Steubenville's Travels (Or Lack Thereof)

A

algernonsidney

Well-known member
I decided to look up something. I went all the way back to 1961 and counted all the regular-season games that Steubenville has played away from home. As many may have guessed here, it's not very many. Fortunately, it's all pretty easy to get if you just go to Roll Red Roll. Kudos to MANOWAR for keeping up a great web site:

http://www.rollredroll.com/results6180.htm

Anyway, here are the numbers from 1961. These are all ten-game seasons:

1961 - 2
1962 - 2
1963 - 2
1964 - 2
1965 - 3
1966 - 1
1967 - 3
1968 - 3
1969 - 3
1970 - 2
1971 - 3
1972 - 2
1973 - 3
1974 - 2
1975 - 3
1976 - 2
1977 - 3
1978 - 3
1979 - 3
1980 - 3
1981 - 2
1982 - 1
1983 - 2
1984 - 2
1985 - 2
1986 - 3
1987 - 1
1988 - 2
1989 - 2
1990 - 2
1991 - 2
1992 - 1
1993 - 3
1994 - 1
1995 - 3
1996 - 2
1997 - 2
1998 - 3
1999 - 3
2000 - 3
2001 - 3
2002 - 4
2003 - 3
2004 - 2 (1N)
2005 - 3
2006 - 3
2007 - 3
2008 - 3
2009 - 2 (1N)
2010 - 1 (1N)
2011 - 2
2012 - 2
2013 - 4
2014 - 1
2015 - 3
2016 - 2

Here are the totals is by decade:
61-70 - 77-23-0
71-80 - 73-27-0
81-90 - 81-19-0
91-00 - 77-23-0
01-10 - 70-27-3
11-16 - 44-16-0

So, in 56 years, that is 422 home games, 135 road games, and 3 games at neutral sites. That averages to 7.53571428 home games, 2.41071428 road games, and .053571428 games at neutral sites. In 560 games, it's slightly over 75% at home (420 would be exactly 75%).

This all started when I first looked up their road games more than two hours away. In 56 years, it's FIVE:

1995 Mansfield
1997 Chardon
1999 Chillicothe
2000 Chardon
2008 Columbus Watterson

Yes, this is a little more arbitrary. Where is the cutoff for two hours exactly? This does not count games in Akron, Canton, or Zanesville. Of course, this also does not count any road games when they were a member of a conference which included Massillon Washington, Canton McKinley, Niles McKinley, Alliance, and Warren Harding.

So, here are my questions for everyone else:

In the last 56 years, has anybody in Ohio played more home games?
Has anybody played a higher percentage of home games?
Has anybody went 56 years without ever playing a schedule of five home games and five road games?
Has anybody played only two seasons with four games on the road?

NOTE: The bold print indicates a repeating decimal. I like to be exact.
 
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algernonsidney said:
I decided to look up something. I went all the way back to 1961 and counted all the regular-season games that Steubenville has played away from home. As many may have guessed here, it's not very many. Fortunately, it's all pretty easy to get if you just go to Roll Red Roll. Kudos to MANOWAR for keeping up a great web site:

http://www.rollredroll.com/results6180.htm

Anyway, here are the numbers from 1961. These are all ten-game seasons:

1961 - 2
1962 - 2
1963 - 2
1964 - 2
1965 - 3
1966 - 1
1967 - 3
1968 - 3
1969 - 3
1970 - 2
1971 - 3
1972 - 2
1973 - 3
1974 - 2
1975 - 3
1976 - 2
1977 - 3
1978 - 3
1979 - 3
1980 - 3
1981 - 2
1982 - 1
1983 - 2
1984 - 2
1985 - 2
1986 - 3
1987 - 1
1988 - 2
1989 - 2
1990 - 2
1991 - 2
1992 - 1
1993 - 3
1994 - 1
1995 - 3
1996 - 2
1997 - 2
1998 - 3
1999 - 3
2000 - 3
2001 - 3
2002 - 4
2003 - 3
2004 - 2 (1N)
2005 - 3
2006 - 3
2007 - 3
2008 - 3
2009 - 2 (1N)
2010 - 1 (1N)
2011 - 2
2012 - 2
2013 - 4
2014 - 1
2015 - 3
2016 - 2

Here are the totals is by decade:
61-70 - 77-23-0
71-80 - 73-27-0
81-90 - 81-19-0
91-00 - 77-23-0
01-10 - 70-27-3
11-16 - 44-16-0

So, in 56 years, that is 422 home games, 135 road games, and 3 games at neutral sites. That averages to 7.53571428 home games, 2.41071428 road games, and .053571428 games at neutral sites. In 560 games, it's slightly over 75% at home (420 would be exactly 75%).

