Speaking of attendance woes

[Charleston Pony]

as the spotlight brightens on those I-A programs that can't average 15k attendance, here's what happened with some of the "bubble" teams yesterday:

La-Lafayette - 11,127 against Houston
Idaho - 14,320 against rival Boise St
Central Michigan - 12,128 vs E.Ky (I-AA)
Bowling Green - 13,096 vs I-AA Liberty
Akron - 10,262 against E.Mich (conf foe)

Wyoming & UAB didn't report their attendance figures, or at least they weren't available on the two sites I visited (CBS & ESPN)

On the plus side, Buffalo drew 20,324 for Colgate, Kent St drew 20,172 from I-AA powerhouse Youngstown State, Arkansas State drew 21,134 for SE Missou and Tulsa attracted 35,000 for their game with Texas State, thanks to a gimmick $1 ticket promotion.

I expect we may draw close to 25k for OSU and hopefully will draw well for TCU (20k plus?) but we might need to start now with a campaign to put ome butts in the seats for those Fresno & Boise games.

[This message has been edited by Charleston Pony (edited 09-14-2003).]

[This message has been edited by Charleston Pony (edited 09-14-2003).]

[Sam I Am]

The Tulsa $1 special is what it would take to fill seats for other than OSU and TCU.

[PK]

I thought that to meet attendance requirements, all tickets sold that would be counted would have had to have been sold at no less than half the normal price.

[PlanoStang]

The bottom 50% of division NCAA 1A, and the rest of the lower NCAA divisons need to get together to vote the BCS conference schools out of the NCAA. Let them go form some semi-pro football league with 50 - 60 teams. Thats
what they're wishing, and working for anyway with all these attendance restrictions, etc. and more than a few of them are already semi-pro.

Then the smaller new NCAA doesn't schedule any of those schools in any sport. Lets see what would happen their basketball programs are no longer able to compete in the NCAA March madness tournament where smaller schools have a fair chance to compete, often
do well, and make it fun to watch. Same with baseball. Go Rice!

I'm tired of the tail wagging the dog just because it has all the TV ratings, and money in a major sport or 2. They want to eat the cake, have it too + all the money and with less competition.

Maybe its time to let them have their wish.

Just thinkin out loud, and maybe I feel a little better too )

[DallasBear]

Charleston-

Today's DMN had the box score for the Kansas at Wyoming game and they listed 18,329 in Laramie.

I thought our game last night was severely undercounted. Looked closer to 40,000 than the just over 30K+ that was listed.

[Charleston Pony]

thanks, DallasBear. I tend to asssume when those numbers aren't reported that the schools are embarrassed and they didn't meet the 15k figure. Wyoming is defintely the weak link in the MWC, sttendance wise. I see even New Mexico drew 33k, a near capactity crowd for them.

[OldPony]

It was also raining, windy and about 35 degrees for Wyoming fans.

[GoRedGoBlue]

There weren't 30k at that Baylor-SMU game, more like 22k...SMU looked to have several thousand there...

[Sic_em]

GoRedGoBlue,

No way the Mustangs brought several thousand unless you mean two or three thousand. Baylor had the home side virtually full except for some of each end section. The visitor side was primarily Baylor students. The SMU group looked pretty small to me. I was expecting 5,000 minimum but no way you were anywhere close to that.

[DallasBear]

Charleston, no problem. I believe that NM expanded their stadium, and with BYU in town, I actually expected a slightly larger crowd than that, but still not bad.

Go Red, you need some work on your estimating skills. Like Sic 'Em said, the press box side was almost entirely full, and the North end zone was pretty full as well. SMU brought a nice contingent like I said in another post, but lets not get carried away.