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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.