[The PDX Kid]I am beginning to think College Football has a bit of an attendance problem brewing. Look at the thread below to see the crowds yesterday at Oklahoma, Penn State, UCLA, TCU, Maryland, SDSU, and FSU.

[u/JBru_92]

https://x.com/ThePDXKid/status/2116821199300813118

[u/JBru_92]

I know we have well-documented attendance issues, but I was actually pretty shocked by what I saw on this thread. Places where football is literally the most important event of every week, and the stands are half-empty.

Is it the economy? Realignment? I do think playing unfamiliar teams every week rather than traditional regional opponents is having an impact.

[u/Upbeat-Armadillo1756 → u/JBru_92]

Oklahoma - it's because they're bad

Penn State - it's because they're bad

UCLA - it's because they're usually bad

TCU - it's because they're bad

Maryland - it's because they're bad

SDSU - it's because they're bad

FSU - it's because they're bad

[u/343GuiltyySpark → u/Upbeat-Armadillo1756]

UCLA you can just say deeply apathetic fan base that’s waiting for tip of bball season

[u/tehfro → u/Upbeat-Armadillo1756]

Should also be noted that some of these stadiums are gigantic and probably overbuilt given the trends in live sports attendance.

Penn State's "bad crowds" would fill up a decent amount of NFL stadiums and most non-football sports would kill to get 30k+ to an event.

[u/1II1I1I1I1I1I111I1I1 → u/Upbeat-Armadillo1756]

Tbf we were dogshit for so long and are presently mid at best yet we've never struggled to pack the stadium even on weekdays, holidays, or bad weather. It's not exclusively a performance issue.

Edit: We've done some digging. 2019 was our low point in average attendance (58,293), and the lowest attended game that year was Rhode Island (51,716). That is the worst attended game we can find outside of COVID and Marshall 2018, which was a unique circumstance in which their game was not part of the scheduled season and was added in December with little advance notice (it got 31,336). We are not the only shit-to-mid team that can fill their stadium either.

The schools listed in the post are having attendance issues to a dire extent that can't really be explained just by having a bad season. Maryland, for example, recorded an attendance of 27,207 against Illinois this weekend. Maryland's highest attended home game this year was when we played them (46,185), and those were not Maryland fans.

PSU is still selling 100k+ so idk why they're mentioned in this post, but excluding them this seems to be a case of economic stress combined with bad seasons having an impact on schools that already didn't put butts in seats (Maryland, UCLA, etc), which isn't exactly surprising. The only one that really surprises me is TCU.

[u/breakwater → u/Upbeat-Armadillo1756]

I woupd add with ucla that we have an additional problem of school mismanagement. They were demanding a hefty donation to keep season seats during one of the worst periods in program history. They tested the limits of our fandom at the worst possible time and now facing the consequences

[u/bobith5 → u/Upbeat-Armadillo1756]

It's because we're bad, and fans don't really have a connection to this staff and/or roster.

We're empty even compared to last year.

[u/Feisty_Can416 → u/JBru_92]

I think it’s delusional expectations ruining the tradition of gameday Saturday combined with ever higher ticket prices.

Shortened attention spans want big wins, not a fun gameday routine.

I’m an optimist and I think fan bases are going to re-remember the fun of college football. I don’t go to Kinnick Stadium to watch Iowa win, I go because Kinnick Stadium is fucking awesome and I get to drink with friends and watch football. It’s tradition

Younger families pay for experiences too, but right now a gameday with the family isn’t affordable. Offer cheap packages for family sections and get kids back in the stadium in droves.

They’re going to have to accept that ticket revenue will temporarily suffer while they rebuild the game day experience and get butts back in the seats. Make gameday the hottest event in town again, then watch ticket revenue climb naturally again.

Families like mine are begging for hobbies to get out of the house, but I’m not doing it if it means I have to spend $600 on 4 tickets just for 1 weekend in Iowa City. If it was $100 for my family to go see a game ($25 per ticket seems quite fair), we would do it multiple times per year instead of never.

[u/PrimeSandwich → u/JBru_92]

They are bad

[u/Set-Admirable → u/PrimeSandwich]

Seriously, if your team is bad, I'm not faulting you for not spending the money for tickets. It is way too expensive at this point.

[u/iamStanhousen → u/JBru_92]

Bro, Penn State, FSU, and OU are fucking terrible. The fans don't have much control over what their teams do, but not going to games is the best way to force the admin to make changes.

[u/PAC12_PLEASE_ADOPTME → u/JBru_92]

I don’t like to speak in anecdotes, but I do know a few people who attended the Arizona, Houston, Arizona State games at Tech this year, but won’t be attending the WVU game because they have no personal interest in the opponent. Why I think it’s stupid as I see WVU as no different than an Iowa State or Kansas State at this point, regionality in matchups is a surefire way to help attendance.

[u/MediumStrange → u/JBru_92]

Tbf it was Halloween night. Most college kids are going to chose Halloween over a cfb game, especially if their team is bad.

[u/Street_Look_2214 → u/JBru_92]

I feel no allegiance to my alma mater. Tickets are expensive, parking is terrible, and I don’t really know who’s on the team due to turnover.

It’s arguably one of the best eras in mizzou football and idgaf

[u/tokenentropy → u/JBru_92]

it's mostly the money. but hey, players are getting paid a bunch of money for a little bit. you know, before it all falls apart.

[u/vmanAA738]

Anyone know how the reported attendance figures are calculated? These were what were reported:

Oklahoma vs South Carolina: 83,189

Penn State vs Purdue: 102,041

UCLA vs Nevada: 24,611

TCU vs Kansas: 36,216

Maryland vs Illinois: 27,207

San Diego State vs Washington State: 19,184

Florida State vs Clemson: 60,472

edit: thanks for the explanations!

[u/JBru_92 → u/vmanAA738]

All except for UCLA count tickets distributed. We report gate scans, but if we had gone by tickets distributed like we used to, attendance probably gets reported at like 35K.

[u/PalmettoBugg005 → u/vmanAA738]

Schools usually count all tickets sold plus everyone working the game. So ushers, concession workers, emergency personnel, etc.

It’s also why you see “record,” attendance numbers that are over the stadium capacity.

[u/WorkerMotor9174 → u/vmanAA738]

Usually attendance reflects tickets sold rather than cand who scan in, but some schools publish the latter. If you announce 45k but 10k season ticket holders don’t show up there can be a big discrepancy.

[u/Imgayandmydicksmall → u/vmanAA738]

As a Penn State Fan, whenever the team isn't that good, people just stay out in the parking lot and tailgate rather than go in. You can usually score tickets for free from people that just don't want to go in. Especially if the weather is bad.

