SBC Football Attendance

[fanof71]

So many impressive things about App. Just from watching yesterday it's crazy how bought in their students are. The whole section in the stands is full and the entire endzone hill area looked like college kids. Student participation like that ensures they are set for generations.

The thing that blew me away when I made the trip up there Billy's first season was how far their fans travel to watch the Mountaineers. The people who took my friend and I in to their tailgate lived 3 or so hours away in the Raleigh area. We stayed at a hotel about an hour away down the mountain, and it was full of App fans in the morning. That's like if we had a hotel full of Cajun fans staying in Jennings the night before a game (willing to travel to Lafayette for the game and have to stay an hour outside). I see no reason not to aspire to be the best (App) but USM and Troy are much more realistic examples of where we could be attendance wise with better marketing, gameday atmosphere, etc, etc, etc.

Zepplin,been saying the above for several seasons about App Fan...

[CajunFun]

NO and NEVER will ULM surpass Louisiana Tech in anything. As for BR/Nola, we get was LSU won’t touch.

'Never' tends to be a long time. FSU used to be a women's college. VA Tech was a small military school. UL is (as my memory serves me) 1-1 against Miami football; they were a doormat forever, and almost shut down football before they hired Schnellenberger.

Oh, and the SBC used to be the dregs of the FBS.

You may be right, we may never beat LSU...

...but that's only because LSU keeps changing the rules. The Tiger fans tell us, "Oh, you'll never be as good as LSU," and as soon as we beat them in anything, they claim that that activity is not important.

Anymore.

Of course, that's about to get hard for them to keep up. As I have noted, LSU has 3x our faculty, 4x our funding, and 5x our doctoral programs...

...and yet, UL's research funding has surpassed the BR campus (they report higher, but they 'erroneously' include separate entities: Pennington, Ag Extension & the Law School are all independent institutions under the LSU System, and their funding should be listed separately). And FWIW, our research funding is going to start surging even faster.

I've mentioned this before, but after ULM shellacked us last year, I was visiting with one of their alums. He was saying we needed to add Tech to the 'Belt. I said I doubted that would happen, but then pointed out to him that right now was ULM's chance to pass Tech.

He got really quiet & thoughtful.

Tech has made a lot of bone-headed decisions over the last few decades, athletically, academically, politically, & socially. They kept jumping in la merde and then somehow bounced out smiling and smelling like hot-house gardenias.

Until they didn't. Trust me, Tech is boxed in on all sides, and their past choices have left them without great options for the future. If the ULM admin plays their cards right, they could dominate north Louisiana.

Again, 'never' gets into long time-frames...

[CajunFun]

Speaking of reported vs. actual, UAB reported about 21K. It didn't look like that much before the delay, but I assume most of the people in the area knew that storm was gonna be rolling through.

It didn't even look like 21 people total.

[CajunFun]

Week 1
1. Gardner Webb @ App State - 36,075
2. Alcorn @ Southern Miss - 30,335
3. SFA @ Troy - 28,179
4. Albany @ Marshall - 25,101
5. Bucknell @ JMU - 23,756
6. Army @ ULM - 18,914
7. NSU @ Louisiana - 18,186
8. Citadel @ Georgia Southern - 17,803
9. URI @ Georgia Southern - 15,546 (Thursday)

Week 2
1. UAB @ Georgia Southern - 20,103
2. Memphis @ Arkansas State - 18,724
3. Louisiana @ ODU - 18,154
4. Jacksonville State @ CCU - 16,006
5. Southeastern LA @ South Al - 15,237
6. UConn @ Georgia State - 15,186
7. Lamar @ ULM - 13,154

Week 3
1. ECU @ App State - 40,168
2. JMU @ Troy - 26,634
3. Tulane @ USM - 25,038
4. Jackson State @ TX State - 24,118
5. Wake Forest @ ODU - 18,276
6. Duquesne @ CCU - 18,116
7. Stony Brook @ Arkansas State - 14,327

Thanks. Again, the mid-major schools in cities/regions with a lot of weekend choices tend to have smaller crowds. Even Tulane hosting Ole Miss last week got only 30K... granted, that's capacity for Yulman, but my understanding is that UM brought a boatload of fans.

