No big secret that college football attendance has been declining in recent years.
The biggest reasons:
- Virtually all the games are on TV or a streaming device.
- Due to ever increasing technology, the TV experience for couch potatoes keeps improving.
- Game times often discourage attendance. In a non-TV world, there would be no day games in the Deep South until mid-October. In late October and November, beautiful days in the Mountain time zone and the Pacific Northwest morph into chilly nights but this reality does not stop lots of night games. Day games at Alabama, Mississippi State and Baylor have already been played in blazing heat.
- The actual game times are often “TBA” for power conference games to kowtow to TV’s whims with game times often not set until 13 days (or in some extreme cases, one week). This is highly problematic for fans who have to drive hours to a game or grab a flight.
- Ticket cost, especially for season ticket holders who are paying for a couple “less desirable” games on the schedule.
- The expansion of the schedule to 12 games over the past decade.
The latest evidence as to the attendance malaise: Marquee names such as Oklahoma, Ohio State, USC were all on the road. In former days, the hosts (UCLA, Indiana and BYU, respectively) would have all sold out. No more. The UCLA situation is easily the most concerning. The Oklahoma game resulted in an “announced” attendance of 52,578 on a picture perfect day at the Rose Bowl. This number hides the depth of the problem. The turnstile count was hugely inflated by Sooner fans.
Saturday’s attendance at the Rose Bowl included free tickets for the 36,951 who watched UCLA’s debacle the previous Saturday against San Diego State (For the first time in 23 tries, the Aztecs prevailed against the Bruins). The attendance for the Aztecs was the lowest for a UCLA home game in 25 years. Of course, it might help if Chip Kelly and Company could score more than 14 points in a game but UCLA issues run deeper than the megacontract given to a coach who is already on the hot seat.
However, if athletic directors were watching Saturday, a partial solution was right in front of all of our eyes: regional rivalries.
Example #1: Colorado. Pre-season hopes for the Buffaloes were not at Rocky Mountain-high levels. Yet, the Buffs created massive amounts of positive energy on the Front Range during the season’s first 3 weeks. After its Rocky Mountain Showdown opener with Colorado State, Colorado renewed its Big 8 rivalry with Nebraska. Cornhusker fans bought tickets in droves and helped generate more energy at a CU game since the McCartney days. Buff fans were rewarded with a comeback from 17 down and an electric overtime victory that resulted in a passionate field storming. Normally a fitting encore would be impossible, but another long lost regional rival visited Boulder last Saturday: Air Force. The last Air Force-Colorado tilt was in 1973. Yet another CU comeback resulted in overtime. This time, Air Force prevailed in front of another energetic crowd that was highly entertained.
Example #2: Pitt-Penn State. After a hiatus, the 2016-19 renewal of one of the country’s great rivalries resulted in a passionate, exciting 17-10 game. The 100th installment was more than worthy of annual renewal but, amazingly, there is no 101st installment scheduled. Massive stupidity. If anybody needs passionate regional rivalries, the Pitt Panthers do with their tepid fan base in a town that worships the Steelers. And while Pitt is at it, get the Backyard Brawl back on the schedule. Pitt football has suffered mightily with the loss of its two grudge games with Penn State and West Virginia.
Example #3: Iowa-Iowa State. Kudos for Gameday going to Ames for this always passionate, usually razor-close game. The intensity of the game leaps off the TV screen.
Example #4: Texas visited Rice on Saturday night. OK, this is not really a rivalry since the Longhorns have won 42 of the last 43 but nostalgia buffs, who still pine for the days of the Southwest Conference, were appreciative. And Rice’s home attendance for the balance of 2019 will not come close to the 42,000 fans who showed up.
Example #5: North Carolina visited Wake Forest in a game that was so desirable for both schools that the ACC schools scheduled a non-conference matchup. Excellent!! This was the 107th meeting for the Tobacco Road rivals who had once met for 85 consecutive years, but not since 2015. As with Rice, UCLA and Colorado, the home gate was greatly goosed by the many fans for the visitors, which, in turn, created a much more exciting environment.
Example #6: Oklahoma State visits nearby Tulsa and injects the aging beauty with fans and energy.
For all you AD’s who say that it is just too hard to schedule exciting regional games such as Texas – Texas A&M, Kansas-Missouri, Nebraska-Anybody in the old Big 8, I hope there is a special place in hell reserved for you.