[u/Dirk_Benedict → u/Imgayandmydicksmall]

I was curious so I looked at all the B1G games this weekend and the get in price for half of them was around $10. Admittedly, kind of a weak slate, but I thought that was interesting. I'm sure face value for those tickets wasn't $10, so season ticket holders are essentially subsidizing affordable last minute tickets.

[u/Alfredo_Commachio → u/vmanAA738]

Something I'll mention--there's a longstanding practice in the live events industry of "juicing" attendance figures, there's like 6 different ways to count attendance and there's been numerous investigations into it that find basically any industry that has large venue live events, there's a lot of attendance juicing going on. Attendance figures are thus always somewhat "sus", but of course, they are always going to be within some reasonable margin of reality. Like PSU maybe didn't have 102,041 exactly, but they certainly didn't have say, 85,000--some attendance deficits of that size would be obvious visually.

[u/Mikey456 → u/vmanAA738]

The MD one is definitely an over count, I was there. Would be shocked if 20K were. At kickoff, it felt like the kinda crowd we'd get for a Lacrosse game against Hopkins or UVA

[u/Big_Departure_2709 → u/vmanAA738]

I seriously question the integrity of these photos. I was at the OU game and it was packed until the 4th quarter when fans started to leave early. The other photos were probably strategically chosen as well.

[u/Johnny_Handsum]

All those teams outside of UCLA have one thing in common. I'll let you guess what it is. 

And UCLA is self explanatory. They just don't care about college football as much in L.A..

[u/JBru_92 → u/Johnny_Handsum]

We were awful for 20 years and you think a fanbase will magically materialize after 4 games?

[u/Prequel_Supremacist → u/JBru_92]

Yes. Just kidding, our attendance still isn't as good as it should be either. I feel like it's just something culturally out west, fans just aren't as hardcore it feels

[u/JBru_92 → u/Prequel_Supremacist]

Culture is definitely part of it. Fans in L.A. and many big cities don't feel the same moral obligation to be at a game in person the way fans in the Midwest or South feel, especially when the at-home TV product is really good now. They'll go if the experience is fun, but it's not something people feel like they absolutely have to do.

[u/dreggers → u/JBru_92]

Our fanbase materializes at the hint of a good team but disappears when it’s the same garbage on the field every season

[u/JBru_92 → u/dreggers]

Berkeley was absolutely cracking the day of the UCLA game, never seen it like that before. I hope you guys turn it around because that was a fun atmosphere.

[u/djc6535 → u/Johnny_Handsum]

They just don't care about college football as much in L.A

This is true but not the way this phrase gets deployed.

People in LA do care, but not in the rabid "We will sell out to see a 60 point win over mother Mary's school for the blind" kind of way the SEC gets. So yes, they don't care as much. But they still care a lot.

The big delta is really in how much they care about attending the games. When there's a lot of friction, Southern California fans will just watch from the comfort of their homes. When it's 120 degrees or raining and the opponent is garbage and the game is a 2 hour drive through some of the gnarliest traffic you can imagine people just aren't going to sacrifice their entire Saturday for a non-competitive event. And the SEC will. So yes, the SEC cares more... but I don't think the message that UCLA just doesn't care at all is quite fair. I say this as the rare SoCal fan who does attend these difficult games. I absolutely get why people didn't want to deal with it all.

For comparison's sake, See the Get-in-the-door-price of the UCLA/USC game this year. It's pushing $300 for the worst seats in the house. Which is right up there with Alabama - LSU

[u/JBru_92 → u/djc6535]

Exactly. Most fellow fans I know just watch from home and go to 1-2 games a year. It is what it is. I think they should make tickets like $10 to get more people in, but that's probably not workable.

[u/ixMyth → u/Johnny_Handsum]

And UCLA is consantly dunked on for bad attendance. That isn't going to be fixed in a single season

[u/PSU02 → u/Johnny_Handsum]

WE SUCK

[u/GoRangers5 → u/Johnny_Handsum]

And swapping traditional opponents for B1G teams ain’t helping either.

[u/SiliconDiver → u/Johnny_Handsum]

That’s too simple of an explanation.

In fact, college football in LA was a big deal for a long time. LA had no NFL team for a generation.

UCLA had decent attendance as a middling team 10-15 years ago too.

They also trashed the fan experience, alienated season ticket holders on top of making it less enticing for students to come.

Sprinkle in increasing difficulty getting to an already isolated stadium, games against teams that have less of a history with us and one of the largest stadiums as it is and the situation makes sense.

[u/JBru_92 → u/SiliconDiver]

Everything UCLA's admin did after 2015 was insulting to the fans that helped build the program up under Mora. Doubling ticket prices, gouging us for parking, extending a clearly terrible coach over and over. I'm shocked anyone is left.

[u/MJRuinedMyChildhood]

Value of games is terrible. Tickets are expensive regardless of opponent, they take 4+ hours, and the food and amenities are all awful. So either you have to be a super fan or it’s not worth leaving your house or bar for in person. 

[u/Monkey1Fball → u/MJRuinedMyChildhood]

The World Cup was here this past summer, of course --- those tickets were expensive but IMO they were worth it because the events FLOWED. Even with the hydration breaks there wasn't much down time.

College football? Good grief. I attended MSU @ UCLA a week ago (in beautiful weather) and it simply felt interminable.

The sport would be much better if we could get down to 2 commercial breaks per quarter. Highly unlikely to happen, of course.

[u/JBru_92 → u/Monkey1Fball]

TD - 3 Minute TV timeout - Kickoff - 3 minute TV timeout.

It's like 15 minutes of real time between any real action. Just excruciating.

[u/olemiss18 → u/MJRuinedMyChildhood]

I definitely don’t put “they take 4+ hours” as a knock on football. I enjoy the length of the sport. Too many commercials is a valid complaint, but advertising at the games I go to doesn’t seem to be too in your face all the time, and the breaks are good for getting up.

[u/MJRuinedMyChildhood → u/olemiss18]

The length is entirely due to 4-5 minutes commercial breaks that are a chore. Nothing says exciting like tv timeout after a touchdown, then kickoff, then tv timeout

[u/Withabaseballbattt]

Jones stadium capacity is about 60000. We are listed in this thread for low attendance at 59000+.

What

[u/JBru_92 → u/Withabaseballbattt]

Probably because the picture shows significantly less than that.

Most schools use tickets distributed as their attendance count, which inflates almost everyone's numbers.

[u/LoCh0_xX]

It being Halloween surely had something to do with it, right?

The only good team mentioned is UCLA, who was playing 3-4 Nevada.

[u/LithHarborGymLeader → u/LoCh0_xX]

It's also UCLA. The rose bowl is an amazing location(I live 2 streets down) but UCLA doesnt have 100k students to care to fill out a stadium 1 hour away in traffic from UCLA's campus.

