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Message: [QUOTE="Dick_in_MI, post: 4284447, member: 225"] The SU hoops fans I run into elsewhere are still pretty hard-core, and they still often show up in big numbers for road games. We have all been to hoops road games where the color Orange outnumbers everything else in the stands. Football is another story, and Mark nailed it with the assessment that the "product", if you will, has not been conducive to developing and maintaining a rabid fan base. In the 17 post-Pasqualoni years, we have had exactly 4 winning seasons (2 by Marone). The past 8 years have produced a single winning season, and in fact only two 5-win seasons with the rest being fewer than that. That collection of records is both sobering and sad for a P-5 program. Even sadder for a program that once had a real history. In those 17 seasons after P, a generation of young local people have been exposed to SU football. A whole bunch of SU students have been exposed to SU football. The percentage of SU students who actually care about SU football has always been on the low side, but it has been a long time since the program has given them much of a reason to be interested. When they don't get interested as students (or young townies) or only casually interested, it means they are much less likely to care after they graduate or "grow up". Even now, I see posters saying "if we win only 5 games this year, it will mean we have gotten better because of the strength of this year's schedule and I'm fine with that." Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but it would be another nail in the coffin of trying to build, develop, and maintain an engaged long-term fan base. Finally, I see it even with longtime fans. I know once-rabid fans who now watch or attend games but give them almost no thought once the final horn has sounded. They have no interest in talking about a game afterwards, either. Even worse, they often make jokes about it. They were once hard core; now they are not. Time, and crappiness, has eroded their emotional attachment. SU has lost a young generation of fans and turned an older generation of fans into less-rabid fans. Some winning seasons will help, but it doesn't change what we currently have devolved to. [/QUOTE]

Verification: What is a Syracuse fan's favorite color?