[CajunFun]

So many impressive things about App. Just from watching yesterday it's crazy how bought in their students are. The whole section in the stands is full and the entire endzone hill area looked like college kids. Student participation like that ensures they are set for generations.

The thing that blew me away when I made the trip up there Billy's first season was how far their fans travel to watch the Mountaineers. The people who took my friend and I in to their tailgate lived 3 or so hours away in the Raleigh area. We stayed at a hotel about an hour away down the mountain, and it was full of App fans in the morning. That's like if we had a hotel full of Cajun fans staying in Jennings the night before a game (willing to travel to Lafayette for the game and have to stay an hour outside). I see no reason not to aspire to be the best (App) but USM and Troy are much more realistic examples of where we could be attendance wise with better marketing, gameday atmosphere, etc, etc, etc.

You ever been to the Boonedocks? Except for outdoor activities (which I must admit, are excellent) there's not a lot to do there on a Saturday night.

[BeauCajun]

Speaking of reported vs. actual, UAB reported about 21K. It didn't look like that much before the delay, but I assume most of the people in the area knew that storm was gonna be rolling through.

We were there. Maybe 10K pre-storm. We checked the weather all day. Heck, we were baking during tailgating. No indication rain was on the way. Not until game time did we see the rain clouds coming in from the west.

[Esqueleto]

We were there. Maybe 10K pre-storm. We checked the weather all day. Heck, we were baking during tailgating. No indication rain was on the way. Not until game time did we see the rain clouds coming in from the west.

This is the pic I took just before kickoff. 10k is probably right on

[zeppelincajun]

Appreciate the info Beau and Esqueleto. Less than 50% turn out from sold is pretty wild. Must have a decent bit of corporate tickets.

[zeppelincajun]

Week 4:

1. Virginia Tech @ Marshall - 31,475
2. WKU @ Troy - 26,124
3. Nevada @ Texas State - 19,257
4. CMU @ South Al - 18,369
5. Buffalo @ Louisiana - 17,674
6. Texas A&M Commerce @ ODU - 16,938
7. Southern Miss @ Arkansas State - 16,601
8. Georgia State @ Coastal Carolina - 15,248

[zeppelincajun]

That South Al crowd is pretty shocking, but I guess it shows how tough it is to get people to a game now. Coming off their best season in program history, coming off a blowout win over a P5 opponent, brand new stadium, etc. etc. can't crack 19,000. There are a few SBC programs who have cracked the code (App, Troy, Southern Miss, and Marshall). Other than that it's varying levels of mediocrity with a few good crowds thrown in every now and then.

[ZoomZoom]

That South Al crowd is pretty shocking, but I guess it shows how tough it is to get people to a game now. Coming off their best season in program history, coming off a blowout win over a P5 opponent, brand new stadium, etc. etc. can't crack 19,000. There are a few SBC programs who have cracked the code (App, Troy, Southern Miss, and Marshall). Other than that it's varying levels of mediocrity with a few good crowds thrown in every now and then.

Bama was playing.

[zeppelincajun]

Week 5:
1. Coastal @ Georgia Southern - 26,483
2. South Al @ JMU - 26,064
3. ODU @ Marshall - 22,652
4. Texas State @ Southern Miss - 21,304
5. App State @ ULM - 19,919
6. Troy @ Georgia State - 16,536

Week 6:
1. Arkansas State @ Troy - 26,957
2. ODU @ Southern Miss - 23,011
3. Texas State @ Louisiana - 15,053
4. South Al @ ULM - 12,099

2nd lowest attended game of this two week stretch, only topped by Monroe. Yikes.