This all started when I first looked up their road games more than two hours away. In 56 years, it's FIVE:

1995 Mansfield
1997 Chardon
1999 Chillicothe
2000 Chardon
2008 Columbus Watterson

Yes, this is a little more arbitrary. Where is the cutoff for two hours exactly? This does not count games in Akron, Canton, or Zanesville. Of course, this also does not count any road games when they were a member of a conference which included Massillon Washington, Canton McKinley, Niles McKinley, Alliance, and Warren Harding.

So, here are my questions for everyone else:

In the last 56 years, has anybody in Ohio played more home games?
Has anybody played a higher percentage of home games?
Has anybody went 56 years without ever playing a schedule of five home games and five road games?
Has anybody played only two seasons with four games on the road?

NOTE: The bold print indicates a repeating decimal. I like to be exact.
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Most teams play 5 home games and 5 road games every year. It is an unfair advantage for a team to schedule 7-8 home games when every one else in the region has 5.
Perhaps the OHSAA should award more computer points for victories on the road. Say you get 5.0 points for beating a D-4 team at home and 5.5 points for beating a D-4 team on the road.
 
There shouldn't be any penalty for this. Teams that play 5 home and 5 away choose to do so. Now you can say they are locked into that because of their league but, that's still a choice, if they want it different they can drop the league. Steubenville hasn't been in any league for many years, and quite a few years in their long ago past they weren't in a league either. Amount of home games is a choice, if they choose to have 8 home games and can find opponents that will sign the contract, more power to them.
 
Maybe I'm seeing this wrong but whoever has been scheduling for Steubenville should be in their athletic hall of fame!

Getting more than 5 home games is an art and to be doing this for over 50 years is amazing. I see NO downside to this for the kids playing football, the coaches coaching the team, the school district making more money at the gate, the fans who live in the community that attend the games and all the organizations at the home games that sell concessions to raise money.
 
If they can do it fine, a home game requires a lot of volunteer help so having 7,8 or 9 home games is a testament to the devotion of the BR volunteers to man the consesions,program sales,parking,game ball sales for 5-6 hours each home game.
 
doverbuck said:
If they can do it fine, a home game requires a lot of volunteer help so having 7,8 or 9 home games is a testament to the devotion of the BR volunteers to man the consesions,program sales,parking,game ball sales for 5-6 hours each home game.
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I just threw up on this.
 
Seems pretty smart to me. Well done Big Red.

Just what we need. More intervention and rules to placate every perceived slight or advantage. SOMETHING MUST BE DONE!
 
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Brilliant...

Think of the 50/50 $, fund raising events... most schools schedule a 2 year contract away/home for Big Red to pull this off year in year out is a testament of commitment from there school and community. I often wonder if Big Red was consistently a 3-7 team if the haters still come out the wood work to bash them. Maybe they don't even become a national news story a few years ago.
 
I'd be thrilled if my team could play 7 or 8 home games a year for a prolonged period (assuming the school could make money on all those games).
 
hopin to cash said:
Think of the 50/50 $, fund raising events... most schools schedule a 2 year contract away/home for Big Red to pull this off year in year out is a testament of commitment from there school and community. I often wonder if Big Red was consistently a 3-7 team if the haters still come out the wood work to bash them. Maybe they don't even become a national news story a few years ago.
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Hopin.... great point. The rape story isn't even a story in so many places. If it happens (and it does everywhere in America) in a place of a mediocre football program it would have gotten little to no attention. Right here in good ole Ohio similar stories made 3rd or 4th page stories in the local section of newspapers.