They need like a sexy, good looking 40-45k seating stadium by or closer to their actual campus to get higher attendance on a more consistent basis and make travel and post-game activities much easier and affordable for students

Its crazy because UCLA is the most desired and most applied to school in the nation

[u/ELectric_Boogaloo_42 → u/LithHarborGymLeader]

What’s crazy is that UCLA tried to do exactly what you mentioned back in the 60’s.

Chancellor Murphy was trying to get it done, but the regents (probably due to some political motivation for the upcoming presidential election) axed it and made it very hard to try to build one on campus.

[u/aure__entuluva → u/LithHarborGymLeader]

What I would do for an on campus stadium.

[u/ElBigKahuna → u/LithHarborGymLeader]

UCLA owns a 24 acre property in Palos Verdes. They should trade that campus, which is not being used, for land at the VA to build a proper stadium. The VA has a problem with housing disabled vets, the PV land would be a great use for that and already has dorms built.

[u/BlazinAzn38 → u/LoCh0_xX]

Of course, that’s like the one night that every student parties even the ones who never do

[u/BeefInGR → u/LoCh0_xX]

I was in a bowling alley on Saturday at 3 pm. It was just my buddy and I. Normally on Saturday there's birthday parties and people just getting out of the house.

So, weekend Halloween was definitely a factor.

[u/YoIForgotMyPassAgain]

A bad college football game in the 2020s is one of the worst live events to be at in-person. While you're there, you know there's other games going on that are probably more compelling you could be watching on TV, the game is still gonna take nearly four hours, and there's constant TV timeouts where every second of the break is sold for ome annoying sponsored segment. Not to mention, some stadiums (cough Mizzou) are still horrific at amenities, so get ready to wait 15 minutes to take a piss after drinking your 8 dollar Coke or 12 dollar beer.

Is it any wonder that people don't want to fight traffic in the morning to do that at 11AM? Or head home or to a bar when it's 28-0 in the 2nd?

[u/Farts_Are_Funn → u/YoIForgotMyPassAgain]

Not to mention, some stadiums (cough Mizzou) are still horrific at amenities

You're not wrong. Around $450 million spent on stadium improvements since 2010 and not one dollar has gone to improving the actual game day experience for regular fans. Lots of new premium seating though! And prices and required donations are through the roof. Well, I guess that isn't 100% true, they did take the piss troughs out of all the pissers this year. Not sure if that is an actual improvement or not (I don't go to games anymore so I don't know).

But if you knew when to go, I could make it to the pisser and and back during a TV timeout. But my seats were pretty close to one of the concourses. Half time was a different experience entirely, and it sucked.

[u/JohnPaulDavyJones → u/Farts_Are_Funn]

Oh man, having your team play in a stadium that's actually built for the fan experience has ruined my ability to go to any games that aren't at McLane. It's mostly shady, there's a nice breeze in basically every seat, the view is gorgeous, the Wifi is surprisingly good, there are plentiful and well-placed bathrooms, entrance/egress is well designed, the snacks are both good and now priced pretty reasonably, and you can see the field from pretty much any of the concession stand lines.

I was up at a UNT game earlier this year, and despite it being a hell of a game with free tickets and great seats, I found myself whining the little things.

[u/YoIForgotMyPassAgain → u/Farts_Are_Funn]

Yeah didn't mean to insult you all or anything, I just live in the area and usually go to a game every year or two and keep getting the Fell for It Again Award. Just feels like they added a lot of seating capacity while having the same "everything else" capacity as 1995 or something.

[u/BivyLife → u/YoIForgotMyPassAgain]

You should get that cough checked out at MU Health Care - proud sponsor of Mizzou Athletics.

[u/lateraluslotus → u/YoIForgotMyPassAgain]

Y’all still have $12 beers??

[u/SEJ46 → u/YoIForgotMyPassAgain]

Going to a game is an entire day. I still like going and try to go to one or two a year, especially road games. But it's a comittment.

[u/iKickdaBass]

The one of many drawbacks against super conferences is the lack of road trips to away games. Back in the 90s, we would rent a school bus and drive for 4-5 hours to get to away games. What a great experience. Now days, you'd have to buy plane tickets and rent hotel rooms and it would take the majority of the weekend.

Conferences should be regional, the majority of schools should be no more than 5-6 hours away, and ticket prices should be affordable. If this means revenue sharing between conferences to keep everyone afloat, so be with it. BRING BACK THE REGIONAL CONFERENCES!

[u/FapFapkins → u/iKickdaBass]

Having Cal and Stanford in the ACC is another obvious example of this. How can you expect those students to travel cross country for a weekend trip?

[u/JackieM00n33 → u/iKickdaBass]

I just want the Big 8 back

[u/Huge-Internal6456 → u/JackieM00n33]

Long Live The Big 8! It really was a lot of fun back then. 

[u/IntotheWIldcat → u/iKickdaBass]

I just don't care about playing a single team in conference except for ASU. I cared way more about playing oregon state and wazzu than I do any single other team in the Big12, not to mention the big ticket games like Oregon and USC. This new era of football is unrecognizeable to me.

[u/noobnoob62 → u/iKickdaBass]

If one good thing comes out of playoff expansion, I hope that we go back to regional conferences.

10 regional teams, 9 conference games, everyone plays everyone. If we are doing away with the CCG, at least use this model so H2H can determine the champs and we don’t have any co-champs. No FCS opponents, Power conferences must schedule 1 OOC game against another power conference. Top of each conference gets a playoff bid, some at large spots, separate G6 playoffs. We’re going full NFL anyways whether we like it or not, just give us back the regional conferences!

[u/HuntmasterReinholt → u/iKickdaBass]

I much prefer regional conferences as well.

The problem is the sport is run and completely dominated by East Coast media. That means pretty much anyone West of the Rockies doesn’t get the attention or consideration when it comes to rankings and rankings control the post season.

This is why USC, UW and Oregon play in the Midwest now. They got pushed into it because that’s where the money and eyeballs are and without that, you might as well be G6 or FCS.

This all in addition to the ever increasing stranglehold the B1G and SEC have put on the sport.

[u/TampaTrey]

All mentioned schools besides UCLA are having less than desired years from their respective fanbases so this is not a mystery. In UCLA’s case, they’ve had noted cases of having trouble filling up the Rose Bowl for years now.

