USF-UCF Game Moved to Thanksgiving Night

[UCF 10 Georgia 6]

Thursday, November 26th at 7:30. This is great for TV exposure as it will be televised in primetime on ESPN.

However, there will also be some fans that are not happy with this decision. (I'm okay with it personally)

Thoughts?

 

[The Knightman Cometh]

I like it. I'm surprised it's on ESPN. And prime time as in 7-9pm?

 

[UCF 10 Georgia 6]

I like it. I'm surprised it's on ESPN. And prime time as in 7-9pm?

I believe primetime means either 7:30 or 8 in most cases, but I could be wrong.

 

[ucfversusbcs]

Its probably on ESPN 3 lol.

 

[SkiDog291]

I would assume the NFL games would be over? I'd rather not compete with either Detroit or Dallas.

 

[joshwl2003]

Competing with packers bears as the late game it's Brett farves night at lambeau

 

[DUKnight09]

UCF talks about wanting its young alumni to support this team, but honestly as an alum who lives 3 1/2 hours away, they have made having season tickets completely unrealistic. These crazy start times and weeknight games keep getting worse. Its at point that I am in a position to miss as many games as I go to, and it would be cheaper for me to buy individual tickets

I can stand missing 1 to 2 conference games a year to a weeknight games, because I get it, exposure... But now we are taking a game for "exposure" on a day when the NFL CRUSHES EVERYTHING IN ITS PATH. If this was such a "primetime" slot, the bigger conferences wouldn't let it go. Let's not be naive about this.

I have went to all 6 of the UCF-USF games, and but I will miss this one. As it was, I would already leave my family after thanksgiving dinner so I could head to Orlando for the game the next day. Now they want me to leave in the middle of the day and skip dinner all together. Honestly, whats the point. I hope they enjoy the exposure of their half empty stadium on espn. Oh wait, it wont matter, because everyone will be watching the NFL games.

 

[ucfversusbcs]

I just hope that they decide to make this a regular event. You can only get it to work if you give it a chance. If the attendance is what the naysayers predicted - a half empty stadium on its first year - one year on Thanksgiving shouldnt determine its fate. The positive is that if youre interested in attending the date change has been addressed three months in advance. As for this claim about everyone wanting to watch the NFL, last year when i was visiting family, i was one of those looking for a college football game not the NFL. Sure the NFL on Thanksgiving is popular regardless if your market has a team or not, but lets face it Orlando doesnt have an NFL team just secondary markets. I hope ESPN is taking a chance on the UCF game getting better ratings than the NFL locally which of course would be a positive since there is no NFL team locally. For me i'd watch a college football game over the NFL on Thanksgiving. It doesnt matter who. UCF/USF is just icing on the cake. Perhaps any future expansion discussions can include how popular UCF football games are TV ratings wise in its own market against other sporting events like the NFL.
With the game going back to Tampa next year will the Thanksgiving games only apply when the game is at UCF? That would be interesting to see how that plays out.

 

[HammerB08]

Could have gone Friday. Will miss Thursday. This is ridiculous.

 

[firm_bizzle]

I won't be missing Thanksgiving dinner for this. I'll be lucky if I can get my family to change the channel in order to watch this.

 

[igKnight]

Texas Tech at Texas is also on that Thursday at 7:30 (FOX)

 

[muckdawg24]

Horsesh*t

 

[firm_bizzle]

Texas Tech at Texas is also on that Thursday at 7:30 (FOX)

Fox Sports 1

 

[Deuce511]

This is just a bad decision by UCF. From what I read, they had options and chose Thanksgiving night? Dumb choice. Primetime on that holiday competing with the NFL is asking for failure. Even if the other choices were mid-day games on Black Friday, take it. At least you have the time slot all to yourself and anyone wanting to watch football will do so.

 

[Knight_Light]

UCF talks about wanting its young alumni to support this team, but honestly as an alum who lives 3 1/2 hours away....

Fortunately for UCF, over 125,000 alumni (most of them under 40), live in the Central Florida area and obviously somewhat close to UCF....stats that almost every other Univ would kill for.

