Popular Post Old Titan Posted June 14 Popular Post Share Posted June 14 27 minutes ago, theeagleman5 said: Yeah TheEagleman doesn't like more than one non D-1 game.....just makes no sense....but obviously if ORU has to play Nov. 6th in Minnesota and the Homecoming Game has to be Friday night then guessing it will have to be a weak opponent....it's just not a good thing for the Alums who are paying to see a competitive contest......just poor scheduling and lack of forethought......but has been happening for several years now since the Mills era......it needs to stop....probably won't...... It wasn't Paul Mills who caused the problem; it was the Alumni Association switching homecoming to November from February, due to a couple of successive years with icy weather that impacted homecoming attendance. A February homecoming always assured a Summit League opponent. A November homecoming makes it MUCH harder to schedule an opponent of any kind; much less a D1 school. 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theeagleman5 Posted June 14 Share Posted June 14 OK....that makes sense....but sorry ORU can't get UALR, UTA or SEMO St to visit Mabee Center in mid-November??....just doesn't seem that difficult....not expecting UCLA or Houston.....not even Oakland......but yeah we have had this convo before and it is what it is......not worth beating a dead horse...... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Titan Posted June 14 Share Posted June 14 7 minutes ago, theeagleman5 said: OK....that makes sense....but sorry ORU can't get UALR, UTA or SEMO St to visit Mabee Center in mid-November??....just doesn't seem that difficult... Considering that ORU is getting $100,000 from Minnesota and $95,000 from Texas Tech for non-con games, guess how much it would cost to get UALR, UTA or SEMO to visit the Mabee Center for a weekend game in early November? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theeagleman5 Posted June 15 Share Posted June 15 Home and home....agree it's too expensive for ORU to have a buy in game....come on, AD Johnson...make some calls... OK....I give up.... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post TrueBlue82 Posted June 15 Popular Post Share Posted June 15 7 hours ago, Old Titan said: It wasn't Paul Mills who caused the problem; it was the Alumni Association switching homecoming to November from February, due to a couple of successive years with icy weather that impacted homecoming attendance. A February homecoming always assured a Summit League opponent. A November homecoming makes it MUCH harder to schedule an opponent of any kind; much less a D1 school. Just to provide some historical perspective, I served on the Alumni Board for many years before and during the Homecoming transition to November. The switch to the Fall schedule was proposed long before the icy weather issues, as the Development office thought that Homecoming attendance would increase as a Fall event. Every year, the request to shift to October was made, but a group of us (Titan die-hards) fought to preserve the basketball game as a significant element of Homecoming activities. Despite yearly battles, the February date was maintained. Then, the perfect storm occurred (no pun intended)... At the same time that Homecoming had endured a couple of years of brutal February weather, the NCAA moved the season starting date forward from late November to early November, and both sides saw the opportunity to reach an acceptable compromise. The icing on the cake came when an Athletic Department representative told the Alumni Board that the quality of opponent ORU could get for early November would exceed the "normal" conference (Summit/Southland) match-ups, and that they had already lined up a "headliner" opponent for the initial Fall Homecoming. The Titan die-hards (including me) were won over. We still had a basketball game as a Homecoming main event, with the prospect of better weather and a promise of better opponents. Many on the Board were excited about the prospect of what "headliner" team might be on the schedule for the first Fall Homecoming. Names of Power Five and even basketball Blue Bloods were tossed around in the excitement. After getting unreasonably pumped up, we were quite surprised (and disappointed) to see that the first Fall Homecoming opponent (in November 2014) was to be... the University of Tulsa. It wasn't that Tulsa was a bad opponent, but the cross-town rival that we already played every season just didn't fit the definition of "headliner". Of course, in hindsight, the Golden Hurricane is by far the best Homecoming opponent ORU has faced in the Fall. Missouri State and Houston Baptist were the only other D1 Homecoming match-ups, with the remainder as D2, NAIA, or worse (including Avila, John Brown, Mid-America Christian, to name a few). While it is frustrating, I don't believe that the Athletic Department rep was being dishonest about the prospect of bringing in better opponents for the Fall Homecoming. Rather, I just think they didn't have the foresight to understand how much the landscape of collegiate athletics was changing, and how the cost of arranging a home game (especially during the first week of a new season) would increase exponentially. Home and home options might work, but what mid-major wants to play at ORU in early November when there are so many major programs offering $$$ to play with the big boys on their home court? Mid-major scheduling is a huge challenge to start out with, and scheduling for the first week of the season is a bigger problem still. As a result, a November Homecoming event does still have a basketball game, albeit not a very good one. In any case, I wanted to provide some color commentary around the shift to Fall Homecoming from ten years back, or at least how I remember it! 2 11 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ORU82 Posted June 15 Share Posted June 15 Thanks for sharing TrueBlue. This is just one man speaking but as for me I think we made a serious mistake with moving Homecoming, especially without a good basketball game to go to for the out of town alumni coming in for the weekend. I hold degrees from three different universities and the other two schedule their homecomings with a good football game for the out of town alumni to attend. I realize we do not have football but arguably for most alumni basketball is a major sport for us. Therefore in my humble opinion it would be great to give the alumni an event they could rally around. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theeagleman5 Posted June 16 Share Posted June 16 ORU is a D-1 school...let's play D-1 opponents please..... 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ORob2 Posted June 17 Share Posted June 17 Game date set for 12/1 against MSU. 1 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keenan Henderson Posted June 17 Author Share Posted June 17 It is interesting that the article says this series originated last season, ORU has been playing the Bears for 10-12 years. It is also interesting that the game is on Sunday, which almost never happens for the Eagles. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ORob1 Posted June 17 Share Posted June 17 34 minutes ago, Keenan Henderson said: It is interesting that the article says this series originated last season, ORU has been playing the Bears for 10-12 years. I would assume that means the current home-and-home agreement originated last year. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post OKC Eagle Posted June 17 Popular Post Share Posted June 17 Moving Homecoming back to February is a no-brainer. There is almost always a weekend with Thursday and Saturday basketball games and baseball Fri Sat Sun. Show off the sports and facilities and expand your donor base. The 12 people that get to play golf in November don't really matter that much. 3 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrsSmith Posted June 17 Share Posted June 17 12 minutes ago, OKC Eagle said: Moving Homecoming back to February is a no-brainer. There is almost always a weekend with Thursday and Saturday basketball games and baseball Fri Sat Sun. Show off the sports and facilities and expand your donor base. The 12 people that get to play golf in November don't really matter that much. If someone could honestly share the homecoming numbers it would be great. I used to see many out of town alumni. Now I only see Tulsa people plus those being honored or on the alumni board. If I lived more than 200 miles away I would not travel that close to Thanksgiving. It is sad that so many out of towners no longer come to homecoming. CHANGE IT BACK!!! (I realize this is as futile as asking them to turn down the sound at the basketball games. Sometimes we forget who the customer is) 2 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ORUalum11 Posted June 18 Share Posted June 18 I’d come if it was in February. No way I can make it in November. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EagleManiac Posted June 18 Share Posted June 18 Yea numbers appear to be way down. Not sure that the desires of alumni are of any relevance though. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keenan Henderson Posted June 18 Author Share Posted June 18 I went last year (from Colorado) and had a great time at homecoming. The pregame dinner was fun with Coach Springmann and the game was exciting. Yes they struggled versus a non D1 (74-69 win) but the game was still interesting. I cannot tell you the numbers but the Alumni section was maybe 60 percent filled and the Alumni dinner was maybe 80 percent full. So, it seemed like a good turnout but hard to tell how many are from Tulsa and how many are from other states. I would recommend going to Homecoming if you have not been back in 10-15 years. It is so worth it to see all that God is doing on campus and with the athletic department. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ORUalum11 Posted June 18 Share Posted June 18 56 minutes ago, EagleManiac said: Yea numbers appear to be way down. Not sure that the desires of alumni are of any relevance though. Billy doesn’t care as long as the attention is on him 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmg1984 Posted June 18 Share Posted June 18 5 hours ago, MrsSmith said: If someone could honestly share the homecoming numbers it would be great. I used to see many out of town alumni. Now I only see Tulsa people plus those being honored or on the alumni board. If I lived more than 200 miles away I would not travel that close to Thanksgiving. It is sad that so many out of towners no longer come to homecoming. CHANGE IT BACK!!! (I realize this is as futile as asking them to turn down the sound at the basketball games. Sometimes we forget who the customer is) I'm from N Y or AZ and I doubt I'll be going. It's my 40th reunion but they don't seem to do them anymore without more alumni help Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ORU82 Posted June 18 Share Posted June 18 Our class held its 40th a couple years ago (law school) and it was well received. Interestingly when asked we all voted against coming for "Homecoming" and decided to do our own thing in very early April. The baseball team supplied free tickets for the home games that weekend and the Alumni Office worked well with us in arranging things on campus. The one thing I thought they would do but did not was recognize us in Chapel. Not a big thing but when one of your classmates is a former candidate for the Presidency of the United States, one of your classmates is married to OR's son, and there were politicians and professors/deans of other universities I would have thought that maybe President Wilson would have at least taken the time to say hello. Sadly, he was a no-show for the weekend. Again the Alumni Office went out of its way to help us with dinner venues, hotel arrangements and also giving us personalized tours since many of us had not been back to campus in decades. As I explained to the Alumni Office as we were organizing the event, most of my classmates as well as myself went to undergrad institutions all over the United States and not ORU. Finally, most of those attending were not the ones who stayed in Tulsa but literally came from all over the United States. The locals were the worst as far as attending. And as stated previously, none of us cared about showing up for "Homecoming", we all wanted to do our own thing. As an aside, I agree: MOVE HOMECOMING BACK TO FEBRUARY. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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