About the travel.....if you can do it why not. The gate at those games allow Big Red to do things for the sports programs that most others cannot do. Without 7 or 8 home games, one of the best stadiums in Ohio still has grass. They just built a brand new beautiful visitors locker room along with freshman locker rooms. That have replaced both end zone stands along with an expensive fabulous new scoreboard. Not to mention a great gymnasium and natatorium. Most, if not all of this is not possible without gate receipts from football, levy passing voters and generous fans. Bottom line is those crying about our home games would do the same if they could. :wallbang:
 
arizonawildcat said:
Of course, if Big red went on the road, their win-loss record might be more slightly titled toward the losing side.
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I think that goes without saying. Which is why, for a sport without much standardization in regular season scheduling and a numerical system created to adjust for that, perhaps it wouldn't be a bad idea to weight road victories slightly more for Harbins.
 
They do bring in top notch programs to play. While there are some advantages to playing at home, they could enhance that advantage by playing patsies and they don't do that. Also, I think every head coach would take having 7 or 8 home games a year.
 
Crimson and Black said:
Hopin.... great point. The rape story isn't even a story in so many places. If it happens (and it does everywhere in America) in a place of a mediocre football program it would have gotten little to no attention. Right here in good ole Ohio similar stories made 3rd or 4th page stories in the local section of newspapers.

About the travel.....if you can do it why not. The gate at those games allow Big Red to do things for the sports programs that most others cannot do. Without 7 or 8 home games, one of the best stadiums in Ohio still has grass. They just built a brand new beautiful visitors locker room along with freshman locker rooms. That have replaced both end zone stands along with an expensive fabulous new scoreboard. Not to mention a great gymnasium and natatorium. Most, if not all of this is not possible without gate receipts from football, levy passing voters and generous fans. Bottom line is those crying about our home games would do the same if they could. :wallbang:
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That might be the stupidest thing ever posted on this site.

You are a complete idiot.
 
I remember when CnB spent weeks blaming the girl for the incident...so it's less than surprising that he's going Full Ratard here. :laugh:
 
Some years back, the late Fairwood King, (a Steubenville native and Big Red backer/poster who knew Reno personally) posted here that he asked Reno about the high number of home games and was told that Steubenville made a lot more money by playing at home to packed houses at Harding Stadium, and that even if he had to pay extra large guarantees, or pickup hotel/motel and some other travel costs for some opposition, the program still invariably came out way ahead financially.

Money always talks so I tend to believe they do this more for the substantial income rather than purely for competitive reasons. I'm sure the competition side is a sweet bonus, plus the fact that their fans must love having 7-8 home games a season to watch a winning team play generally quality opposition.

Steubenville is in a league (The very large W VA-Ohio OVAC) but the scheduling requirements aren't onerous, they only have to play a couple of league members a season.

Even if most teams quit their leagues to try and do this (most schools wouldn't dream of voluntarily leaving their leagues) most couldn't even hope to pull this off. You need to be a State Power type team with a rabid following to do this. You can count the teams around the State up pretty quickly that could do this. Warren Harding, Massillon both spring to mind. I'm sure there are others too, but they aren't close to being in the majority.
 
I do not know what Steubenville pays the visiting teams to come play in their backyard, but if I was a A.D. it would be home and home or I would not play. End of subject. Strange how many teams that end up needing a game end up for the one and only with Big Red. I do not know how much the Steubenville A.D. gets paid but he earns his money with the amount of time and work he has to go through filling out the football schedule each year.
 
Bennies'01 said:
What evidence? Are their home and road winning percentages roughly equal?
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No clue, I was going by their incredible playoff record over the decades. I don't think it would make much difference if they played another game or two away.

Although It would be interesting to see the difference in winning percentages home and away. I'm sure Manowar would have that number handy.
 
19AL63 said:
I do not know what Steubenville pays the visiting teams to come play in their backyard, but if I was a A.D. it would be home and home or I would not play. End of subject. Strange how many teams that end up needing a game end up for the one and only with Big Red. I do not know how much the Steubenville A.D. gets paid but he earns his money with the amount of time and work he has to go through filling out the football schedule each year.
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I'm guessing your team is Avon Lake and so the money of an extra large guarantee doesn't mean as much to you as getting your fans a home game in return for your road trip. A school like Avon Lake will always put more of a priority on having 5 home and 5 road than it will bringing in the extra cash because you don't need it.

What you aren't seeing is that plenty of districts DO need/want the extra guarantee money that Steubenville can and does pay to visiting programs. It wouldn't shock me to see the consolidated Parma High on a Steubenville schedule soon, even if they are to be a large D I program, because they DO need the money.
 
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