 

[Knight_Light]

This is just a bad decision by UCF. From what I read, they had options and chose Thanksgiving night? Dumb choice. Primetime on that holiday competing with the NFL is asking for failure. Even if the other choices were mid-day games on Black Friday, take it. At least you have the time slot all to yourself and anyone wanting to watch football will do so.

Other choice was 11:30 AM or Noon on Black Friday...times UCF fans would still complain about...so UCF took the ESPN Primetime slot on Thanksgiving Night...a time slot that was normally used for P5 rivalry games.

Past Thanksgiving Night ESPN Primetime rivalry games:


Ole Miss vs Mississippi State
Pittsburgh vs West Virginia
Texas vs Texas A&M

And now UCF vs USF

In addition, Fox Sports 1 will show Texas Tech vs Texas on Thanksgiving Night too

NOTE: There are already 15 College Football Games scheduled for Black Friday

 

[Deuce511]

Other choice was 11:30 AM or Noon on Black Friday...times UCF fans would still complain about...so UCF took the ESPN Primetime slot on Thanksgiving Night...a time slot that was normally used for P5 rivalry games.

Past Thanksgiving Night ESPN Primetime rivalry games:


Ole Miss vs Mississippi State
Pittsburgh vs West Virginia
Texas vs Texas A&M

And now UCF vs USF

In addition, Fox Sports 1 will show Texas Tech vs Texas on Thanksgiving Night too

NOTE: There are already 15 College Football Games scheduled for Black Friday

Great, what were the ratings for those games? I don't remember even flipping over to those games ever. Now were talking about a WGAS game from a national perspective and will probably showcase a half empty stadium. At least noon on Black Friday would probably have a better turnout.

 

[Knight_Light]

Great, what were the ratings for those games?

ESPN Prime Time TV Ratings on Thursday night...probably a lot better than 11:30 AM on ESPNU on Friday.

EDIT: A heck of a lot better TV Ratings on Thanksgiving Night vs Noon on Black Friday:

FYI, ESPN has already scheduled Baylor vs TCU in Prime Time on Black Friday, and as Brandon pointed out, it looked like the only time slot UCF was offered on Black Friday was 11:30 AM or Noon (maybe stuck on ESPNU, CBS Sports, etc...)

Here's a look back at last 2 years of Thanksgiving Prime Time Audiences compared to the UCF/USF Black Friday games (noticed the huge drop in ratings for the Noon Black Friday time slot last year)


2013:
Thanksgiving Night, 7:30 pm, ESPN
Ole Miss vs Miss State
1.64 Million Viewers, 0.9 TV Rating

Thanksgiving Night, 7:30 pm FOX Sports 1
Texas Tech vs Texas
1.03 Million Viewers, 0.5 TV Rating

Black Friday, 8 pm ESPN
USF vs UCF
1.22 Million Viewers, 0.8 TV Rating


2014
Thanksgiving Night 7:30 pm, ESPN
LSU vs Texas A&M
2.91 Million Viewers, 1.4 TV Rating

Thanksgiving Night 7:30 pm, FOX Sports 1
Texas vs TCU
1.3 Million Viewers, 0.7 TV Rating

Black Friday 2014, Noon ESPN2
UCF vs USF
447,000 Viewers, 0.3 TV Rating

 

[Once a Knight...]

I think this is a poor decision for UCF. Most people on Thanksgiving are home with the families (all afternoon and into the evening), eating turkey and watching NFL. Thanksgiving has ALWAYS been an NFL day. I loved the Friday/Saturday being rivalry games in CFB across the country. Most people are off work on Black Friday and can attend the game with a full tailgate experience, non-rushed, etc. Guess my wife and I will be moving up our Thanksgiving dinner until around 12pm. Luckily we only live about 45-50 mins from UCF.

 

[HammerB08]

The good news is that if half of my season tickets catch on fire, there's a good chance it will make no difference in the amount of games I can attend.

 

[SCKnight]

Seems to me that right now UCF if focused on exposure nationally. Although there is competition I believe there will be more people flipping channels sitting at home after eating Thanksgiving dinner than there will be at 12:00 on Friday. It will certainly hurt attendance but in the end the goal is to get the attention of a national market. If we ever get into a P5 conference I think the focus will change.

