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According to information out there, the NCAA requires its Division 1 teams to average 15,000 per home game--that's not tickets sold or given away, but tickets purchased and rear ends actually IN the stands. Not necessarily for the whole game--just show up! If it is true that at the Boise State game there were IN THE STANDS only about 4,000 people, and at the other game (forget which) there were 7,000, how does SMU solve the problem of minimal attendance requirements? Is there some marketing program afoot? I understand that next year is the deciding year. How can this problem be solved?

moot point - move on.

To answer your last question first, the easiest way to solve such issues is to win. Plain and simple. You win in Dallas, and suddenly everyone in town "was an SMU fan all along" and will claim to have been one of the diehards in the seats during the lean years.

But this is almost a non-issue. Consider the fact that the place had big crowds for Oklahoma State (27,106) and UTEP (21,412). The crowd against Fresno State was smaller (14,014) and I couldn't find an attendance figure for the Boise State game that nobody in town noticed was played. Let's say, just for the sake of argument, that there were 8,000 at the Boise State game. That gives us 70,532 for the four home games we've had this year. To reach the minimum of 15,000 per game, we'd need to average just under 10,000 per game against Rice and TCU. Rice has a decent local alumni base and will probably bring 500 or more -- maybe 1,000 -- to the game. And you have to believe that especially if TCU is undefeated heading in to the last game, there will be more than enough purple people. I would guess crowds of 15,000 for the Rice game, and nearly 25,000 for the Frogs.

And think of it this way: Conference USA never would have extended a bid to SMU if the attendance issue posed a potential hangup.

Originally posted by geno:
According to information out there, the NCAA requires its Division 1 teams to average 15,000 per home game--that's not tickets sold or given away, but tickets purchased and rear ends actually IN the stands. Not necessarily for the whole game--just show up! If it is true that at the Boise State game there were IN THE STANDS only about 4,000 people, and at the other game (forget which) there were 7,000, how does SMU solve the problem of minimal attendance requirements? Is there some marketing program afoot? I understand that next year is the deciding year. How can this problem be solved?

SMU is NOT dropping down - so you might as well go BEAT ON THIS A WHILE...

<img src="http://www.etriggers.com/gallery/logo.jpg" alt=" - " />


then look at teams like UAB, where they have winning seasons and can't draw 12,000 because everyone in the state goes to Bama or Auburn games