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Griz top FCS in attendance for second-straight season
- Thread starter UMGriz75
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mtgrizrule
Well-known member
Only 2 other Big Sky teams made the top 30. Despite the GRIZ leading the nation, the conference average was just over 9k per game???? Goes to show how pathetic attendance is outside of Montana. EWU was 3rd in the conference, around 9,500 per game. The Big Sky and much of the FCS is a joke when it comes to fan support.
mtgrizrule said:
Congrats Griz Nation!
And yep. UM has no business at this level. And certainly not in this conference.
Grizbeer
Well-known member
I think you are looking at this wrong - 8 - 9,000 is very good support for FCS level teams. Under 2500 is pathetic attendance for FCS, but 7 - 14,000 is good. There are a few teams like UM, MSU and James Madison that have fan bases (but not necessarily the institutional support) to be at a higher level, and that makes the rest of FCS look bad, but truly 4 - 8,000 per game is what FCS is supposed to be.mtgrizrule said:
UM and MSU combined averaged almost 45k per game. Pretty impressive for a state that can't afford a single FBS team.
IdaGriz01
Well-known member
Lot’s of interesting stuff in that NCAA attendance report. In case you were wondering what conferences beat out the Big Sky, here’s part of the list:
FWIW, the Big Sky averaged closer to ten thousand, not "just over 9k" per game.
But if you want to talk pathetic, let’s pick on the Northeastern Conference. Their average attendance is almost certainly smaller than the number of people who are still drinking at halftime -- and therefore not back in their seats -- for a Griz game.
FYI, Saint Francis (PA), a member of the NEC and first 2016 opponent for the Griz, averaged 1,582 for their home games in 2015. They have, however, played in front of some big crowds in the past couple of years: twice at Youngstown State (14,854 home average) and once at James Madison (19,498). So a WaGriz crowd may be a shock to them, but not something they haven't encountered before.
Code:
1. SWAC 12,823
2. MVFC 10,916
3. BSC 9,877
4. OHV 9,077
5. CAA 9,006
...
13. NEC 2,662But if you want to talk pathetic, let’s pick on the Northeastern Conference. Their average attendance is almost certainly smaller than the number of people who are still drinking at halftime -- and therefore not back in their seats -- for a Griz game.
FYI, Saint Francis (PA), a member of the NEC and first 2016 opponent for the Griz, averaged 1,582 for their home games in 2015. They have, however, played in front of some big crowds in the past couple of years: twice at Youngstown State (14,854 home average) and once at James Madison (19,498). So a WaGriz crowd may be a shock to them, but not something they haven't encountered before.
VimSince03
Well-known member
[tweet]https://twitter.com/SkylineSportsMT/status/733687419728367616[/tweet]
IdaGriz01
Well-known member
The "new" (soon-to-be) Big Sky football member, University of Idaho, averaged 11,653 in attendance in 2015. That would put them a distant third behind UM and MSU and only a couple thousand ahead of EWU. Gonna be interesting to see what their attendance looks like next year, now that they've announced their move down.
IdaGriz01
Well-known member
You may well be right ... in the long run.Yukon said:
But actually, I was thinking about next year. Looking over their schedule, I'm guessing they go 5-7 overall. They play MSU, Troy, NMSU, So Alabama and Georgia State at home. By the time they play Troy for their second home game, they're likely to be 1-3 ... assuming they can beat the kitties in their opening home game. At home, they have a tolerable chance to beat Troy, which has been about as bad as they are. Also, really die-hard fans (assuming UI has any such) might show up hoping the Vandals can win, so they can thumb their noses at the conference that's dumped them. But there's not going to be much to encourage the "casual" fan to turn out.
They have two winnable home games at the end of the season, but by then they're apt to be 3-7 with absolutely nothing to look forward to. I'm guessing their average attendance will fall below 10,000 ... and maybe a lot below that.
SloStang said:
Do you really think that's true? Definitely not for the P5. Maybe you mean just FCS. I could see some truth to that, but I would be surprised if the drop would be as precipitous as in our conference. For the record, I am very happy SLO joined this conference.
SloStang
Well-known member
Yes, I was talking about FCS conferences, but it even hold true in some P5 conferences. Take the Big 10. They averaged 65,998 as a conference. Take out the top two teams , Michigan at 110,168 and Ohio State at 107,244 and the conference average drops to 58,880. The top 7 teams in the Big 10 averaged 88,575. The bottom 7 teams averaged 42,995. Top in the conference was Michigan at 110,168 compared to Northwestern at 33,366.CDAGRIZ said:
