might be what they're fearing. You really do have to feel sorry for the way their season ended.

As a side note, has anyone ever photoshopped Brian's face onto Dodson? That would be definitionally awesome.

triangle_M

December 15th, 2011 at 4:10 PM ^

they just aren't buying tickets from the school.  You can get a better seat on the secondary market for less.  Plus, they aren't as excited about it as we are . . . they've recently been in a BCS bowl and lost (Orange vs Stanford last year) and to the ACC championship game.  I'd say their more tapped out than we are as well.  

Its legit to ask the fans to buy tickets from the school.  We haven't sold all ours yet either, but I doubt Hoke or Brandon will make similar pleas.

ChopBlock

December 15th, 2011 at 4:36 PM ^

Difference is that we have a lot fewer tickets left, so we'll lose a lot less money. Also, the Michigan Athletic Department is one of the richest in the country and can afford to lose a few hundred thousand more easily than can VaTech's.

But you're very much right about the secondary marketplace. Has anyone checked prices on StubHub?

BursleysFinest

December 15th, 2011 at 2:07 PM ^

 

  I really wish we were playing Boise State.  Not only would it be more fun for me to watch, I wouldn't have that scary "Can people please stop pissing off the over-matched opponent" feeling (talking more about media at large than anything UM has done)

ajcrmr

December 15th, 2011 at 2:18 PM ^

Boise would be a great matchup, and you know their fans would be chomping at the bit to play a school from a BCS conference in a marquee game after the bowl matchup let downs they've had the past few years. Also, I was talking with a coworker the other day about this, but if they're going for 2 BCS schools and don't want KSU, how did Baylor get passed over? A battle between two of the greatest dual-threat QBs CFB has ever seen practically sells itself, plus Baylor is relatively close to NO.

shorts

December 15th, 2011 at 6:16 PM ^

Baylor would have been desirable from a viewing standpoint but probably not at all desirable from a ticket-purchasing standpoint. Baylor only has about 15,000 students and isn't exactly a national power that a lot of people would be excited about spending hundreds of dollars to see (they only average about 40,000 people for home games). Apparently there was even some concern regarding getting fans to the Alamo Bowl in San Antonio.

For the bowl execs, selling more tickets is presumably more important than a slight bump in ratings.

MI Expat NY

December 15th, 2011 at 2:25 PM ^

I blame it on the conference title game loss hangover.  It might have a little to do with "we've been there too many time," but probably more as a broad BCS Bowl thing than a Sugar Bowl specific thing.  They've gone to enough BCS bowls that making one isn't "special," but usually they're in the Orange Bowl.  I think the Sugar thought that they'd jump at the chance to go somewhere different.  But I think the Sugar Bowl under-valued how a dissappointed fan base who just witnessed a title game loss doesn't feel like incurring a second huge expense only a month later.  

Blue Hokie

December 15th, 2011 at 2:51 PM ^

Its not that VT has been there too many times, its more that the fan base is extremely disappointed from a blowout title game loss coupled with the fact that Tech is 1-4 in its last 5 BCS bowl games (with its one win coming against Cincinnati).  I think fans are assuming Tech will get blown out again and it's a waste of time after seeing what happened in the ACC Championship game.  Personally, I think it will be a closer game because the players will be mad about everyone saying they shouldn't be in the game.

LB

December 15th, 2011 at 2:10 PM ^

19 years is an accomplishment. Don't be complacent, life has a way of biting you on the ass. You go to bed thinking that some things won't ever change, and wake up to find stuffed animals that do not resemble  your mascot on the sideline rubbing player's faces.

WolverineHistorian

December 15th, 2011 at 2:29 PM ^

Is Frank reading those cue cards off the floor? 

I think this is great.  Stay home, Hokie fans.  I'd love to see our fans outnumber our opponent's fans in a bowl, especially after 2 bowl games against Florida in the sunshine state and that 2005 Rose Bowl against Texas where, at least on TV, the number of Texas fans to Michigan fans looked like 70/30. 

danimal1968

December 15th, 2011 at 2:40 PM ^

Were incredibly pumped up for the 2005 Rose Bowl.  It was their first BCS game in quite a few years, whereas UM was (a) going to the Rose Bowl for the second straight year and (b) coming off a really disappointing loss to OSU.

 

I think it was about 50 percent Texas, 35 percent Michigan and 15 percent locals rooting for an exciting game.

Don

December 15th, 2011 at 2:37 PM ^

and it would be one of the most anticipated matchups of the entire bowl season, including the NC game.

As it is, the only people who care about the Sugar Bowl are the UM fan base and about 15 Va Tech fans.

