WIU vs Montana (9/15/2018)

[ST_Lawson]

10 of Western's last 14 games have been on the road.

Am I the only one that thinks that's F**ked up? What is the average advantage a home team is given all things being equal with the opponent, I think the standard is 3 points. Well we lost to back to back BIg Sky teams at THEIR place by an average of 2.5 points.

Well, that's kinda a limited data set. It happens to include a season where we, because of scheduling issues with some of our opponents, ended up having to play all of our OOC games on the road and thus had only 4 home games. The last time we had a season where we only had 4 home games was 1967, where we only had 8 total games the entire season. I'm not sure why we didn't play our first game that year until September 16th, although one of you guys who were around then might have input on it. Anything to do with what was going on in Vietnam or the civil rights struggle maybe?...or just weird scheduling that year?

Then you have one playoff game that happened to be away because we're not in a financial situation where we can outbid anyone for a home game.

And then the first two games of this season, which included the away game of a H&H series and a FBS game (which are, outside of just a couple of instances, always played at the FBS school).

So, some of it was budgetary reasons, some was because a couple other schools changed their scheduling. It's an odd stretch, but the next 4 out of 6 of our games are at home, which will be nice (and one is just a "stone's throw" away at Normal). Outside of flying to Bozeman for the opener and likely flying to South Dakota in November, the team is pretty much home or close enough to ride a bus to the rest of the opponents on our schedule. We don't play SDSU; NDSU and YSU are here in Macomb; Champaign, Carbondale, and Springfield MO are all close enough to drive. We're playing some darn good teams, but the travel schedule sets up fairly well this year.

Also, next year should be a 12-game schedule year and we have 2 home and 2 away for our OOC games. Add in the 4 home/4 away MVFC schedule and we'll end up with 6 home games next year...Montana State, Tennessee Tech, Illinois State, Missouri State, Southern Illinois, and South Dakota.

[wiu712]

Montana draws large crowds to its home football games.

They have had 2 home games so far this season:
September 1 vs Northern Iowa. Attendance = 25,018.
September 8 vs Drake. Attendance = 23,132.

[BobLovely]

10 of Western's last 14 games have been on the road.

Am I the only one that thinks that's F**ked up? What is the average advantage a home team is given all things being equal with the opponent, I think the standard is 3 points. Well we lost to back to back BIg Sky teams at THEIR place by an average of 2.5 points.

Well, that's kinda a limited data set. It happens to include a season where we, because of scheduling issues with some of our opponents, ended up having to play all of our OOC games on the road and thus had only 4 home games. The last time we had a season where we only had 4 home games was 1967, where we only had 8 total games the entire season. I'm not sure why we didn't play our first game that year until September 16th, although one of you guys who were around then might have input on it. Anything to do with what was going on in Vietnam or the civil rights struggle maybe?...or just weird scheduling that year?

Then you have one playoff game that happened to be away because we're not in a financial situation where we can outbid anyone for a home game.

And then the first two games of this season, which included the away game of a H&H series and a FBS game (which are, outside of just a couple of instances, always played at the FBS school).

So, some of it was budgetary reasons, some was because a couple other schools changed their scheduling. It's an odd stretch, but the next 4 out of 6 of our games are at home, which will be nice (and one is just a "stone's throw" away at Normal). Outside of flying to Bozeman for the opener and likely flying to South Dakota in November, the team is pretty much home or close enough to ride a bus to the rest of the opponents on our schedule. We don't play SDSU; NDSU and YSU are here in Macomb; Champaign, Carbondale, and Springfield MO are all close enough to drive. We're playing some darn good teams, but the travel schedule sets up fairly well this year.

Also, next year should be a 12-game schedule year and we have 2 home and 2 away for our OOC games. Add in the 4 home/4 away MVFC schedule and we'll end up with 6 home games next year...Montana State, Tennessee Tech, Illinois State, Missouri State, Southern Illinois, and South Dakota.

I cannot speak for 1967 but during my years at Western from September of 1969 until June of 1974, classes did not begin until 09/09 to 09/12. The first home game was usually scheduled after classes started. My first home game was Western v. Youngstown State. The QB for YSU was Ron Jaworski. Western prevailed in a shootout 35-28. The stands were packed...

Bob

[ST_Lawson]

Montana draws large crowds to its home football games.

They have had 2 home games so far this season:
September 1 vs Northern Iowa. Attendance = 25,018.
September 8 vs Drake. Attendance = 23,132.

Montana has led the FCS in home attendance for the last 4 years and were frequently right in the top 3 for most years going back quite a while before then (Appalachian State used to be #1 most years before they went FBS). Last year, they averaged 23,535 at home, which is ~1,800 more per game than the #2 team, James Madison. I haven't been there before, but from everything I've heard, it's one of those stadiums that every FCS fan has to visit at least once. You can bet that when we play there in 2021, there's going to be ~25k people there and it'll be, by far, louder than any outdoor stadium we've played at before, with the possible exception of LSU back in the early '00s and it rivals the Fargodome for intimidating game environments.

[sealhall74]

UM has a very noticeable big "M" sitting on a hill outside of Missoula. It was constructed in 1908 or thereabouts. The thing I cant figure out is why there is also big "M" on the mountainside outside of Bozeman. That one went up about 7 years later. One would think MSU would have something unique to that school or Bozeman. Below are the two (UM's "M" shown first). Both are very popular hiking destinations.

[ST_Lawson]

Seems pretty popular with mountain towns. I know there's a big W on a hill nearby Gunnison, CO (where Western State is located). Doesn't really explain why Montana State has a M though.




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[alabamagrizzly]

UM has a very noticeable big "M" sitting on a hill outside of Missoula. It was constructed in 1908 or thereabouts. The thing I cant figure out is why there is also big "M" on the mountainside outside of Bozeman. That one went up about 7 years later. One would think MSU would have something unique to that school or Bozeman. Below are the two (UM's "M" shown first). Both are very popular hiking destinations.

Both are representative of their schools. Most other towns in Montana have letters that represent their town name and the local high school at the time they were built. Missoula also has an L on anther Mtn side for Loyola High School.

Here’s an article about the western states tradition.
http://www.deuceofclubs.com/mts/heres_why.htm

[tjk1985]

http://www.mcdonoughvoice.com/sports/20 ... ng-for-win

Found this article interesting, specifically this portion. Sounds like some young ones may see some action...

“The first two weeks we’ve played a handful of true freshmen on special teams, kind of getting their toes wet,” the coach said. “With the new redshirt rule we can see if these guys are ready or not. We were able to last week a little bit but now that we’re at home there’s no question we’ll get guys in on special teams and get guys who are more core offense and defense a little bit of a blow because we feel we have some young guys that can help us in some of those phases.”

[sealhall74]

UM has cranked out 27 Rhodes scholars over the years, the same number as another UM (Michigan). That is very impressive. I am giving them one point for each of those but it wont be enough.

Necks 34
Grizzlies 27

FYI, Illinois schools graduating Rhodes Scholars:
Illinois Wesleyan 2
Knox 2
McKendree 2
Millikin 1
Monmouth 1
Northwestern 16
Southern Illinois 1
University of Illinois 10
University of Illinois - Chicago 1

We have work to do.

[alabamagrizzly]

Quick question, what’s y’alls policy for carry in items into the stadium? Are stadium seats allowed? Do you have to have a clear bag? Are bags even allowed? Thanks in advance.