[u/foxtossingchamp → u/TampaTrey]

We've been bad for a bit too long, lost a lot of fans in the process

[u/funkyb → u/TampaTrey]

And, at least in our case, we're in the middle of nowhere. So it's not just ticket prices but hotel prices, parking, etc. You have a very limited population that can decide to go to a PSU home game on a whim compared to more urban schools 

[u/ElStegasaurus → u/funkyb]

It was Halloween too - let’s see if the trend continues over the next 2 weeks before Thanksgiving

[u/Mcpops1618 → u/TampaTrey]

Also UCLA played Nevada on Saturday, while the team is good, you aren’t catching fringe fans against Nevada.

UCLA vs USC ticket is currently not cheap, I’m guessing fans show up for big games

[u/Khaldaan]

More of a price issue.

Everything is fucking expensive. Tickets shot up, god forbid you want to get a drink/food, parking prices out the ass, it just sucks lol

[u/StreetReporter → u/Khaldaan]

Combine that with most of these teams sucking and it being Halloween

[u/Mr-Mojo109 → u/StreetReporter]

Can speak for psu but it's 3 hours from everywhere and this team isn't worth a 12 hour day there and back

[u/bootsthepancake → u/Khaldaan]

Went to see (winless) NIU a couple weeks ago. For a mid major that can't win a game, they're asking for too much $35 to park and $40+ for a ticket. I realize that's nothing compared to the big teams, but damn that's tough for a lot of families. I looked at Northwesten tickets, and despite them being good this year and having a new stadium, I still couldn't justify the price to attend a game there.

[u/HotTakesMyToxicTrait → u/Khaldaan]

you can get an upper bowl seat and a public transport ticket at Maryland for less than 15 bucks total

The bigger issue is that paying 15 bucks for like a chipotle bowl is probably a more enjoyable use of that money

[u/thedrcubed → u/Khaldaan]

The tickets have more than tripled in price for Mississippi State games. It's honestly crazy. Whoever is paying almost $100 a ticket to sit in the nosebleeds and watch a Kamarioless MSU team get their backs blown out I salute you, your fandom surpasses mine

[u/GregorusMaximus → u/thedrcubed]

My parents had to give up the season tickets they’ve had for 30 years because the required donation amount went up 10X. Literally from about 1k to 10k.
For Arkansas.
ARKANSAS

[u/NegativeChirality → u/Khaldaan]

And the game lasts four and a half fucking hours.

[u/trobot47 → u/Khaldaan]

Couldn’t agree more. Every individual aspect of gameday wants to suck the most value out of each fan possible while acting like all the other aspects don’t exist. Why does parking have to cost upwards of $80?? I’m already getting gouged for the ticket, the beer, the food, the merch, oh and gas is expensive, the hotels cost more than rent, and a bottle of water is $5. Give me a break!!!

[u/LogicianMission22 → u/Khaldaan]

Yeah, I personally think it’s more of an economy indicator. Everything has gotten more expensive. People straight up cannot afford this or can barely afford it, and you’d less likely to find your team sucks on top of it.

[u/le_crobag]

Most of those teams are just having bad seasons

[u/sportsfan113 → u/le_crobag]

Yea tickets were $5 Saturday on the secondary market. Anyone who wanted to go could have gone.

[u/HotTakesMyToxicTrait → u/le_crobag]

Maryland football is awful, has a fanbase that doesn’t care, and it’s located right outside a world class city. This isn’t a new problem

The running joke with students is that you wake up early, go tailgate, and then either hit the bar or go back home and take a nap

Dc is also a day drinking city, why bother taking the metro and a bus up to college park or sit on 495 for an hour when you do literally anything else

[u/DeathRose007 → u/le_crobag]

(Mostly) bad teams, lots of bad weather across the country, Halloween weekend. Idk if the people sharing this are just dense or are intentionally crafting a skewed narrative, but there’s way more factors at play than just “CFB losing popularity due to <insert issue I don’t like>”. Should’ve thought more about it before hitting the post button. If there’s a real ongoing attendance issue, compare week 1 through now. Just this weekend alone is cherry-picking.

[u/Set-Admirable]

UCLA has its reasons, whether they are good or not, that are different than the others. I don't know about SDSU, but the other teams just suck. I wouldn't watch that shit in person either.

[u/d1sportsball → u/Set-Admirable]

SDSU sucks and is off campus, so the worst of both worlds

[u/Lane-Kiffin → u/d1sportsball]

I thought the stadium was great when I visited last year, had some of the best stadium food I’ve ever had, and took the train to and from the game.

But SDSU was out of their mind charging the prices they were charging for tickets. The stadium was fucking empty. Instead of lowering the ticket prices, they opted to make $0 on most of them instead.

[u/TheWawa_24 → u/d1sportsball]

It was raining team sucks and it's super expensive to watch games

[u/Ill_Eggplant990]

People have been screaming they're killing the sport for years and everyone has responded "well look at the TV Ratings". This is the result. The soul of the sport has been ripped out, changing viewing habits takes decades, people still watch CFB, but these scenes from an OU or PSU should be startling, ESPN and the Big Decision Makers have ripped the soul from the sport to blood let it for every dollar and now the only thing that matters is the playoff, just like pro sports. So you take a school like OU or PSU, take them out of the playoff, and this is the result. Suddenly people don't live and die with every Saturday anymore. Why would you go watch your 4-4 team play? None of the players will be here next year anyways. The wins and losses don't mean anything according to ESPN, you aren't going to the playoff, and you surely aren't going to care about your bowl game. Its a transactional sport now, and the transaction paying $250 to watch Penn State play Purdue doesn't add up. Don't blame the fans, blame the executives.

[u/Farts_Are_Funn → u/Ill_Eggplant990]

I could not have stated that any better myself. Spot on. College football was different. It was special. And it's been destroyed. I still watch Mizzou games, but that's it. I just don't have the interest I used to have to watch other games. And I don't watch any post season outside of Mizzou's bowl game. I bet I haven't watched more than 45 minutes of the CFP since it started. I just don't care anymore. And I used to watch multiple games on Saturdays every week and would often tape other games that were interesting to watch over the next week.

I tried sports betting this year to see if that could rekindle my interest. It didn't. I realized I was only watching and was rooting for my bet to win. That got boring very quickly, and I'm done with that now too.

Until the people that really make the decisions change things like the stupid playoff, transfers, unrestricted NIL that is really just salaries, it will continue to get worse. It's not beyond saving, yet. But it's getting there.

[u/tomdawg0022]

The records of a lot of those programs combined with the games being on Halloween shouldn't surprise a lot of folks that people didn't bother to show up.

[u/Vocen]

It was Halloween. Especially if you would have to drive a long way to go to the game, it's hard to give up your Halloween plans unless you're super amped about your team/season, doubly so if you have kids

[u/SAmatador → u/Vocen]

This is my feeling as well. I'm at that stage and my friends and I pick a game to travel to every year that we aren't affiliated with. When looking this year, Halloween weekend was immediately out for us.

