Even if we...

[One Trick Pony]

Doesn’t have to be a big crowd for me to enjoy the game.

When my son played at Tyler Junior College I remember traveling to a Ranger Junior College game. In the guest stands there were 4 people all of whom drove with me in the car. LOL

When my son played for the Knights in Florida they were all complaining because only 22,000 people showed up to a game at the Citrus Bowl. I though that was a great crowd compared to 104.

Just to give you a perspective of the national attendance average here are the official numbers .




2006 NCAA DIVISION I FBS FOOTBALL ATTENDANCE TEAM LEADERS
Rank School G Attendance Average
1. Michigan 7 770,183 110,026
2. Penn St. 7 752,972 107,567
3. Tennessee 7 740,521 105,789
4. Ohio St. 7 735,674 105,096
5. Georgia 7 649,222 92,746
6. LSU 8 737,696 92,212
7. Alabama 8 737,104 92,138
8. Southern California 6 548,880 91,480
9. Florida 7 632,866 90,409
10. Texas 7 619,534 88,505
11. Auburn 8 680,506 85,063
12. Nebraska 7 595,309 85,044
13. Oklahoma 6 507,366 84,561
14. Clemson 7 580,942 82,992
15. Wisconsin 7 569,576 81,368
16. Notre Dame 7 565,565 80,795
17. Florida St. 8 644,256 80,532
18. Texas A&M 7 531,894 75,985
19. South Carolina 7 529,412 75,630
20. Arkansas 6 443,368 73,895
21. Michigan St. 7 495,731 70,819
22. Iowa 7 494,095 70,585
23. Virginia Tech 8 529,864 66,233
24. UCLA 7 454,683 64,955
25. California 7 450,223 64,318
26. Brigham Young 6 363,146 60,524
27. West Virginia 7 411,408 58,773
28. Oregon 6 350,267 58,378
29. Virginia 6 346,389 57,732
30. Washington 6 344,897 57,483
31. Kentucky 7 401,307 57,330
32. North Carolina St. 7 395,779 56,540
33. Missouri 7 391,424 55,918
34. Arizona 7 390,589 55,798
35. Purdue 7 388,198 55,457
36. Arizona St. 6 327,369 54,562
37. Mississippi 7 376,604 53,801
38. Minnesota 6 313,239 52,207
39. Texas Tech 6 305,243 50,874
40. Georgia Tech 7 354,321 50,617
41. Maryland 7 345,752 49,393
42. North Carolina 7 342,000 48,857
43. Kansas St. 8 373,547 46,693
44. Iowa St. 7 323,197 46,171
Rank School G Attendance Average
45. Colorado 6 276,286 46,048
46. Kansas 7 308,961 44,137
47. Illinois 7 304,118 43,445
48. Pittsburgh 7 303,138 43,305
49. Utah 6 259,675 43,279
50. UTEP 6 254,662 42,444
51. Miami (Fla.) 7 293,359 41,908
52. Stanford 5 208,710 41,742
53. Mississippi St. 7 290,688 41,527
54. Louisville 6 248,891 41,482
55. Rutgers 6 246,675 41,113
56. Oklahoma St. 6 245,726 40,954
57. Oregon St. 7 285,808 40,830
58. Connecticut 7 272,576 38,939
59. Boston College 7 271,903 38,843
60. Fresno St. 6 231,307 38,551
61. Air Force 6 228,206 38,034
62. Syracuse 6 223,577 37,263
63. East Caro. 6 223,006 37,168
64. Baylor 7 259,559 37,080
65. Hawaii 8 292,708 36,589
66. Vanderbilt 6 209,168 34,861
67. Washington St. 7 242,698 34,671
68. Navy 5 166,375 33,275
69. Indiana 7 231,443 33,063
70. Wake Forest 6 195,091 32,515
71. Memphis 7 227,077 32,440
72. TCU 6 191,557 31,926
73. UCF 7 220,980 31,569
74. Army 5 153,469 30,694
75. Boise St. 6 182,718 30,453
76. South Fla. 6 181,333 30,222
77. San Diego St. 6 175,364 29,227
78. Southern Miss. 6 173,963 28,994
79. New Mexico 7 200,431 28,633
80. Northwestern 6 167,973 27,996
81. Marshall 5 130,155 26,031
82. Colorado St. 5 120,916 24,183
Rank School G Attendance Average
83. UAB 6 138,835 23,139
84. Middle Tenn. St. 5 110,185 22,037
85. Houston 8 175,277 21,910
86. Central Mich. 5 107,817 21,563
87. Tulsa 6 128,186 21,36488. Troy 5 104,048 20,810
89. Northern Ill. 6 124,623 20,771
90. Cincinnati 7 142,613 20,373
91. Toledo 6 121,863 20,311
92. Duke 7 137,061 19,580
93. UNLV 6 115,442 19,240
94. Wyoming 6 114,653 19,109
95. Arkansas St. 5 95,344 19,069
96. Tulane 5 94,710 18,942
97. San Jose St. 7 131,978 18,854
98. Western Mich. 5 93,124 18,625
99. La.-Monroe 5 111,564 18,594
100. New Mexico St. 7 123,172 17,596
101. Kent St. 5 85,018 17,004
102. Bowling Green 4 67,335 16,834
103. Nevada 6 100,367 16,728
104. Ohio 5 83,622 16,724
105. Buffalo 5 82,084 16,417
106. Akron 5 80,658 16,132
107. Temple 4 63,241 15,810
108. North Texas 5 78,249 15,650
109. Southern Methodist 6 92,565 15,428
110. Miami (Ohio) 5 76,219 15,244
111. Florida Int'l 5 75,552 15,110
112. Ball St. 6 90,367 15,061
113. Rice 4 59,041 14,760
114. Eastern Mich. 4 58,934 14,734
115. Louisiana Tech 5 72,928 14,586
116. Idaho 5 72,717 14,543
117. La.-Lafayette 6 87,096 14,516
118. Utah St. 5 56,800 11,360
119. Fla. Atlantic 5 46,382 9,276

