E-mail to Pete Fiutak at CFN
Posted: Thu Jan 20, 2011 12:47 pmhe C.O.W. airing of the grievances followed by the feats of strength
The ten things about the 2010 college football season I’m grouchy about …
10. Bowl attendance
If the NCAA can make a rule saying that only teams with six wins, five against FBS teams, can get into a bowl game, then I want to institute a rule that bowl games must put at least 40,000 fans through the turnstiles with the butts actually sitting in the seats, and not just go by forced tickets sold to the schools (no freaking way were there 65,453 fans in the stands for the Virginia Tech – Stanford Orange Bowl), or it must be called an Exhibition.
If a team can’t get its own fans to care enough to travel to a game, and if the community doesn’t care enough to buy tickets, then why should the rest of the world give a lick?
SMU basically played a home game in the Bell Helicopters Armed Forces Exhibition, and it only sold 36,732 tickets. Maryland couldn’t hit the 40,000 mark for its home game against East Carolina, who always travels relatively well, in the Military Exhibition. So what’s the common thread in the bowl games that struggled to get anyone to care? Non-BCS teams.
Do you want to know why the BCS bowl types aren’t too keen on letting just anyone into their fun? Only two bowl games involving a non-AQ team sold more than 50,000 tickets: the Rose Bowl and the Liberty Bowl (UCF vs. Georgia). The other ten were under 50K.
The ten things about the 2010 college football season I’m grouchy about …
10. Bowl attendance
If the NCAA can make a rule saying that only teams with six wins, five against FBS teams, can get into a bowl game, then I want to institute a rule that bowl games must put at least 40,000 fans through the turnstiles with the butts actually sitting in the seats, and not just go by forced tickets sold to the schools (no freaking way were there 65,453 fans in the stands for the Virginia Tech – Stanford Orange Bowl), or it must be called an Exhibition.
If a team can’t get its own fans to care enough to travel to a game, and if the community doesn’t care enough to buy tickets, then why should the rest of the world give a lick?
SMU basically played a home game in the Bell Helicopters Armed Forces Exhibition, and it only sold 36,732 tickets. Maryland couldn’t hit the 40,000 mark for its home game against East Carolina, who always travels relatively well, in the Military Exhibition. So what’s the common thread in the bowl games that struggled to get anyone to care? Non-BCS teams.
Do you want to know why the BCS bowl types aren’t too keen on letting just anyone into their fun? Only two bowl games involving a non-AQ team sold more than 50,000 tickets: the Rose Bowl and the Liberty Bowl (UCF vs. Georgia). The other ten were under 50K.