One word for you, BIGOT…I swear to God I can’t read one single article on this website without somebody taking a cheap shot at Alabama the school or the state. I realize that my team is on top of the college football world and that causes BIGOT’S like tlmoon here to be jealous out of their simple minds but does that give them the right to always take these cheap shots? I could make fun of each and every person on here’s home state or school IF, and that’s a big IF, they weren’t cowards like this guy and were willing to put what team they backed or what state they were from in their name or with their comment so I would at least have a fair chance at returning the insult. I realize the hatred for Alabama gets this website 1000′s of hits but come on people, it gets old, can I please come on here one time and not see something hateful or hurtful about my home state and the people I love just because you hate my football team?? It’s not funny, it’s down right sad and pathetic…

Id rather get the F word in Miami then a Teabag in Tuscaloosa.

I see a couple of comments as to how TV timeouts are making the games longer and making the in person experience worse. I went to a non-televised FCS game this year and the first quarter took almost 90 minutes to play. Time was stopped apparently for the radio broadcasts, which is sort of ridiculous.

huh…wait…..Obamanomics? So you are complaining about Obama and the Democrats for “trickle-up poverty”which is a shot at social programs that the democrats represent which is also opposite of trickle down economics which the republicans have championed……BUT then you are also complaining that the party that is currently in power has not reigned in the free market enough to control the prices of good, services and commodities.

so just so I have this straight – basically you want a trickle down free market based economy where the cost of commodities, goods and services are controlled or set by the government. ummm…….yeah……ummm…..do you get why that doesn’t actually make sense right?

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For your sake, I hope pacifier prices don’t go up any more.

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Lol! Couldn’t have said it better myself.

Main factors in attendance decline:
1) Total cost for a game weekend is absurd
2) TV is free to watch and provides many viewing advantages
3) Stadium experience is greatly diminished by TV timeouts. Primetime games go well over 3 hours.

Sorry folks, but the flat screen television is bringing on the slow death of the turnstyle.

A 5% drop in Penn State or Tennessee’s attendance is roughly 5,000 folks each, given that they both have stadiums with a capacity of right around 100,000 (That’s rough, okay? I know that Neyland has a official capacity of 102,000+ and Beaver 107,000+.)

The 21% increase for UCLA and the 18% increase for USC make up for that. There’s no problem in the big time ranks (except how you define “big time”, which is part of the problem, anyway). Parsing these attendance numbers is a geek’s dream.

Good question. But these schools don’t care too much except to maintain the 15,000 average attendance over a rolling two-year period that keeps them in FBS and off of FBS probation. UMass and Georgia Southern might not have averaged 15,000 this past year; I haven’t made any study of UTSA. But, all of these minor players in FBS seem to be happy if they can average one-third of the average attendance for all of FBS.

I’m curious to see whether we’ll see a shakeup regarding teams moving from FCS to FBS. The last couple of years, the team moving up were all about TV market shares, regardless of whether or not you can actually say that a team like UNC-Charlotte actually delivers those local TV eyeballs any more than Duke, UNC, NCSU, and WF already do.

It’s made for some interesting things. UNC-Charlotte is going into the Sun Belt and hasn’t played a single game at any level. ODU is in C-USA before they’ve ever played a FCS team, or even out of their time zone. Well-established solid FCS programs that want to move up, like Georgia Southern, Appalachian State, JMU, and others wait for conference invitations that don’t seem to be forthcoming – I suppose because the Statesboro, Boone, and Harrisonburg TV markets just aren’t as sexy as Charlotte and Hampton Roads. All anyone can do is wait and see what happens.

It’s fascinating but sort of annoying. I’m an alumni of a school that had it’s success way back when, got shuffled back when the whole Division I, then I-A vs. I-AA came about. When D-I first came, the first requirement was that you needed to have a stadium of a certain size. We had one. Then attendance came into play. We couldn’t make it. There was talk of dropping football altogether, but we decided to be the best FCS team we could be, and worked like hell to fund the program.

Now, some schools just start a program, and if they’re in a big enough media market, they can do so without having a stadium that even seats enough to make the minimum (see Charlotte). They’ll just “do it later.” Must be nice.

Overall though-it’s the same problem the NFL is having. Why go into debt to take the family to even one game when you can take the same amount of money, buy a season package and 60 inch HDTV and gain much more enjoyment over the long term.

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For your sake, I hope pacifier prices don’t go up any more.

I wonder if the players will have to take a pay cu..oh yeah.

I could be busted flat in Baton Rouge, as the song says, but it wouldn’t make me watch soccer. Heck, I was busted flat across the ocean, and didn’t watch soccer LOL

I am not shelling out an arm and a leg for a game between a top 10 program versus Murray state or Eastern Michigan. Make you matchups more competitive, ADD A REAL 16 TEAM playoff and your attendance problem will be solved.

The escalating price of tickets is taking its toll. I have worked bowls (especially in New Orleans) and have not have to pay to attend, but if I did, it would be hard. When you consider parking fees, food and drink, price and cost of gas if the travel is distant, seat price, and any souvenier…well the total is getting up there. For major games, season ticket holders receive first preference and few, if any, tickets remain for sale from the schools for the game, so you have to go to other sources which charge much higher prices.

A combination of the economy, escalating prices for tickets and the game experience, and in some cases, games that few want to see in person are proabably the major factors in drop in attendance.

Obviously, these jerks didn’t represent all the Georgia fans anymore than an idiot like Harvey Updyke represents all Bama fans. But when you pay a fortune for game tickets, you’d like to be able to watch the game with your kids in peace. That kind of behavior is why families like mine are afraid to take their kids to NFL games.

Maybe in addition to ensuring better matchups at more affordable prices, it would help if the NCAA added more security and tossed out the idiots.