NCAA sends letter for low attendance

[Mustangs35SMU]

Saw this on the CUSA boards so thought I would post it here also.

http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/1%2C1249 ... %2C00.html

Utah State University told to boost attendance
By Jay Hinton
Deseret Morning News

Utah State University was one of three Western Athletic Conference institutions to receive a letter of notice from the NCAA for not meeting the required minimum of 15,000 fans for football games as mandated by the collegiate sports governing body, and if the Aggies miss the mark again in 2006, they could face sanctions.
"We need to make it this year or we will, as Karl (Benson, WAC Commissioner) said, face postseason (penalties)," Utah State athletic director Randy Spetman said.
Utah State, San Jose State, New Mexico State and 10 other Division I institutions received the letter.
In 2004, the NCAA said: "Institutions must meet the requirements to remain a Division I-A institution in the sport of football. If a college or university does not meet the requirements in a given year, it will receive a notice letter. If it does not meet the standards again at any time during a 10-year period, the institution will be placed in restricted status and not be eligible for postseason competition in football."
Per NCAA bylaws, should any team miss the mark three times in a 10-year period, it could lose its Division I-A status in football only.
Eastern Michigan drew the fewest fans, averaging 5,219 per game. It was behind Kent State (6,658); Buffalo (8,914); Rice (10,072); Akron (10,893) and Utah State (10,896).
San Jose State averaged 12,506 and New Mexico State 12,557. Others receiving letters were Temple (12,735), Ball State (12,953), Tulane (14,242), Louisiana Monroe (14,617) and Bowling Green (14,929).
Spetman, who saw the attendance number drop by nearly 9,000 from 2005, doesn't anticipate missing the number again.
"We have a plan to ensure that it doesn't happen through marketing and selling tickets," Spetman said. "We've let our fans know and our alumni know we need to be comfortable in meeting our 15,000 average. I am reasonably comfortable because we have Utah at our place and we'll sell that out so it gives us a buffer in case we get a big snowstorm for the last New Mexico State game."
The Aggies averaged 10,896 fans last year in five home dates, which ranked 112th of 117 teams. They originally had a six-game schedules, but the season opener with Nicholls State was canceled due to Hurricane Katrina.
Spetman said filling Romney Stadium comes down to one element — winning.
"If we're winning, we'll have great crowds," he said.
Last year, the Aggies finished 3-8 and two of the three wins came at home over UNLV and San Jose State.
The Aggies open the home slate Sept. 16 with Utah. Currently, the Aggies have around 3,000 season-ticket holders.
"Characteristic of my two years here, ticket sales lag until it gets closer to football," Spetman said. "It's hard to get people to think about football now or earlier when we started our campaign. I'm optimistic that our season ticket sales will still go up."
In their first three home games last year with UNLV, San Jose State and Boise State, the Aggies drew more than 12,000 per game, with the biggest crowd of 12,922 against Boise. In the final two home games of the year, the Aggies drew 9,457 for Louisiana Tech and 7,153 for Nevada.
Utah State will make a bigger push to connect with the student body and hope to draw 6,000 students to each game, Spetman said.
The athletic department has various ticket packages and programs available for every age group and what Spetman feels are considerable prices.
"I don't think we've overpriced them. We don't want to give our product away and we also have to make our budget," he said. "We have some (ticket packages) we will release here — we're just putting the final touches on it — for some different single-game marketing ideas."
Along with Utah, the Aggies host Idaho (Sept. 30); Fresno State (Oct. 7); Hawaii (Nov. 4) and New Mexico State (Nov. 25).

[RGV Pony]

we need to find out what his plan is for drawing 6,000 students to a game. Half that would be nice!

[smupony94]

I can understand Tulane last year but yikes to Rice

[Peruna2001]

That's not really fair to Tulane. They need to put an asterisk next to that one. But, I agree...Rice...ouch!

[jtstang]

The only reason SMU is not on that list is the NCAA changed the rule to count tickets sold. If they's stuck with actual attendance I feel pretty sure SMU would have fallen below the required average of 15k and gotten such a letter. I'm pretty sure the same applies to NTSU.