Bodogblog

December 15th, 2011 at 3:34 PM ^

with people pissed off about The Rematch and threatening to tune out (we'll see if that happens), Michigan-Boise likely would have been the best match-up. Kellen Moore vs. Denard, the most storied program power vs the newest, Boise passing attack vs. Mike Martin pass rush, etc

Would have been great, still will be fun

Bodogblog

December 15th, 2011 at 3:52 PM ^

But 3 losses right?  Might have dimmed it a little bit.  Though certainly better than VT. 

KSU would have been preferable in my mind as well.  Somebody on here posted that VT was the only team they could have picked to screw this up.  Dead right

mgowill

December 15th, 2011 at 3:05 PM ^

Indeed it was a defense they launched.

Sugar Bowl chief executive Paul Hoolahan said Sunday the fact that the Hokies’ fan base traveled in bunches to New Orleans in the past was “extremely important,” as the bowl decided what teams it would select with an at-large berth, since Louisiana State and Alabama are meeting in the BCS national championship game this year.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/hokies-journal/post/virginia-techs-frank-beamer-defends-surprising-sugar-bowl-berth/2011/12/04/gIQAXBqlUO_blog.html

 

freernnur5

December 15th, 2011 at 3:00 PM ^

We should just spread the word and have Michigan fans buy out the tickets. You are able to get all the way to the checkout without any sort of checking that you are a VT fan in any way.

LSAClassOf2000

December 15th, 2011 at 3:05 PM ^

I am a little sad (and regretful, thinking that BSU would have sold their allotment in a cold minute most likely) really that it has come to watching Frank Beamer read a script that seems like it was taped to his shoes, but I imagine this means we could get at least a partial maize-out going at the Sugar Bowl.

Perhaps if Virginia Tech offered fans enticements? Wendy's always has coupon books for $1 frosties, for example, so they could send people all over Virginia to get about 9,000 of those. Oil changes, discounts on haircuts, punchcards from Subway....the list of things they could do is endless.

lhglrkwg

December 15th, 2011 at 3:43 PM ^

VT-UNC night game over halloween weekend '09. It's a pretty cool town and a really pretty campus but virginia tech is it. When you leave the city limits (which isn't very far), you're either in the mountains or farm country. I wonder if the fact that they aren't near a big airport (like we are to DTW) is hindering students from traveling at all

VSS

December 15th, 2011 at 3:57 PM ^

Students will be home for break. Most of them are from the Washington D.C., Richmond, and Hampton Roads areas where there are airports. I think the combination of getting blown out by Clemson, having been to the ACC championship game and BCS bowls in the recent past and costs associated with tickets through the VT website and travel have deterred people. 

Willhouse

December 15th, 2011 at 4:43 PM ^

during football season. I was there during February and it was cold and dreary. We were originally there for one night, but my friend's car broke down (a U of M alum, FWIW) and we were stuck there for three days because of what it took to get it fixed. We were very, very bored. The one night we tried to go out in "town" it looked like a ghost town and everything seemed shut down. We did go to one club, but it was full of creepy locals. Not sure where the college aged kids were hanging out.

O Fo Sho

December 15th, 2011 at 3:24 PM ^

that if V-Tech doesn't buy up these tickets they probably won't be getting invited to another BCS game.  Especially when they probably don't deserve to be there in the first place.

Look Up_See Blue

December 15th, 2011 at 4:34 PM ^

I'm glad we have enough love and support for our football team/school that we don't have to do something like this.  He had to have been embarassed while filming this, essentially begging fans to buy tiickets.

BRCE

December 15th, 2011 at 4:34 PM ^

Couldn't the buffoons in the Sugar Bowl brass at least have taken the temperature of Virginia Tech fans? Wouldn't have been a bad idea to jump on message boards, read comments on newspaper articles, gotten feedback from local talk radio. I am sure they would have seen a very clear "wherever they go, I won't be there" disgust whereas they could have read about excitable KSU fans already having appointments with their travel agents.

 

 

UMgradMSUdad

December 16th, 2011 at 1:13 AM ^

If VT AD Jim Weaver is correct, Michigan should have a decided advantage in number of fans at the game:

"Virginia Tech Athletic Director Jim Weaver is confident there will be 15,000 to 20,000 Hokies fans in New Orleans for the 2012 Sugar Bowl, but he confirmed Friday afternoon that the athletic department will only be able to sell 10,000 tickets from its allotment of 17,500."

 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/hokies-journal/post/2012-sugar-bowl-virginia-tech-ad-jim-weaver-says-ticket-sales-not-what-we-hoped-for/2011/12/15/gIQAivQiwO_blog.html