The NCAA does not have the 2007 records up for some reason. I think UCF was about 42000 per game last year with the new on campus stadium


Well we are #1 on one of the lists. But it's the wrong one!
http://web1.ncaa.org/d1mfb/2007/Interne ... t_loss.pdf

[SmooBoy]

The 2007 totals are available at http://web1.ncaa.org/d1mfb/Internet/attendance/IA_AVGATTENDANCE.pdf

And you are right, UCF averaged just over 44k per game and rated #50.

[couch 'em]

I'd love to see a list that compares attendance with the number of living alumni.

[Longtime]

I contend that the smallish crowds SMU averaged back in the 1980s were a product of the times. Keep in mind that until the Mack Brown era UT wasn't filling its stadium. And even recently, I believe A&M has had trouble coaxing a full house for some of its home games. Texas Tech has also seen ramped-up ticket sales in the last 7-10 years.

The trend of fully-packed college stadiums is a rather recent one in Texas. The Southwest Conference was not the SEC in terms of fan support. Joining the Big 12 may have jump-started fan interest in Texas schools. I also think colleges in general have gotten smarter about marketing, particularly in emphasizing season ticket sales, and in making a college game a happening scene.

Back in the 1980s we had Mustang Mania, but that was more about giving away tickets, not selling them. SMU, because of its size, could never fill a 60,000-seat stadium every Saturday. But with today's marketing techniques and other avenues for fan access, I believe an 11-0-1 SMU playing in a major conference would draw much better than we did in the 1980s.

[03Mustang]

I contend that the smallish crowds SMU averaged back in the 1980s were a product of the times. Keep in mind that until the Mack Brown era UT wasn't filling its stadium. And even recently, I believe A&M has had trouble coaxing a full house for some of its home games. Texas Tech has also seen ramped-up ticket sales in the last 7-10 years.

The trend of fully-packed college stadiums is a rather recent one in Texas. The Southwest Conference was not the SEC in terms of fan support. Joining the Big 12 may have jump-started fan interest in Texas schools. I also think colleges in general have gotten smarter about marketing, particularly in emphasizing season ticket sales, and in making a college game a happening scene.

Back in the 1980s we had Mustang Mania, but that was more about giving away tickets, not selling them. SMU, because of its size, could never fill a 60,000-seat stadium every Saturday. But with today's marketing techniques and other avenues for fan access, I believe an 11-0-1 SMU playing in a major conference would draw much better than we did in the 1980s.

