Posted on 02/15/2018 10:40:52 AM PST by Colonel Kangaroo
Major-college football experienced its largest per-game attendance drop in 34 years and second-largest ever, according to recently released NCAA figures.
Attendance among the 129 Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) teams in 2017 was down an average of 1,409 fans per game from 2016. That marked the largest drop since 1983 when average attendance declined 1,527 fans per game from 1982.
The 2017 FBS average of 42,203 fans per game is the lowest since 1997.
That average attendance drop marked the second-sharpest decline since the NCAA began keeping track of college football attendance in 1948. For the first time in history, average attendance declined nationally for four consecutive seasons.
Even the most rabid league in the country saw a dip. In 2017, the SEC experienced its sharpest per-game decline -- down an average 2,433 fans -- since 1992. That figure led the Power Five in fans lost per game in 2017.
While the SEC led all FBS conferences in average attendance for the 20th consecutive year, its average attendance (75,074) was the lowest since 2005. The SEC has slipped an average of 2,926 fans per game (3.7 percent) since a record 78,630 average in 2015.
(Excerpt) Read more at cbssports.com ...
smaller schools can not compete....
you let schools pay players families and just ignore it basically or hire their daddies to help "coach" and its a wink and an nod...
I'd like to cook their goose by having more schools just drop football completely...
and I LOVE college football but not enough to watch the charade out there..
I go to college football games; love to go to the stadium on game day; love it. That said, the first display of ‘kneelers’ or other types of disloyalty to our country and I’m gone...just like I left the NFL behind years ago, not just due to the recent politicization of the sport. I dropped NFL when the ‘DeionSanderization’ of the game took over. All that ‘look at me’ showing off stuff literally ‘turned me off’ to the NFL long before the so-called ‘protests.’
(Loved the quote attributed to NFL great, Chuck Bednarik who supposedly said, “Deion Sanders couldn’t tackle my wife.”)
Regarding watching the games, most, if not all, of us watch sports to escape reality, especially politics, for a couple hours.
Agreed. Gone is all the tradition that made College Football unique, now it's just a farm system for the NFL.
Throught history there are times when a small and totally unexpected event, seemingly coming out of nowhere, alters the course of a much larger and more powerful venture or endeavor.
Can it be that the Kaepernick idiocy is one of those events?
Did it hit the sport of football (pro and college) at a time when the excesses of the sports craze in general had peaked and brought football to a tipping point?
There was a time when my friends, family and I were avid football fans. Over the years our enthusiasm had waned somewhat but the Kaepernick idiocy put us over the top. I don’t think any of us watched even one game, pro or college, in the last year.
Including the Super Bowl.
The college attendance, might be impacted by the NFL shenanigans. People might be swearing off football altogether because of the NFL, instead of swearing off just the NFL.
A second reason might be the effect of concussions on players. People might be deciding that they are contributing to health problems for the players.
A third reason might be Call of Duty.
A fourth reason could be the lingering effects of the Obama economy. People may not have recovered enough to spend on sports. Or to afford college educations.
With almost 40 bowl games, they become Participation Bowl games.
A bowl team has a 6-6 record, that hardly encourages attendance.
I doubt that, University of Michigan has one of the largest stadiums in the country with an official capacity of 109,901 and they’re sold out for every game......And average ticket prices are $65
Hey, liberals
Hey, liberals
...
You kidding? The old system was absolute hot garbage. College is far from a farm system considering less than 10% make the pros.
The playoffs have ruined the bowls, but nothing else. Before that people bitched about the BCS, and before that, about the media picking their favorite teams each year as champ.
People will bitch no matter what if their favorite team doesn’t win.
Try arguing that Penn State shouldn’t have a program because of decades of looking away from its sexual abuse.
A family member invited me over to watch the game. He was using the game as a reason to gather a number of people socially. About half the people that came didn’t bother to watch the game.
It was the first game I had watched in literally years.
One thing I was amazed at, was the free wheeling the long game defenders had to interfere with the receivers.
These guys were climbing all over the receiver prior to the ball coming in, and not one call was made. These guys weren’t trying to catch the ball either. I believe one long receiver was actually tackled prior to the ball crossing his plane. He was on his back when the ball sailed over him. I don’t remember how he wound up down, but physical contact was part of it.
Why is this allowed?
Many games are now being played during the week and people can’t or don’t want to go to a game on Thursday or Friday nights. Friday night is high school football in most places and going to a Thursday night game means taking off from work and maybe even Friday. Most people can’t afford that.
Click here, Roll Tide.
The half playoff, half poll system stinks.
Just have an a team playoff consisting of the conference champion only.
In person attendance numbers may be down but ratings are up unlike the NFL. With the advent of 4K Tv it is hard to make a case to attend a game when watching at home is a better viewing experience.
Yes, it could well be the case.
I have to say I felt a bit sorry for the collge players who were leaving for the pros this last year. What a sorry time to be starting what should be a wonderful career for some of those kids. Their chance to go prove themselves in front of adoring fans and make names for themselves. Yet the spoiled idiots already there have poisoned the well.
Academics are the most quintessential of all bureaucrats, using other people's money, subject to very strong group-think and following trends that may have already passed them by. I would take anything they do a as a contrary-indicator.
Where do you think the anti-American pro players come from?
I am going to guess: the East-coast schools?
Certainly not the SEC!
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