Quote Originally Posted by ST_Lawson View Post
Yeah, that is still an issue. Really the only ways to fix it would be to:

- shift the Bayou Classic to the weekend before Thanksgiving - seems HIGHLY unlikely that they would do that given the attendance and TV numbers they get being on national television (something that would be much less likely if they played the weekend before). Also there's a ton of "history" with this game...having been played since 1932 (although only called the "Bayou Classic" since 1974).

- drop the SWAC Championship like you mentioned - slightly more likely, if they can convince the conference that it'd be financially worth it. Still a tough argument to make though, since it's always pulled quite a few more fans than pretty much any playoff game and gets featured nationally on ESPN2. The last couple of years have seen over 50k fans at the stadium (although in both games, it was Jackson State who won and the game was held in Jackson, MS...so essentially a "home game" for them). That one has only been played since 1999.

Unfortunately, I don't really see either happening in the near future though.
Bayou Classic was put on Thanksgiving weekend for a reason a lot of those people don't live here, they come in to visit family for Thanksgiving and to go to the game. Estimates have gone as high as 20K fans we could lose by moving the game off of Thanksgiving weekend.