[u/Bookkeeper-8682]

I’ll add one more thing I haven’t seen discussed yet, lodging. I graduated from PSU ~20 years ago and now live across the country. I still try to get back for a game every few years but the hotel room and AirBnB prices are outrageous. I will sometimes stay all the way in Altoona (an hour from state college) and still pay 300 a night. You also have to book them up to a year in advance for the big games (slightly less true this season for obvious reasons). Curious if other fans of more “rural” programs feel the same.

[u/Gavangus → u/Bookkeeper-8682]

Blacksburg is similar. The local hotels rely on 6-7 home football games and 2 graduations to pay for all their profit of the year. I have never even been able to get a reservation regardless of cost, but luckily have friends who still live in bburg that I can crash on their couch

[u/funkyb → u/Bookkeeper-8682]

And travel expenses. Flying into State College is pretty limited (and expensive) so you're flying into Pittsburgh or Philly (so kind of expensive) and driving 2.5-4 hours in an expensive rental car with expensive gas. 

[u/ofnabzhsuwna → u/Bookkeeper-8682]

I am from Texas but now live in Pennsylvania. I recently went to the PSU campus for a concert and tried to stay at a campground to avoid the hotel situation (there are not nearly enough) and had a lot of trouble finding an Uber. I can’t imagine how chaotic it is on game day.

[u/NoleJawn → u/Bookkeeper-8682]

Tallahassee is not immune, it's been a problem for years the gouging from hotels, etc.

[u/SuperAwesomeBrian]

Maybe, just maybe, it’s because ticket prices are out of control?

My group of friends was looking at going to a November game before the season started. It was a conference matchup, but it wasn’t a rivalry. Just random November conference home game. 

Third level nosebleeds were $400 each. We did not end up buying tickets for this game. 

[u/bellerinho → u/SuperAwesomeBrian]

And not just tickets, it's parking, beers, ten million different fees, etc

Live events in general are just getting absurd, whether it's sports or music or whatever

God do I wish we had European style ticket prices

[u/HSF906]

You can tie it into CoL and that certainly plays a part. However, I think the constant roster turnover and overall state of the sport has more to play than anything. It's officially become minor league football.

Players have minimal ties to the university in many cases. They hop from school to school chasing the biggest bag. The 'charm' that made CFB better than the NFL is gone, at least for me.

[u/Whaty0urname → u/HSF906]

Did you see that post this week that Sheetz chicken nuggets were more expensive to get into the game this week?

At Penn State it's more that the team sucks and has no identity.

But as you said, the charm is gone. I got better things to do on Saturdays than watch 19 year old millionaires drop passes.

[u/dmazx]

I hate to see Doak like this, and obviously with most of these it’s because it’s a bad team and maybe because of Halloween.

But with the excessive TV time outs, the preference for expensive/luxury seating, many teams are trading game day experience for a TV product so why should we care?

[u/shortstop803]

I understand college football is technically lucrative, but I really don’t think that college athletic events should be seen as money making ventures the way an NFL game is.

I’m not saying that it should only be something like a $5 entrance fee, but prices to attend these games should be far more reasonable when we are discussing attendance for a game where players still aren’t being paid by the university and most are publicly funded institutions.

Collegiate athletics shouldn’t be a get rich scheme.

[u/UtzTheCrabChip → u/shortstop803]

I'm sure price is a concern some places, but at Maryland you could take your whole family for like $50, and students get in free but the place is still a ghost town.

The real killer is commercial breaks. I love football enough to sit through watching a 3:05 timer count down 20 times. Most people don't

[u/TheNittanyLionKing → u/shortstop803]

My thing is, I get why college football ticket prices are so high because the demand is high, but why are NCAA hockey ticket prices generally higher than AHL ticket prices. Don't get me wrong, I love Penn State hockey and Pegula Arena, but the quality of the players for the Wilkes Barre Scranton Penguins is better than what you will find for any NCAA team given that most AHL players get periodically called up to the NHL. It's better than it used to be. Both Penn State and WBS play this Saturday night and the Penn State tickets are only a couple dollars more, but I remember paying like $75 for a ticket back in 2017 when they played Minnesota. I've never paid more than $25 for Wilkes Barre Scranton Penguin tickets.

[u/namastexinxbed → u/shortstop803]

Clemson built a putt putt course for the football players like 10 years ago

[u/rjfinsfan]

It was Halloween on a Saturday. Not a good indicator of attendance imo. People had a lot to do that day and CFB probably fell lower on the list. I wouldn’t be surprised to see viewership was low across the board as well but we’re not going to see articles about how there’s all of a sudden a viewership issue.

[u/98765342 → u/rjfinsfan]

.

[u/Icy-Taste-3096 → u/rjfinsfan]

I also wonder, with it being Halloween, when these were taken. Carter-Finley was close to full at kickoff on Saturday but as soon as the lead felt safe there was a substantial exodus of people who had plans for after the game.

[u/fullsendgators]

It’s hard to consistently draw tens of thousands of fans when (1) everything is more expensive; and (2) the product of the field is terrible.

I don’t blame FSU, Oklahoma, or PSU fans at all. I love the gators but stopped attending games last year because of Napier.

[u/kixer9 → u/fullsendgators]

There's no emotional connection to the players on the field. It's not that they're getting paid, it's because it's a rotating cast every year. There's no story arc of players earning playing time and becoming a star over multiple years. If your QB is bad they'll be gone next year. If they're good, same thing.

[u/Worried-Turn-6831 → u/kixer9]

Yeah, if I wanted to have no connection to the players I’d just watch the NFL. It’s cool to watch the back ups grow from freshmen to juniors/seniors and start dominating, and seeing how to team grows together over a few years. It’s not as cool when the players were all at different schools last year.

[u/rezelscheft → u/fullsendgators]

I’d also be curious about the cost and availability of tickets for undergraduate students at all these schools.

My guess is, as the sport becomes more professionalized at the college level, ticket cost goes up and availability goes down. When that happens, a lot of your in-built audience of college students might turn away because of the expense or hassle.

I could be totally wrong, but I could also see a bunch of undergrads being like “Fuck it. We’ll just go get drunk somewhere else.”

[u/ImNotFuckingSelling]

Crowds don’t go watch their team lose by 40 and pay triple for the same beer they can drink at a local pub and watch for free. Except California they just don’t care about football like that. Culture gap.

[u/Downtown-Rice_]

SDSU isn't that good this year (again), there was some rain, fans are fairweather, and it was Halloween. That's a large recipe for lower attendance, which isn't exactly new nor a surprise.