I think this is an excellent point - look at how the NFL struggled back in the 70s and 80s; it wasn't until the mid to late 90s that attendance, TV ratings, and revenue really shot through the roof.

[ozfan]

As a young boy I attended the last game SMU played in the old Ownby Stadium If I am correct the stadium seated about 25,000. The team had to move to the Cotton Bowl because of a larger crowd size. A lot of this was caused by the pulling power of Walker but for quite a few years SMU was able to pull in good attendance. The start of TV games and bad SMU teams killed a lot of the attendance.

[SC Pony]

Walker wasn't playing in the last game at Ownby (in the early 1990's I believe).

[ozfan]

Walker wasn't playing in the last game at Ownby (in the early 1990's I believe).

I am referring to the 1948 game against I belive Texas Tech who was playing in the Border Conference at the time. Dont you younguns know anything

[MustangLaxer]

tailgate is well attended...that should count for something

[RednBlue11]

tailgate is well attended...that should count for something

butts in the stands is what counts for anything

[Longtime]

As a young boy I attended the last game SMU played in the old Ownby Stadium If I am correct the stadium seated about 25,000. The team had to move to the Cotton Bowl because of a larger crowd size. A lot of this was caused by the pulling power of Walker but for quite a few years SMU was able to pull in good attendance. The start of TV games and bad SMU teams killed a lot of the attendance.

What killed SMU attendance was the arrival of the Dallas Cowboys, pure and simple.

SMU doesn't just share a city with an NFL franchise, it has to be in the same city with one of the most popular sports teams on the planet. Just our luck.

[RednBlue11]

As a young boy I attended the last game SMU played in the old Ownby Stadium If I am correct the stadium seated about 25,000. The team had to move to the Cotton Bowl because of a larger crowd size. A lot of this was caused by the pulling power of Walker but for quite a few years SMU was able to pull in good attendance. The start of TV games and bad SMU teams killed a lot of the attendance.

What killed SMU attendance was the arrival of the Dallas Cowboys, pure and simple.

SMU doesn't just share a city with an NFL franchise, it has to be in the same city with one of the most popular sports teams on the planet. Just our luck.

so how do you explain the popularity of smu in the 70's and 80's when the cowboys were at their height?...i bet you people wouldnt go to games even if the cowboys werent in dallas being this bad at football

[mrydel]

As a young boy I attended the last game SMU played in the old Ownby Stadium If I am correct the stadium seated about 25,000. The team had to move to the Cotton Bowl because of a larger crowd size. A lot of this was caused by the pulling power of Walker but for quite a few years SMU was able to pull in good attendance. The start of TV games and bad SMU teams killed a lot of the attendance.

What killed SMU attendance was the arrival of the Dallas Cowboys, pure and simple.

SMU doesn't just share a city with an NFL franchise, it has to be in the same city with one of the most popular sports teams on the planet. Just our luck.

so how do you explain the popularity of smu in the 70's and 80's when the cowboys were at their height?...i bet you people wouldnt go to games even if the cowboys werent in dallas being this bad at football

We averaged about 25,000 a game or less in the 70s and 80s. I do not think that classifies as popular.

[RednBlue11]

As a young boy I attended the last game SMU played in the old Ownby Stadium If I am correct the stadium seated about 25,000. The team had to move to the Cotton Bowl because of a larger crowd size. A lot of this was caused by the pulling power of Walker but for quite a few years SMU was able to pull in good attendance. The start of TV games and bad SMU teams killed a lot of the attendance.

What killed SMU attendance was the arrival of the Dallas Cowboys, pure and simple.

SMU doesn't just share a city with an NFL franchise, it has to be in the same city with one of the most popular sports teams on the planet. Just our luck.

well way the stadium bigger or smaller than it is now?


so how do you explain the popularity of smu in the 70's and 80's when the cowboys were at their height?...i bet you people wouldnt go to games even if the cowboys werent in dallas being this bad at football

We averaged about 25,000 a game or less in the 70s and 80s. I do not think that classifies as popular.

[mrydel]

The stadium held either 75,000 (Cotton Bowl) or 65,000 (Texas Stadium).