Selling tickets won’t be easy at OSU
OSU is pushing hard for a season-ticket surge as the home opener approaches, Sept. 6 against Missouri State. But the Cowboys have a fundamental problem; expensive tickets with a squishy home schedule.
OSU season tickets cost $419 or $249 for the end zone, which is either $60 or $36 per game. Not outrageous. But here is OSU’s home schedule: Houston, Missouri State, Troy, Texas A&M, Baylor, Iowa State and OU.
Rank those games in attractiveness. 1. Bedlam; 2. A&M; 3. Iowa State, I suppose; 4. Houston; 5. Troy; 6. Baylor; 7. Missouri State. Think about that. Iowa State, which was pretty bad last year and not expected to be any better this season, is one of the better games at Boone Pickens Stadium.
Might OSU have to do what Colorado has done? Might OSU have to suck it up and schedule better? Colorado this year is playing West Virginia, Florida State and Colorado State. The Buffs can’t get away with playing too many rumdums, because their fans will stay away.
OSU has beefed up its schedule some, but is it enough? Doubtful. There is no reason why the Cowboys shouldn’t play Tulsa home-and-home, other than TU took to winning some of those games at Skelly Stadium in the 1990s.
OSU also might need to schedule two foes a year from BCS conferences. The Cowboys’ current scheduling philosophy is good for bowl qualification but bad for business.
OSU might average 45,000 fans per game, which would be a solid upgrade from last season. But to make a big leap, the Cowboys might have to address their schedule.
Just for fun, let’s look at OU’s home schedule. Chattanooga, Cincinnati, TCU, Kansas, Nebraska, Texas Tech. Now, we’ll rank them. 1. Tech; 2. Nebraska; 3. Kansas; 4. Cincinnati; 5. TCU; 6. Chattanooga. Now that’s a good home schedule. The second-least attractive home game is against a school that has won in its last two trips to Owen Field, both in the last 12 years. A school that five times this decade has reached double-digit victories and has won bowl games three straight years.
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Comments
Now look at OSU’s road schedule. All attractive and difficult. Remember too OSU has 7 home games this year.
Wow is that correct? OSU has no control over thier schedule? I thought they had control over the non conference schedule but not the Big 12 schedule. Non conference!! Non conference!!
It is not fair to the season ticket holder to have to see so many weak non conference teams. It’s almost like the NFL forcing people to buy the preseason games if they want a season pass.
Jeez this guy must be wearing Curve, I can smell the spin on him all the way up here in Stillwater. OU NEVER schedules cupcakes at home (cough). That’s life in the BCS era. Fill up on creampuffs in the off-season because strength of schedule doesn’t really matter as much as people want to believe.
Too bad for OSU that we don’t have the cadre of high school dropouts and welding school alums to fill out our stadium for us every year.
The way for OSU fans to prove Berry wrong is to consistently sell out Boone’s Farm.
Hasn’t happened, though.
So Nebraska is OU’s second most attractive game? A team that finished tied for last in the Big 12 north last year, along with Iowa State?? Sounds pretty attractive to me.
By the way, OSU has Georgia as the home opener next season.
Wow, Houston and Troy compare with Cincy and TCU straight across the board. We lost to both of them in the last 2 years, so thats very intriguing to see how we match up against them. I’m very excited to see Jarboe, player your team couldn’t keep under control play in Stillwater. Chatt and MSU are the same as well. The non conference is exactly the same. Big12 schedule is not up to the team. Now for the OU fans that hop on here defending the OU schedule, be realistic its the exact same, and don’t think of opening your mouth unless you were even able to get accepted into the college.
It doesn’t suprise me in the least that Tramel gets his facts wrong as usual. From the look of his picture he is overwhelmed with being drunk or high, or both. Nice article….I smell writter of the year here.
Iowa St gave uO all it wanted last year in Ames. They should be better this year. Troy and Houston are revenge games. oSu gfans will be out in force. Jarboe will make it all that more interesting, much like the other uO reject QB last year that got his rear end whipped. I bought season tickets because i am fired up about Cowboys football.
It certainly doesn’t help that teams are scheduling out years in advance now…I believe I saw a story on ESPN a few months ago saying that OU and Ohio State had come through on a home-and-home series for something like 2014 and 2016! That’s great and all, but who knows what the state of OU and Ohio State will be by then! I know not all games on these teams’ schedules are planned out that far in advance, but it certainly makes it harder to schedule a more difficult non-conference schedule for the next few upcoming seasons when the schedules are…..already planned out.
Another lame attempt by that obvious OU suckup, Tramel.
You are such a suck hack, Tramel.
You’d better like it in Oklahoma because you couldn’t get a job in a high school paper if you weren’t shilling for your Swooners.
Pathetic piece of garbage.
Berry, where were you last year when our schedule was the toughest in the country? im sure you won’t spill a drop of ink next season when we open with Georgia, and then play Texas, Texas Tech, Missouri, Colorado all at home.
OSU fans (and I’m an OSU fan) are too defensive about this piece. Berry is simply saying that to fill the stadium, we need to have a better schedule. He’s off base on a couple of things, though.
First, Tulsa hasn’t been a particularly big draw in Stillwater. Their fans just do not travel. If they brought 15k extra fans each time, he’d have a point, but they do not. OSU is correct not to schedule them 1-1.
Second, including the conference schedule is dubious. OSU does not control that schedule. It’s not a great home slate this year, but it is sizzling next season.
OU could play Texas Nerd College five times a year and sell out all five games. They don’t need to do what we need to do. The two schools have different missions for their non-con schedules, and Trammel doesn’t touch on that. It’s a pretty underthought piece.
I am really dumbfounded by this article. What is it you are suggesting Berry? I mean we have consistently played 1 BCS conference opponent in the Nonconference schedule with some being better than others (i.e. Georgia, UCLA, Washington State). Everyone schedules the “creampuff” games (even the boys down in Norman) for multiple reasons. Don’t step up and challenge the althletic department to schedule a tougher schedule after our previous seasons schedule was ranked by multiple outlets as the single toughest in all of college football. We all know (or maybe I am breaking news to you Berry) that it comes down to winning football games. In order to have 60k orange butts in the seets at the Boone we must WIN, and frankly it doesn’t matter who we beat. You probably already knew this, but just wanted to stir a little dust.
Barry, we are all willing to wait for a little more meat until we can consistently, convincingly win our non-confrence schedule (and our fair share of top tier big 12 south games) then we will be hungry for beefier non-confrence competition.
By the way nice sucking up to medium game bob and the rest of the ou gooners recently.
In case you haven’t looked at future schedules, OSU and Tulsa have a series scheduled starting in 2010. It is a 2 for 1, but basketball was part of the deal too.
Several things fundamentally wrong with your article. First, the home opener is not with Missouri State. Houston is the home opener. Secondly, OSU has no control of the Big 12 schedule. You should know that. The conference schedules who to play at home or away each year. If you remember, Houston and Troy defeated OSU away from home last year and both are not “weak” teams. Missouri State? Yes, that team is sort of like Chattanooga. Get the drift? Stay with your Gooner articles and by the way, take Scott Wright back with you.