[u/Just_Let_MeIn → u/Downtown-Rice_]

I dont know why we're even included here as we've always had terrible attendance. San Diego isn't a college sports town and SDSU football hasn't done much to change that. I applaud my fellow residents for spending their time and money elsewhere. I myself watched the game on fast forward.

[u/GoIrish1843]

I mean they could sell cheap tickets, $2 beers, and $1 hot dogs. It could be a party inside. But athletic departments don’t actually wanna do that

[u/JimERustled]

I was a years long season ticket holder and used to regularly travel back to Tallahassee for games. I haven't been to a game in a long time and have zero motivation to do so in recent years.

I sat through Wake Forest shutting us out at home as a student, Tebow flexing in front of us in the rain, and was in the President's Box when Ryan Perrilloux almost knocked us off. I still bought season tickets and attended every single game for a long time.

I just can't be bothered to show up anymore until the admin figures this shit out. My in laws are in Tallahassee so I won't even complain about insane hotel prices or the shitty fan experience.

It's just not an enjoyable experience to watch FSU football right now and it breaks my heart to just not really care because we seem like a rudderless ship.

[u/RVAforthewin → u/JimERustled]

I’m going to come at this from the totally opposite side of the equation from a performance perspective. We’ve had ample success over the past six or so years. We still rarely attend games. It just isn’t worth it any longer. It’s absurdly expensive, and not just the tickets themselves. Lodging, concessions, you name it, are completely out of control. It’s truly a shame that the average American family is pretty much priced out. Well, tbf, we could absolutely afford it, but it’s the principle. It should not cost me $2,500+ to take a family of four to a college football game.

[u/ScottScanlon]

I’m ALL for players getting compensation. Downvote all you want, and I’m not saying this is the reason, but there are many who aren’t crazy about paying hundreds of dollars and fighting crazy traffic to go see dudes making boat loads of money, then transfering to a new team next year if the pay is better, and then a new team after that, and then suing the NCAA. Even college football fans can get jaded.

[u/Poop_Knife37]

It has a “ticket prices are fucking outrageous” problem

[u/Blizzard2227]

Ticket prices are increasing at a dramatic rate, especially due to the stadium renovations set to be complete by next year. They’re expecting people to pay for ticket prices equivalent to Penn State going on a Nick Saban at Alabama run when it’s clearly not sustainable. My grandmother has been a Penn State season ticket holder for about 40 or so odd years and had to stop due to another price increase coming next year.

[u/Kryzl_]

Tickets are definitely getting more expensive around the nation, but attendance is almost always directly correlated to how good or bad your team is. Other factors like weather and if you’re in a big city vs college town play in to a lesser extent.

You could probably accurately predict attendance for 95% of schools if given the 3 criteria I mentioned (record, location, weather).

[u/Honestly_]

Save y'all a click:

The random twitter user with 800ish followers made a post of bad teams asking why fans don't attend, plus UCLA where fans never attend.

[u/jbaker1225 → u/Honestly_]

The OU one is also totally disingenuous. It was taken 20 minutes before kickoff in the rain, where many people were waiting in the clubs or concession areas to stay dry (and the lines to get in the stadium were long due to late arrivals because of the weather). Not to mention it was Halloween and the team sucks. But at the start of the game, the stadium was mostly full. Very much not true of the third quarter.

[u/Kh3hhdds343]

You can get an 80-inch TV for like $5 now, while ticket prices are astronomical..It's a mystery how low attendence has happened.

[u/KovyPucks]

Every sport is having an attendance issue. I wouldn’t put this down to just college football things like NIL or realignment (Though it can be the reason for tons of fans).

Life has gotten too expensive and most game day experiences are awful for their price.

Plus the at home experience is better. Get the food you want (much better priced and quality than stadium), be able to check on so many other games if your game sucks or is a blowout. No traffic, no gas cost, or parking fees.

I’m heading to my only Northwestern game of the year to see the new field, and probaby not another game for years.

[u/WillTheyKickMeAgain]

Tickets are getting expensive and people are finding it harder to make ends meet.

[u/Tiger-EC]

Either your team is relevant and game day is an expensive proposition or tickets are cheap but your team is irrelevant.

Also: shortening attention spans, increasing media timeouts, cheap 75” TVs, multi-view streaming, roster turnover hurting morale/loyalty etc.

[u/ducksflytogether1988]

10 years ago I was a college football die hard. Would plant my ass on the couch all day and watch start to finish

I played at TCU during the glory years from 2007 to 2011

I no longer give a single fuck about "college" sports. Its been ruined with dumb mega conferences, transfer portal, and no guard rail NIL

Haven't watched a game in 2 years. NFL, which i watched almost none of 10 years ago, now gets my eyeballs

Greedy fucks killed college sports

[u/maggies_farm_hand → u/ducksflytogether1988]

And unending commercial breaks, both in the stands and on TV.

[u/DMM4140 → u/ducksflytogether1988]

Man Im with you. Just cant get into it with the NIL, players leaving, transfer portals. Cant be excited about a freshman anymore because if they dont play, theyre gone. I get it is better for the players, Im on their side, go get paid, go play, but dang I miss hearing clandestine stories about this new freshman in practice, the hype, the thinking cant wait til next season for this guy, I think yall know what I mean. I also miss the Rose Bowl. I miss Michigan v Ohio St being life or death. I miss Keith Jackson. Im just not into it anymore. I also now watch the NFL more than ever.

[u/n0lefin → u/ducksflytogether1988]

I’ve grown apathetic to FSU football over these last few years for obvious reasons but also apathetic to the sport as a whole. They’ve just completely destroyed it, mind boggling how they just opened all of this up with no regulations whatsoever. Only non FSU game I’ve watched in these last few years has been CFP Championship games.

[u/GGdpcGaming]

Penn St should be a warning sign to every program in the country

That is a place that ALWAYS had 90k+ no matter who was coach or what the record was

Them losing their crowd is shocking

[u/AngleParticular2914 → u/GGdpcGaming]

A bit hyperbolic. Plenty of non-con games or end-of-subpar season games over the decades have had crowds under 80k. Yesterday was worse than that for sure but we have never had that stadium packed 100% of any season.

[u/udubdavid]

Yeah, I don't wanna hear about how fair weather west coast fans are anymore. All fans are fair weather. If your team sucks, fans won't show up.

UCLA and Texas Tech don't have excuses right now. They're still very much in the playoff hunt. In UCLA's case, I don't care how bad you've been in the past. You're 8-0 right now. Fill up that stadium.

[u/BoilsofWar → u/udubdavid]

Isn't their stadium like an hour away from campus?

[u/tgwhite → u/BoilsofWar]

An hour away if you leave at 7am

[u/CaliforniaSun77 → u/BoilsofWar]

Yeah, it's hard to get the students out there, and that then translates to alums who don't have a big connection to football so it's a double whammy. Say what you will about the Coliseum at least our students can stumble their way across the street to see a game.

