Moving a Big 12 Conference home football game to a neutral site, as Kansas University is doing Saturday against Oklahoma, won’t be a conference-wide craze anytime soon.
KU officials firmly stand behind their decision to take Saturday’s game out of Lawrence and into Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Mo., pointing out that thousands of K.C.-area alumni suddenly have a Jayhawk football game much closer to home.
Kansas considers Saturday’s game a home game, and technically it is. But 5,000 Sooner fans have been confirmed to buy tickets through OU, and the number of OU fans showing up Saturday could quadruple that. The KU ticket office hasn’t tracked where all the tickets bought through it have come from.
The moving of a conference game out of Lawrence has caused heated debate over the months. On Monday, Missouri coach Gary Pinkel and Kansas State coach Bill Snyder were asked if they ever would want to move a Big 12 game off campus.
“If Nebraska would like to take their home game to Arrowhead, I’d be more than happy to,” Snyder quipped when the KSU-NU series was thrown out as an example.
Karl GehringSnyder has taken conference home games out of Manhattan. In 1989 and 1991, when Kansas State was digging out of the depths of futility, Snyder basically sold home games to Oklahoma and played the Sooners on the road five straight seasons. The first year Oklahoma played a Snyder squad in Manhattan was 1993, Snyder’s fifth as K-State’s coach.
“We knew we were not a good football team,” Snyder said. “I didn’t want that embarrassment here in front of our fans. Secondly, the attendance here at that time, we had averaged in ’88 13,000-plus fans.
“Playing at home was not financially rewarding, so from a financial standpoint, and from an appeal to our fans, it was probably in our best interest to be somewhere other than home against teams like that.”
Pinkel’s Tigers, meanwhile, have played at neutral sites, and again will in the future. But their last few experiences have been a nonconference rivalry game with Illinois in St. Louis that never was a home game in the first place.
Missouri played Illinois in 2002 and 2003, and will restart the series at the Edward Jones Dome in 2007.
Asked if he’d consider moving a Big 12 home game to a neutral site, Pinkel deferred.
“That’s something (athletic director) Mike Alden would have to do,” Pinkel said. “I think Mike is very, very sensitive to the businesses here in Columbia and the money generated for home games. And I think he should be.”
KU officials claim to be, too, and to show their sensitivity, they made sure all three of the Jayhawks’ nonconference games were in Lawrence this year. Usually, BCS-conference schools play two at home and one on the road.
It can be argued effectively that nonconference games against Florida Atlantic, Appalachian State and Louisiana Tech pale in comparison to OU weekend from an appeal and financial standpoint, though, as critics will reiterate. But KU coach Mark Mangino countered Monday by restating the athletic department’s stance on the matter – it’s worth a shot.
“Just like (athletic director) Lew Perkins said, let’s see if it works, let’s see if it’s a good idea,” Mangino said. “You won’t know until you try it.”
The only other recent case of a Big 12 game not played on campus is the annual Red River Shootout between Texas and Oklahoma, which was played Saturday – and every year – at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas.
That game, though, has been played in Dallas since 1929 – some 67 years before the two schools became conference rivals in the Big 12.
Charlie Riedel/AP PhotoMoving a Big 12 Conference home football game to a neutral site, as Kansas University is doing Saturday against Oklahoma, won’t be a conference-wide craze anytime soon.
KU officials firmly stand behind their decision to take Saturday’s game out of Lawrence and into Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Mo., pointing out that thousands of K.C.-area alumni suddenly have a Jayhawk football game much closer to home.
Kansas considers Saturday’s game a home game, and technically it is. But 5,000 Sooner fans have been confirmed to buy tickets through OU, and the number of OU fans showing up Saturday could quadruple that. The KU ticket office hasn’t tracked where all the tickets bought through it have come from.
The moving of a conference game out of Lawrence has caused heated debate over the months. On Monday, Missouri coach Gary Pinkel and Kansas State coach Bill Snyder were asked if they ever would want to move a Big 12 game off campus.
“If Nebraska would like to take their home game to Arrowhead, I’d be more than happy to,” Snyder quipped when the KSU-NU series was thrown out as an example.
Karl Gehring/Journal-World graphicSnyder has taken conference home games out of Manhattan. In 1989 and 1991, when Kansas State was digging out of the depths of futility, Snyder basically sold home games to Oklahoma and played the Sooners on the road five straight seasons. The first year Oklahoma played a Snyder squad in Manhattan was 1993, Snyder’s fifth as K-State’s coach.
“We knew we were not a good football team,” Snyder said. “I didn’t want that embarrassment here in front of our fans. Secondly, the attendance here at that time, we had averaged in ’88 13,000-plus fans.
“Playing at home was not financially rewarding, so from a financial standpoint, and from an appeal to our fans, it was probably in our best interest to be somewhere other than home against teams like that.”
Pinkel’s Tigers, meanwhile, have played at neutral sites, and again will in the future. But their last few experiences have been a nonconference rivalry game with Illinois in St. Louis that never was a home game in the first place.
Missouri played Illinois in 2002 and 2003, and will restart the series at the Edward Jones Dome in 2007.
Asked if he’d consider moving a Big 12 home game to a neutral site, Pinkel deferred.
“That’s something (athletic director) Mike Alden would have to do,” Pinkel said. “I think Mike is very, very sensitive to the businesses here in Columbia and the money generated for home games. And I think he should be.”
KU officials claim to be, too, and to show their sensitivity, they made sure all three of the Jayhawks’ nonconference games were in Lawrence this year. Usually, BCS-conference schools play two at home and one on the road.
It can be argued effectively that nonconference games against Florida Atlantic, Appalachian State and Louisiana Tech pale in comparison to OU weekend from an appeal and financial standpoint, though, as critics will reiterate. But KU coach Mark Mangino countered Monday by restating the athletic department’s stance on the matter — it’s worth a shot.
“Just like (athletic director) Lew Perkins said, let’s see if it works, let’s see if it’s a good idea,” Mangino said. “You won’t know until you try it.”
The only other recent case of a Big 12 game not played on campus is the annual Red River Shootout between Texas and Oklahoma, which was played Saturday — and every year — at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas.
That game, though, has been played in Dallas since 1929 — some 67 years before the two schools became conference rivals in the Big 12.
6Sports video: KU offense fruitless against Wildcats (10-10-05)
Coaches not sold on moving home games (10-11-05)
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