Big East Attendance Comparison - Old vs. New

[VAHuskyFan]

There is a huge correlation between home attendance and "brand" value in college football. Just consider the top 15 teams in average 2010 attendance: Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State, Alabama, Texas, Tennessee, Georgia, LSU, Florida, Auburn, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas A&M, Notre Dame, and USC. And BCS conference attendance rankings pretty much line up with their perceived strength: SEC, Big 10, Big 12, Pac 10, ACC, and Big East.

That said, here are the 2010 attendance averages for the teams departing the Big East:

West Virginia: 56,325
Pittsburgh: 52,165
Syracuse: 40,064

And the 2010 attendance averages for the teams arriving:

UCF: 39,614
SDSU: 34,133
Boise St: 33,269
Houston: 31,728
SMU: 23,515

Not bad, but clearly a step down. We needed Boise State and Houston. UCF was a great pickup. We tried to get BYU (61,381) and wound up with SDSU. Someone will have to explain SMU to me. And to the extent the Big East finds it necessary to add teams not named Navy or Air Force, Temple (20,515) and Memphis (23,918) are truly awful ideas.

Here's the link to the NCAA 2010 Attendance Stats for those who are interested in looking for the next crop of Big East additions.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Pitt drew 52k? Is that a total number for the whole season?

 

[nelsonmuntz]

The Pac 12 is spanking all of them at the bank, where it counts. So the attendance doesn't mean squat.

 

[sportsart]

Pitt drew 52k? Is that a total number for the whole season?

I was just looking that up. The ND game must have skewered those numbers big time.

I did notice BCU's numbers went up from 35k to 38k from 2009 to 2010 for those keeping score

 

[mets1090]

UCF drew 40k while playing in a non-AQ conference. That's pretty impressive. Even SDSU's 34k is good for a non-AQ. Boise St. is a football brand regardless of their attendance. Houston is a program that has performed well in recent years and can be expected to have pretty solid attendance figures in the Big East.

SMU... best we can hope is that joining the Big East will be enough to give the program a shot in the arm. Only way I see their addition making sense is if Houston would have been a no-go without them.

 

[VAHuskyFan]

For what it's worth, here are the numbers for the rest of the Big East:

Louisville: 50,648
Rutgers: 46,195
USF: 40,849
UConn: 38,248
Cincinnati: 35,067

The remaining non-AQ schools with attendance > 40k.

BYU: 61,381
ECU: 49,665
Air Force: 40,093

 

[FfldCntyFan]

Pitt includes all press passes they have issued and all tickets that have been comped, whether they get used or not. It would be safe to say that their actual attendance is ~ 8k per game less than their reported attendance.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

I think Boise's stadium capacity is 33.5k, so it looks like they sold out all but one game. They are already on track to expand.

Pitt's attendance is utter horses***. There is no way they got close to that number.

 

[Nostical]

Does anyone actually believe those numbers for Pitt? I was there for the Pitt-Husky game and its questionable if there were 20,000 actual human beings in the stands. All of those attendance numbers are vastly overstated. The largest paid crowd that had their tickets scanned upon entrance at UConn this year was 33,000 and change. If you want to count freebies, and blow up dolls--be my guest.

 

[pepband99]

That Pitt 52k number was 2010's, where there wasn't a ND home game. Makes it even less believeable. It's a complete farce

 

[WestCoastHusky]

Boise will expand their stadium to 53K. They already got plans for that. I have no doubt they will get 50K+ to their games. Houston is expanding their stadium to 40K. Houston will also play some games at Alliance Stadium where Texans play. The pro stadium is 2 miles from their campus. SMU got in due to the Dallas TV market and their past history. They got an attendance issue that needs to be fixed. SDSU will draw big crowds for big games while much less for bad opponents. SDSU had over 50K for Boise game and close to 60K for Washington State.