[EastStang]

I guess they count students who paid their activities fees as sold tickets.

[PonySnob]

The only reason SMU is not on that list is the NCAA changed the rule to count tickets sold. If they's stuck with actual attendance I feel pretty sure SMU would have fallen below the required average of 15k and gotten such a letter. I'm pretty sure the same applies to NTSU.

It will be interesting to see what attendance is like this year. We don't have a "rent-a-fans" game this year...so our attendance give a solid look at our "fan base".

[Eddie P]

When Copeland was here, it was this season that worried him from an attendance standpoint. This was the season where those who claimed that "having a winning record coming out of September" by playing "winnable games" against "beatable opponents" would translate into increased attendance. We will see...

Snob is right; we do not have a big draw like we've had every year for the last several years to boost our attendance. And I predict the tuesday game on Halloween will either be a raging success or a Fresno St in the cotton bowl disaster, attendance-wise.

[Bergermeister]

A dynamite season ticket campaign that could sell 12,000-15,000 season tickets would solve a lot of problems.

[SMU Football Blog]

Maybe Copeland should have tried a little harder to get the NTSCC game at home for 2006. Considering they have been begging to play SMU for 10 years, they might have agreed. Oh, wait, gosh. That would have made sense. No wonder Copeland didn't do it.

If Copeland was worrind about attendance with this schedule, it only reassures me that attendance won't be a problem. SMU hasn't had a schedule that made any sense since 2001.

[LA_Mustang]

Rice plays UT at Reliant which I assume counts as a home game for Rice. So they will have no problem this year.

[MustangStealth]

Some more interesting facts not mentioned in the article:

> Houston had the lowest average attendance over 15K (15,054)

> Nobody in the Sun Belt averaged over 20K, with Troy being closest at 19,425

> In addition to the schools mentioned, 3 more WAC schools average below 17K (La. Tech, Nevada, and Idaho)

> In the MAC, only 2 schools average over 20K (Toledo and N. Illinois)

> UNLV has the lowest attendance in the MWC (19,914)

> Out of the provisional DIA schools (which apparently were not subject to the restrictions yet), Florida Atlantic averaged 11,476 and would not have met the requirements and Florida Intl. averaged 15,477 (barely safe)

> Half of the MAC did not meet the attendance requirements (6 of 12). One third of the WAC did not meet the requirements (3 of 9). One fourth of the Sun Belt (including provisional members) did not meet the requirements (2 of . If all of these schools were kicked out of DIA, the conferences would have to realign. Conferences are required to have 8 full members in this division, and if they fall below that they have 2 years to get back to 8 or they risk losing their status as member conferences.

> Only 3 BCS schools draw below 30K (Duke, Cincinnati, Wake Forest)


The conclusion I draw from all this is that the whole non-BCS world really needs to step up. That means selling season tickets, travelling to away games within your conference, bringing friends to games, getting community groups to games, etc. We could realistically be looking at just 3 non-BCS conferences in the foreseeable future.

[Charleston Pony]

we've heard from a lot of folks on this board that all it will take to fix our attendance woes is to WIN. Well, this year's home schedule is certainly set up for SMU to test that theory. I'm going to assume this team will be capable of going 4-2 at Ford this year. Going 3-3 will be really disappointing and probably result in another losing season. Should be very interesting to see if we can draw an average of 15,000. The only visitor that travels well is Marshall and I'm afraid that's too long a trip for them to bring their usual 5,000. I don't see anyone else traveling any better than we do, meaning I expect between 500-1,000 from most of our visitors. Actually, when was the last time SMU brought that many on a road trip?

[Mustangs35SMU]

Actually, when was the last time SMU brought that many on a road trip?

Baylor 2003.

[Sam I Am]

SMU fattens its attendance by scheduling teams at Ford stadium who have a good traveling crowd to follow them to Dallas. We have no such games this year. What is the number of season tickets sales this year at this date? That is the true indicator of what to expect for our head counts. I think we might get a warning letter this year, but the 2007 NC schedule will cure the problem.