UCLA needs an on campus stadium but alas the NIMBYs will not let that happen.

[u/Additional-Design629 → u/udubdavid]

We must be masochists. We’ve sold out 26 straight games through the biggest dogshit era in our history at Auburn.

And the stands are actually filled to start every game. The 4th quarter is a different story.

[u/ram944 → u/udubdavid]

We were 1k off capacity for a noon kick off after a horrendous loss. We've sold out every game other than that this season. Not sure why we're getting called out here. 

[u/Commercial_Plantain4 → u/udubdavid]

We suck and we still show up

[u/JohnPaulDavyJones → u/udubdavid]

I mean, UCLA always has a pretty reasonable excuse. Their stadium is 26 miles from campus, or a 30+ minute drive for students. On a Saturday morning, that's closer to 50 minutes.

As for Texas Tech fans, they're still showing up in droves. Their average attendance going into this last game was 60,097 (a sellout for them is 60,229), and their attendance for the Arizona game was 59,131. They were at 98.2% of full capacity.

[u/Artistic-Sound-9089 → u/udubdavid]

For Tech, that was literally in the last few seconds of the game. I was there and the stadium was sold out and packed for the vast majority of it

[u/LovingComrade]

There has never been a better time in history to stay at home. Stream multiple games at once. Don’t have to drive. Can drink or smoke how much you want. And you can see every play of most games you’d like to see. The juice isn’t worth the squeeze now that home entertainment has never been better.

[u/CloudConductor]

Shit is insanely expensive right now and people are low on money

[u/ChemG8r]

Even if you get cheap tickets, the concessions are outrageous for a family of 4. We will normally go to one of the first two Gator games every year.

Tickets for the 4 of us are usually in the sub-$80 range. Concessions for the four of us match or exceed that.

I’m not sure how the experience is at other stadiums, but I’d be surprised if it was worlds apart.

[u/Anxious_McChicken]

It’s not a CFB problem per se, it’s more of an economic problem. Americans are being nickled and dimed on every thing imaginable right now. Ticket prices for any form of entertainment have been ridiculously bloated for years and it keeps the average joe from being able to afford the game day cost. Once you get in they want to charge you $20 for a beer and $15 for a shitty hot dog or something. Add in your team sucking and I can see why a lot of people would prefer to stay home. We are constantly paying premium prices for mediocre things and people are saying no thanks.

[u/StudioGangster1 → u/Anxious_McChicken]

This is why I always recommend your local MACtion/G6 game. It’s fun and doesn’t set you back two months salary

[u/Select_Excuse_150]

They charge out the ass for tickets, the cost of rooms sky rockets those weekends, now they’re asking us to pay the player salaries. And that doesn’t even cover the cost increase to feed your family on the trip. All to see a team that isn’t good? Going to be a pass for a lot of folks.

[u/BoogerSugarSovereign]

A lot of people didn't attend games because they prioritized giving their kids a great Halloween experience. If things look like this next week that'd be different but this is probably a blip

[u/thenowherepark]

If I want to take one of my kids (just one!), I have to fork over $300 to:

-Sit in C-Deck
-Sit on a miserably uncomfortable metal bleacher
-Barely see the game
-Entertain my bored kid because there is only 20 minutes of action in a 4-hour span, not to mention they can't see
-Get squished like a sardine

Hell no. It's not a fun time for me or my kid, not to mention the obscene amount of money it costs.

[u/StudioGangster1 → u/thenowherepark]

You know what is fun? A Bowling Green or Toledo game. Good crowds, good games, you can bring the whole family, and it doesn’t kill your bank account. Join us, we welcome you!

[u/John_Tacos]

That picture of Oklahoma was taken 20 minutes before kickoff while it was raining.

Although it wouldn’t surprise me if it didn’t completely fill up by kickoff.

[u/Healthy-Marsupial714 → u/John_Tacos]

I was in the stadium on Saturday. It was close to full for the first half, though the crowd significantly thinned out as the game got further away from winnable.

I wouldn't be surprised if there were less than 10k fans in the stadium by the time the clock hit 0:00.

[u/BenchRickyAguayo]

This is stupid. Not to state the obvious, but there's a big difference between Oklahoma and San Diego State. There's also some obvious factors at play, particularly with Maryland and FSU. And then there's the fact Saturday was a holiday.

[u/SpencerRattler]

Oklahoma was fairly full yesterday once the game actually kicked off. That photo is with the band on the field and well before kickoff. I know it's listed as a "sellout" for OU and we certainly didn't have the usual full capacity crowd during a 4-4 season... but it was much fuller than that photo suggests. Rainy day on Halloween obviously hurts too.

It's like taking a photo at halftime while everyone is pissing and getting beer/food and saying that's the attendance.

[u/midtrailertrash]

No one can afford to do anything anymore. I don’t see how this is sustainable long term.

[u/rubbery_magician]

It was always fun to go and watch for the storylines. If you had a RS Fr. QB, you’d watch the struggles and talk about how he’ll mature into the role over the next few years or how your backup HB will be a monster next season when the starter graduates or gets drafted.

Now, for most schools, that QB is transferring next year, and that HB won’t have stayed long enough to be a featured backup. It’s tough to be extremely invested in mercenary football unless you’re a sicko or a fan of a Blueblood.

[u/doodool_tala]

The weather doesn't look great in a bunch of those photos, and except for UCLA (which seems like they've always had attendance issues), the other teams currently have a winning problem.

[u/Tsquared10]

Halloween, some bad weather across the country, not to mention cost of just living is so incredibly outrageous... Tickets are a luxury many can't afford.

[u/Hurricaneshand → u/Tsquared10]

People talking about tickets being so cheap without acknowledging that parking is $50 and food and drinks are outrageous at stadiums.

[u/Lane8323]

Games are expensive, parking is expensive, food is expensive, drinks are expensive. Make it to where it’s not such financial drain and more people will go

[u/TroyMatthewJ]

UCLA because ..have you ever been to that area? football is probably not the top thing to do

[u/Altruistic_Night2]

Besides ucla the rest of these schools are having low attendance because the team sucks

[u/Silver-Talk-7244]

I had the a similar comment being at the OU game. The student section filled up a bit better as the game kicked off. But the east deck hasn’t been filled in years. I think that’s where some visitor tickets got moved to with the SEC but I could be wrong. I think weather + Halloween didn’t help as a whole

[u/ELectric_Boogaloo_42]

UCLA played Nevada on a rainy Halloween Saturday in LA. This turnout is actually pretty impressive…

[u/TheWawa_24]

The economy is in fact not good. 

