The start times first three games of the football season have been announced.
Sept. 1 — Eastern Michigan — 6 pm
Sept. 8 — Grambling (1-AA) — 12 pm
Sept. 15 — @ Michigan St. — 12 pm
The Michigan State game will be televised on ESPN, so that’s some good news. No regional broadcast issues or blackouts.
Hilarious that Grambling will be a noon start. They really want to guarantee no one shows up for that game, don’t they?
Evening start for the first game. Whoo-hoo! Extended tailgating. Spending the night in the ‘Burgh.
Also does anyone know if Fox Sports Pittsburgh shows the basketball and football games? I am thinking of upgrading my package. Thanks ahead of time.
Alot of the student fans that don’t really care about the games will either (A) sleep in and not bother going down or (B) get down in time to tailgate all afternoon and never make it into the stadium.
I’m loving the 6pm EMU start time.
No football games, though.
i bet that game sells out easily, everyone ive talked to wants to go just to see grambling’s band.
i wasnt around when we were an elite (11-1, 10-2 a season) program, but from what my dad tells me even back then we wouldnt sell out pitt stadium every game, just for nd, psu and wvu. compared to michigan and ohio st our attendance doesnt look like much, but as far as city schools go, its fairly impressive. miami, tcu, south florida, ucf, houston, rutgers, bc, ucla and ariz st are all schools in/near big cities, and none of them are filling stadiums every week. the only one i can think of in a city that does is USC. so overall, the attendance isnt as bad as it looks.
He also said “people are excited to see the grambling band” – this is college football people, not a freakin band competition. It is a SAD STATE OF AFFAIRS when the highlight is to go a see a band………
And contrary to even my romanticized memory, while there were more ‘name’ schools on the schedule when we were independent, there were dogs then too (The service academies when they were bad, Louisville when they were bad, Temple, Rutgers, etc.).
In this area, the competition for the casual football fans who didn’t go to college is huge, and they are key. Alumni alone aren’t enough for us. We’re competing with Penn St, WVU, ND, Ohio State for allegiance. Urban kids also tend to like Miami, Florida State, USC, Michigan, etc. more than you’d see in rural areas.
And of course, the association with the Steelers may help us in recruiting and lower our operating costs, but the overwhelming fan lust for the Steelers hurts us more than anyone will admit. Non-Pittsburghers just can’t imagine. Many football fans in this area are in total Steeler mode starting the minute they leave work on Friday. Many reserve every fall Sunday completely for the Steelers, from morning through dusk, and then evening news higlights and “Sports Showdown” shows. That cannot be discounted. For that reason, all the ‘honey-do’ stuff must happen on Saturdays (as a Pitt season ticket holder and Steeler game attendee when I can, I can attest to the challenges to fitting both into my fall weekends).
Plus, I truly tip my hat to the students who attend despite the inconveniences of having to get to the North Side (and especially the drudgery it appears to be to wait for buses to return, especially when the weather stinks).
All of this makes a 65,000 seat venue about 15,000 too many for us.
At least Eastern Michigan is at 6PM so we can actually enjoy the college football experience on one saturday this fall. Then we’ll quickly be back to Wednesday night football with Navy. I’m losing all patience.