 

[UCF-icenhl-06]

Other choice was 11:30 AM or Noon on Black Friday...times UCF fans would still complain about...so UCF took the ESPN Primetime slot on Thanksgiving Night...a time slot that was normally used for P5 rivalry games.

Past Thanksgiving Night ESPN Primetime rivalry games:


Ole Miss vs Mississippi State
Pittsburgh vs West Virginia
Texas vs Texas A&M

And now UCF vs USF

In addition, Fox Sports 1 will show Texas Tech vs Texas on Thanksgiving Night too

NOTE: There are already 15 College Football Games scheduled for Black Friday

UCF vs. USF soooo important to TV it was booted from its first choices on Friday! Woooooooooooooooooooo.

Spin it KL. Just keeping spinning. Thread is at peak KL levels.

Choices for small 'exposure' gains over the fan who wants to attend....it's the UCF way. Between the terrible scheduling and timeslots i dont know why any of you still have season tickets.

But bring up the word 'exposure' in the Dungeon and i bet they are having quite the circle jerk over this.

 

[Game_Day_Sports]

Great, now I am going to have to give up my spot in line at Walmart. So I go to the game or I save $0.23 on a Barbie doll while beating the crap out of the neighborhood losers to hold my place in line to get to that Barbie Doll before the rest of the illiterates know that it is on sale and are busy knifing each other over a TV that is going to be on the same sale in two weeks.

My biggest issue is that how am I going to make it through the bands slowed down version of turn down for what while the triptophan and gravy induced coma kicks in and I am going to miss that awkward moment with "uncle" jerry decides to tell cousin Jillie Maye what a lady she looks like because her boobs grew in since last Thanksgiving.

 

[UCFKnight85]

I might pass out if USF ever had fans to actually attend as well.

They brought maybe 1,000 fans in 2013 and we had to fill their stadium for them last year.

But I guess a program needs fans first for that to happen.

 

[Central Floridave]

Maybe they were looking at the potential Turkey Leg Sales by hosting it on that day? You know, an empty seat never bought a hot dog, however, a person missing Thanksgiving day meal will buy a turkey leg.

I actually didn't renew season tix this year due to my upcoming unpredictable schedule coming up this year. Now I'm glad I didn't as it looks like scalping good seats will be easy. Anyone got 50 yard line seats they want to dump for the War For I-4?

If by chance, UCF is undefeated at that point (knock on wood), rated in the top 25, I can see this game giving UCF some good exposure. If not, oh well, it will just be an odd curiosity to watch while napping on the couch for most people.

Taggart's final game as a coach... #genshafted

Bianchi and Marc Daniels talked a ton about this earlier on the radio. Pros and Cons. The Cons won. Oh well, what can we do?!? If you can't make it, you can't make it. For the fence sitters, start prepping and warning the family that the game has changed to that day. It sucks, but oh well, roll with the changes! Go Knights!

 

[firm_bizzle]

Can we bus in fans?

 

[Central Floridave]

Not a bad idea for UCF to start giving away free tickets for this game.

An empty seat never bought a turkey leg...

 

[UCFWayne]

Fortunately for UCF, over 125,000 alumni (most of them under 40), live in the Central Florida area and obviously somewhat close to UCF....stats that almost every other Univ would kill for.

As we all know there is a waiting list for season/game day tickets because of all those alumni....

 

[ucfversusbcs]

Waiting for the UCF program to fall apart any second now....

 

[KnightMatt8]

I was already resigned to the fact that I would have to miss seeing UCF and USF in person for the first time ever (I was lucky that I could go last year). Now, I'm wondering if I'll even have a chance to watch it on TV. We may increase our national exposure, but aren't they concerned at all about stadium attendance? Last I checked, there is still an attendance minimum that is required for FBS membership. I realize we're in no immediate danger of falling below the minimum, but I fear that we're going to be heading in that direction over the next few years with some of the crazy scheduling going on.

 

[HammerB08]

Just like the "tremendous exposure opportunity" prompting a switch to a Thursday night at 6 PM against FIU on CBS Sports Network, the only thing being exposed is that UCF cares very little about pleasing their season ticket base.