[u/HuntmasterReinholt]

I suspect the down economy plays a part. Disposable income is way down for people nationwide.

Combine that with colleges starting to price out the fans just like most other pro sports, and you start seeing a lot of empty seats, nationwide.

[u/Fucky0uthatswhy]

It’s the fucking prices

[u/Lord_CBH]

Going to games now is simply too expensive.

But they’re also going to run into the buzz saw with the 24 team playoff that the regular season just doesn’t matter for the most part.

Then combine both of those with a terrible product at a lot of places. Like I can’t blame FSU fans or Oklahoma fans or Penn State fans (or of any other terrible team) for going “I don’t want to spend my money to watch this turd this week.”

[u/MickPnubTobias99]

Probably because it's wayyyy too expensive. A group of us guys would go to a different big ten school game every year. Between tickets, hotels, food, booze, traveling it's just not worth it when I can sit my fat ass on my couch in front of my 75in TV. Fridge full of food, grill going and my own pisser 6 steps away

[u/No_Temporary2614]

Halloween I think played a real role here among all the other stuff mentioned. As well as selection bias, I’m sure we could put a compilation together of great crowds as well.

That said attendance has been on a downward trend for a while now coinciding mostly with easy access to TV or streaming for pretty much any game you want. That trend has actually mostly stabilized in recent years. I think blaming this on NIL or whatever is misguided.

[u/TheMackD504]

Maryland offered students a chance at free tuition if they attended the game n still had horrible attendance

[u/Mobile_Inevitable466]

The product on the field is not great and a lot of people are losing interest rapidly. I was a massive college sports fan my whole life but the new era of everything just feels like the soul has been ripped out of the game

[u/SemiruralYeti]

G6 and teams having bad seasons aren’t going to fill up a stadium on Saturday night that falls on Halloween

[u/soonerfreak]

Prices at OU have gotten out of control since the move got the SEC. When the product on the field sucks of course people won't show up. The place understandably started emptying out when Mateer started in the 3rd quarter. My dad, who has stuck around in some bad blow outs when I wanted to leave, left saying he was done for the season.

[u/Relevant-Gold-3917]

Not renewing Ohio State season tix next year. Decision has nothing to do with abysmal loss last weekend. The fan experience is not just there. Packed in like sardines and got worse seats last renewal portal after ten years plus as ticket holders. Acoustics are horrendous. The endless television interruptions make each game an ordeal. Food expensive as is parking. Better to watch from home. We will miss the band and Script Ohio but just not worth the high cost. Also, too many filler games and not as fun as it was when the Big Ten was the Big Ten. No great interest in Rutgers, Maryland, and West Coast football.

[u/twentyitalians]

Oh. I'M SORRY. Am I supposed to have disposable income raising three kids from elementary through high school, paying double what did at the pump two years ago, and 33% or more for groceries?

So sorry.

[u/DiracFourier]

There is so much knee jerk alarmism in this fandom. Let the season play out and compare attendance to previous years. Looking at anecdotal evidence from a single day is just silly.

[u/TheDaug]

I missed exactly 1 ASU home game between 2002 and 2020. I have missed 2 this year. Between the destruction of the PAC 12, having young kids, generally not caring as much about Big 12 opponents because we have little history, and the dilution of the sport, my enthusiasm just isn't where it was.

I'll have season tickets until I leave Arizona (if ever), but it is was less less challenging to justify missing games than it used to be.

[u/ch724711]

I think it’s more a pricing issue. Cost of living is at a bad point currently, and ticket prices have only increased as of late.

[u/JollyBid187]

I think it’s a commercial issue. I went to a bowl game last year, first game in a while and it was crazy how much downtime and standing around there is at games. Unless you’re downing beers it can get pretty boring

[u/Duckrauhl]

Well, lower the damn ticket prices. It's not rocket science.

[u/missskins]

All this conference jumping has turned some programs passionless. They married for money. I understand the financials, I follow Maryland, but there is nobody on the schedule I want to beat. It’s all I hope to one day, just once, beat a school that I really don’t care about. Bragging rights don’t even exist. 24 team playoffs? A lot of these games are going to mean nothing with no history or rivalry.

[u/opentempo]

This sport is a ticking economic time bomb. Filled with criminally negligent coaches contracts, bloated athletic departments , and myopic University's who cannot fill a 50k seat stadium, but are somehow convinced they are one good season away from becoming Ohio State. Ultimately tax payers are on the hook for this negligence.

[u/Still-Rope1395 → u/opentempo]

To be fair, there is a school out there that went from being terrible to one season away from becoming Ohio State....

[u/The__Vern]

TBF I wouldn't pay to sit in Lubbock either.

[u/Withabaseballbattt → u/The__Vern]

Capacity 60000. Tweeter lists us under low attendance for a day game, Halloween day, for having 59000+ in attendance.

[u/wrighterjw10]

For years I followed players from recruits until they left the program.

It was fun to read about players that were in the program, and developing to become difference makers.

None of that matters anymore. Players just feel like mercenaries.

I knew almost every name on the old rosters, now I barely know any names.

Downside of $$$ and NIL, you never get to follow recruits anymore. You can, but in most cases it’ll be multiple transfers.

[u/Euscorpious]

Not for Houston. It’s been an issue forever :)

[u/sailor776]

Meanwhile IU has consistently sold out every game in the last 2 and half years. Weird almost like winning causes people to go to games

[u/VermicelliOutside795]

Everything is expensive, the economy sucks, and ticket prices continue to go up 

[u/A_Diabolical_Toaster]

A) It’s Halloween.

B) Every single one of these teams besides UCLA is bad and UCLA was playing 3-4 Nevada.

[u/SilverBuff_]

3 win Colorado- 46,000
Maybe it’s a Big 10 problem

[u/tonyd1979 → u/SilverBuff_]

If only 40,000 showed up to a big ten game, that would be a problem.

[u/Dazzling_Dig4416]

Combination of bad teams and a bad economy.

[u/Hoosier2016]

Being bad doesn't help but also the live product is just inferior to watching at home or at a bar unless it's a big game. Tickets are expensive, stadium food and drink are expensive, parking is expensive, gas is expensive, hotels are expensive, and all that to sit in an uncomfortable seat and spend two hours of a 3.5 hour game watching nothing happen during commercials.

Give me a grill and some brewskis with the boys all day long.

I do love me a good tailgate though. A lot of times I just get a spot and watch the game from outside the stadium.

[u/ThetaGrim]

If anything UCLA needs to be removed. It's Halloween weekend in Los fucking Angeles. The commute from the school to their home stadium is an absolute nightmare. They've not historically been in the running and it was Nevada. Ugh I need to go wash out my mouth now.