Tailgating decides teams' fates

by Paul Shugar
Staff Writer

While a lot of college football teams and fans gripe about where the Bowl Championship Series formula places their teams, they could be forgetting a major and important part of the BCS recipe— tailgating.

Records, strength of schedule and margin of victory do not mount up to a shot at the Sears Trophy without the steady supply of brat-grillers and beer-drinkers during pre-game.

The Toledo football team has benefited from a big tailgate. After going 10-1 in 2000, Toledo was the only team with such a record to not receive a bowl bid in Division I.

Toledo’s associate director of alumni relations Jeff Huffman said that most bowls passed up Toledo in 2000 because they felt the team did not have the following to fill a bowl stadium. He said the alumni group decided to focus on making tailgating larger at Toledo to attract bowl bids.

The result is any tailgater’s dream. Huffman had a trailer converted into a self-contained tailgating paradise complete with pop, keg taps and a full grill with the help of the Toledo engineering department.

 When the Rockets traveled to Temple and Ohio this season, the new trailer followed the team. Tables and chairs are designed to fit into the trailer and a canopy extends from the trailer to provide a base camp for Toledo tailgaters.

The trailer has become a beacon toward which Toledo alumni gravitate at both home and away games. Huffman said the word of mouth has increased the number of Rockets' tailgaters around the Glass Bowl.

"You have to show bowl executives that your team has a following and will pump the money they expect into the community with the bowl game," Huffman said. "The response has been great to the trailer; at home we sometimes have around 1,000 people come to the trailer alone."

Toledo Interim Athletic Director Mike Karabin said he hopes that the trailer helps the Rockets start a following, but he does not want to emulate the Marshall Thundering Herd too much.

"We would never do anything to mimic Marshall," he said. "The trailer has been great and given us something for the alums to identify and find us at away games."

The Ohio football team might not find themselves suffering from being overlooked by bowl committees with its 1-5 record in 2001. Ohio coach Brian Knorr, however, said the program is starting to realize the importance of tailgating.

"The bowls definitely look at how many you bring," he said. "In the last 10 to 15 years a lot of the tailgating here has changed, and in the last five years games have turned more into events."

Ohio Director of Athletics Tom Boeh said the Mid-American Conference is a much stronger conference than it was 10 to 15 years ago. The trouble is that BCS representatives have not been to MAC schools to see the growth of fan support, he said.

However, Boeh said the growth of developing a large-scale football program at Ohio has remained a slow process.

"It is a measured growth and we have kept that in mind by scheduling big time teams that can come to Peden (Stadium) and we can be competitive with or beat," he said. "Really we are reaching toward a glass ceiling right now since we’re not officially in the BCS. That is where Toledo, Western Michigan and Marshall are stuck at right now trying to take that next step. Hopefully we will be there soon."

Huffman and Karabin both said that Ohio is taking strides to becoming more of a football power in the MAC and in the nation. However, both agreed that the tailgating scene at Ohio is less wild then Toledo and would have to improve for the program to reach the next tier.

Knorr said the low population density of the area and Ohio's location is a hindrance to the program filling the stands and tailgating areas.

Keneth Christy, an Ohio graduate in 1995, said the tailgating scene at Ohio has exploded. He makes the trip from Cleveland for every Ohio home game.

"While I was here from '91 to '95 we only won seven total games," Christy said. "A team needs to win to draw a crowd and that is something that (Jim) Grobe did here and that is something new here, and look at the response."

The Bobcats have worked to draw more sponsors and corporations to their pre-game events, Boeh said. He hopes that more wins boost those numbers and fill the stands.

"We have come up with an exciting entire package with things like the (Marching) 110 performing in the Tailgate Park to the (U.S. Army Parachute Team) Golden Knights before the game to add value by adding entertainment," Boeh said. "It is terribly important to have full spectrum of activities for the fans."

Christy said both alumni and current students should support the Bobcats if the program wants to continue growing.

"If you go to a school you should support its football team because that is the school that is going to give you your diploma," he said. "If you like another football team so much, go to that school. Most people are at Ohio because it is more prestigious academically and not in football, but they still should support the team."