 

[cocoabeachjason]

Everyone wants to be in power conference. We also know that the single most important factor in being the top expansion cadidate is television viewership. We will get more of that on ESPN primetime on Thansgiving. This cannot be argued. I'm glad the athletic department isn't agreeing with the whiners who won't go to the game because they will be too fat and too interested in the NFL to attend in person.

 

[Knight_Classes_begin_7pm]

Is there a higher payout in this for UCF and USF? This is a great exposure opportunity and exposure for the Big 12. I know some people are pissed. Gotta take one for the team sometimes! Question: How will attendance be? Will they market this differently?

 

[Knight_Classes_begin_7pm]

Everyone wants to be in power conference. We also know that the single most important factor in being the top expansion cadidate is television viewership. We will get more of that on ESPN primetime on Thansgiving. This cannot be argued. I'm glad the athletic department isn't agreeing with the whiners who won't go to the game because they will be too fat and too interested in the NFL to attend in person.

agree 1000%

 

[ucfversusbcs]

Just like the "tremendous exposure opportunity" prompting a switch to a Thursday night at 6 PM against FIU on CBS Sports Network, the only thing being exposed is that UCF cares very little about pleasing their season ticket base.

Yeah i took the day off. I will be watching on TV.

I thought buying season tickets didnt always mean attending or did it? Isnt purchasing them also showing support?

 

[KnightVision82]

Thursday, November 26th at 7:30. This is great for TV exposure as it will be televised in primetime on ESPN.

However, there will also be some fans that are not happy with this decision. (I'm okay with it personally)

Thoughts?

I've cooked my best turkeys on the barbecue grill. This is great exposure and just
what this program needs to sell itself to Power 5.

Don't become a season ticket holder if you think this is all about your ability to attend every game.
Rather, just give money to support the athletic programs instead. That is the focus of the UCF
administration when they make these decisions, all UCF programs first and fans second.

 

[Knight_Classes_begin_7pm]

UCF vs. USF soooo important to TV it was booted from its first choices on Friday! Woooooooooooooooooooo.

Spin it KL. Just keeping spinning. Thread is at peak KL levels.

Choices for small 'exposure' gains over the fan who wants to attend....it's the UCF way. Between the terrible scheduling and timeslots i dont know why any of you still have season tickets.

But bring up the word 'exposure' in the Dungeon and i bet they are having quite the circle jerk over this.

UCF's way has gotten us pretty far. What would you do differently? Be specific?

 

[Knight_Classes_begin_7pm]

If you are in the driver's seat of the two Universities...this is a no brainer. Now they have to figure out how to get fans in the seats to make it look like we have real fans! ....man I'm gunna get clobbered on this one

 

[ucfversusbcs]

If you are in the driver's seat of the two Universities...this is a no brainer. Now they have to figure out how to get fans in the seats to make it look like we have real fans! ....man I'm gunna get clobbered on this one

I agree. When i was a real young kid i remember the day Texas/Texas A&M used to be played on Thanksgiving. That is what i associate college football on Thanksgiving with. Now your school which 15 years ago you'd be lucky if you can see them on TV has a prime time spot on ESPN!!!??? Are you kidding? Take it!

As for the fans, it appears the only fans we have our on the Rivals or 24/7 boards. They maybe right. Perhaps our maximum potential is based on certain conditions who voices their opinions on this board - which is Saturday afternoon right? I hope the game isnt played in an empty stadium but if it is what kind of impression will it send to the Big 12 for example if our fanbase supports on specific conditions only.

 

[SCKnight]

Just like the "tremendous exposure opportunity" prompting a switch to a Thursday night at 6 PM against FIU on CBS Sports Network, the only thing being exposed is that UCF cares very little about pleasing their season ticket base.

This is a shortsighted and whiney as you can get. I think what would ultimately please the season ticket base the most would be to have B12 teams coming to BHNS on a regular basis rather than AAC teams. That is the goal right now. In the meantime do seasons ticket holders inconvenience take a back seat? Yup. If you cant see that intent than I am not sure what to tell you. Are you saying you would rather have the game at 11:30 on Friday?