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Subject: No love for Dayton Flyers basketball in Cincinnati media
Message: Cincinnati (media) has never given Dayton the credit it deserves. For some reason, there is prejudice from the Cincinnati (media) about the Dayton Flyers. The team 50 miles north is as good as the teams in this area, but I think a lot of us UD alumni believe there’s a conscious effort to keep (Flyers coverage) out.
To respond: The obvious answer is that we are not the Dayton Enquirer. Two cities. Two separate media markets. Cincinnati media will never cover UD regularly. Just like the Dayton media will never cover the Bearcats and Musketeers.
It would be easy to stop here, but this deserves more because you are not the first person to raise this issue.
The University of Dayton has 10,000 alumni living in Greater Cincinnati, according to the UD website. It’s a strong base of alumni from out of town. Some UD alumni based in Cincinnati may identify with both cities, and the media market line may seem blurry to die-hard Flyers fans who live in and around the I-275 loop.
Not all Cincinnati media ignores UD basketball. 700 WLW’s Lance McAlister and ESPN 1530’s Mo Egger, a UD alum, deserve credit. They typically give the Flyers some love on their radio shows during basketball season.
Plus, the Cincinnati media would probably pay a little more attention to the Flyers if they were in the Big East Conference (where they should be) along with old rival Xavier. The annual Dayton-Xavier rivalry ended in 2013 when the Muskies left the Atlantic 10 Conference to move to the Big East. Dayton remains in Atlantic 10.
UC and Dayton renewed their rivalry last December for the first time since 2010. The neutral-site game in Heritage Bank Center drew a crowd of 12,547 people. It was a great turnout from Flyer fans, who shouted “This is our house” as Dayton won the 92nd meeting all-time against UC 82-68. Dayton and UC could play again this season at the Heritage Bank Center, according to College Hoops Today.
Just bias here: I’d love to see Dayton play at least one Greater Cincinnati team every season – and count the Northern Kentucky Norse in the mix too. That would certainly catch my attention.
This article originally appeared in the Cincinnati Enquirer: How Dayton Flyers Basketball Can Get Cincinnati Media Attention
