Accumulated home attendance of select conferences impacted by realignment based on 2004 figures.

2004 conference lineup
CUSA 1,644,833
MWC 1,619,810
Big East 1,549,992
WAC 1,422,684
MAC 1,270,813
SBC 758,249

2005 conference lineup
Big East 1,922,549
MWC 1,796,287
CUSA 1,582,212
WAC 1,142,522
*MAC 1,140,124
SBC 605,649

*Includes associate member Temple

Looking at the overall support for a conference is more important than just what the average team is drawing to deduce how much leverage a conference could have with bowls and TV. The WAC took a very big hit after the realignment. Contrary to what many believe, the MAC is closer in total support to the WAC than it is the SBC and I think you see that reflected in TV deals and bowl agreements.

Good food for discussion.

Whoa, nelly!

When it comes to the have-nots, the conference is less important than what we should call "B-List marquee names." At this point, TV is more interested in Utah, Fresno, Boise, Syracuse ("New York's Team"), Louisville, MAYBE Marshall... and then they'll wait for the "hot" team from elsewhere in that bunch to emerge and rearrange schedules to get them on late in the year.

Boise State is already down to two "exclusive local broadcasts" this year because ESPN and Fox are snapping up the remainder of the schedule. Of course, with a few losses, that'll change in a jiffy.

Joefather, good stats.
However,for comparison purposes,what are the conference per game averages?
Also, how do these 6 conferences compare with the other 5 D-1a conferences?

The attendance figures fro each school are buried somewhere within the boards and I've no time to search now. If they don't turn up in a day or two I'll post them again, otherwise go to ncaasports.org (.com?) and download them yourself.

I do have the avg per game for each conference readily available. This is a straight average of the averages per team within each conference, using the 2005 line-ups. Listed are the average stadium capacity, the average attendance for the 2004 season and the average stretching from 1996-2004.

Conf.	Stadium	2004	96-04
SEC	77,061	73,793	70,540
Big 10	75,679	69,265	67,844
Big 12	61,439	57,374	54,239
PAC 10	68,227	55,247	49,756
ACC	57,242	54,300	48,183
BE	50,275	36,795	36,045
MWC	46,057	34,322	32,582
CUSA	52,111	25,243	24,068
WAC	34,649	22,538	22,086
MAC	29,204	16,738	16,183
Sun Belt	30,571	16,874	14,740

Loosely there are several tiers. The SEC and the Big 10 at or above 70k, the B12, Pac10 and ACC in the 50's, the BE and MWC in the 30's and so on.

Total accumulated attendance is nioe, but it must also account for the varying size of the conferences. The Sun Belt not only has less popular teams, but fewer teams overall. Similar story for the BE vs the other BCS conferences. I prefer the per game average as an indicator of program support and appeal, but that may be just me. However, it's no coincidence that the programs that produce the best financial results from their football programs are the ones drawing at or near the 40k range on average. Obviously TV contracts help but that seems to be negated by the increased costs of coaching staff and other amenities: Coaching at Ole Miss pays more than at ECU, for example. Such consistent support in the stands, however, seems to measure whether or not the program will be able to pay for itself or rely on institutional funding. Such crowds usually paralell the overallprogram appeal as well, an indicator of merchandise sales, traveling support for road and bowl games, etc. Part of the reason networks and bowls are less enthusiastic about showing the likes of Tulane and Wyoming than they are for Tennessee or Michigan.

Home attendance averages thru Saturday's games. Number of home games in parenthesis.

20,418 - Troy (2)
20,378 - North Texas (2)
16,609 - Middle Tennessee (2)
16,604 - UL-Lafayette (3)
15,823 - UL-Monroe (3)
15,514 - Arkansas State (3)
15,473 - Florida International (2)
12,655 - Florida Atlantic (3)

Attendance for this week's games only.

14,433 @FIU v UNT
12,944 @ASU v ULL
10,813 @ULM v Troy
10,117 @FAU v MTSU

Sun Belt isn't alone with games under 15,000 attendance this week:


14,312 Miami (Ohio) Akron 14312
13,153 Tulane UTEP 13153
12,800 Houston Memphis 12800
11,715 Southern Methodist East Caro. 11715
10,893 Rice Tulsa 10893
8,377 Nevada Louisiana Tech 8377
6,433 Buffalo Bowling Green 6436


Appalachian State (IAA)

two home games so far

23,267 and 21,486


Homecoming and western carolina are the remaining two games at home. Barring any bad weather both those games should top the other two.



crowd pics here

http://forums.delphiforums.com/appstate/messages/?start=Start+Reading+%3E%3E

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here is a link to the football attendance of most i-a teams. I am not sure what year it is though.http://web1.ncaa.org/d1mfb/2006/Internet/attendance/IA_AVGATTENDANCE.pdf