Developing the Wimple's notion that college football attendance figures ought to be filtered through the lens of enrollment size, here're 2009's attendance ranks, as percentages of each school's enrollment.
A few notes:
(1) Those schools that averaged 100% of capacity are listed below, and fit into a blessed and separate category, perhaps called Those Who May Charge More For Football Tickets.
(2) Of the eight D-1A schools with enrollments smaller than 10k (Tulsa, Navy, Army, Air Force, Rice, Wake Forest, La.-Monroe, and TCU) only Rice and La-Monroe failed to make the top eight in these attendance rankings. Rice is 32nd, and La-Monroe is all the way down at 61st. So having a small enrollment doesn't guarantee a high ranking; outdrawing one's enrollment by three or four times does.
Here're the top 10. (11 through 120 are after the jump)
[school, percentage of enrollment at an average home game]
1. Air Force 792.36%
2. Navy 721.09%
3. Notre Dame 688.61%
4. Army 623.96%
5. Tulsa 540.26%
6. Wake Forest 465.46%
7. TCU 439.13%
8. Clemson 388.35%
9. LSU 368.12%
10. Tennessee 366.03%
Showing posts with label Attendance. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Attendance. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
TCU attendance, Part II
In reply to the Wimple's analysis of attendance among the BCS's top 25, re-ranked by percentage of enrollment, come two counterarguments. The first: hypocrisy. If TCU wants to be treated like a Big Boy in college football, it had better fill its stadium like... like the Big Boys do.
Rebuttal: Hypocrisy? What is hypocritical about TCU saying, (loudly, one wishes), 'We out-draw Boise, Cincy, and in relation to the size of our school, every other successful program in the BCS except Notre Lame. We're not just doing the best we can, we're at the top of the heap!' Rather than hypocrisy, that would pour truth into the debate, which (as lamented regularly) would be novel indeed.
The second counterargument: if TCU wants to compare favorable with big programs, it can't rely on its small size as an excuse for low attendance.
Rebuttal: TCU isn't (or shouldn't be) arguing that it carries the same media sway, TV ratings, or fanbase as the big programs. What TCU is arguing is that the debate ought to be about the quality of the product on the field. TCU presents the best case argument that college football ought to be about... (hold on to your hats!) college football, not about TV ad revenue, rich contributors, and big fan bases bringing loads of money to a bowl city for a weekend.
But, alas; we all know that the actual games are just a footnote in the maelstrom that is college football in its macroeconomic fullness. So while ESPN lusts after Ohio State, no matter how dismal the Buckeyes actually play, fans of the game-- of the blocking and tackling happening between the whistles-- will continue to scour channel lineups for Versus, or the radio dial for KTCU. The Rose Bowl ain't letting in a genuinely good-- but small-- school this year.
C'est la vie. How's that #1 defense, Frogs? What? It's your fourth in the last decade? Who knew?
Rebuttal: Hypocrisy? What is hypocritical about TCU saying, (loudly, one wishes), 'We out-draw Boise, Cincy, and in relation to the size of our school, every other successful program in the BCS except Notre Lame. We're not just doing the best we can, we're at the top of the heap!' Rather than hypocrisy, that would pour truth into the debate, which (as lamented regularly) would be novel indeed.
The second counterargument: if TCU wants to compare favorable with big programs, it can't rely on its small size as an excuse for low attendance.
Rebuttal: TCU isn't (or shouldn't be) arguing that it carries the same media sway, TV ratings, or fanbase as the big programs. What TCU is arguing is that the debate ought to be about the quality of the product on the field. TCU presents the best case argument that college football ought to be about... (hold on to your hats!) college football, not about TV ad revenue, rich contributors, and big fan bases bringing loads of money to a bowl city for a weekend.
But, alas; we all know that the actual games are just a footnote in the maelstrom that is college football in its macroeconomic fullness. So while ESPN lusts after Ohio State, no matter how dismal the Buckeyes actually play, fans of the game-- of the blocking and tackling happening between the whistles-- will continue to scour channel lineups for Versus, or the radio dial for KTCU. The Rose Bowl ain't letting in a genuinely good-- but small-- school this year.
C'est la vie. How's that #1 defense, Frogs? What? It's your fourth in the last decade? Who knew?
Monday, November 2, 2009
A word on TCU's (shockingly strong) attendance
The NCAA publishes attendance stats that (surprise!) flatter the big cartel schools, at the expense of the non-cartel schools. How? By ordering the stats by how well a schools sells out its stadium.
But Division 1 college football is not played in small stadiums-- even if the host school is quite small. The perfect case in point is: TCU, with an enrollment under 9,000 (a stat that invariably surprises fans unfamiliar with the Horned Frogs). So the Wimple offers here a better way to rank attendance figures: by percentage of enrollment. This ordering of attendance stats gives a much better view of those schools that have fan support outside of their boistrous (and bored) student populations.
The Wimple trusts CBSsports.com's listing of each school's enrollment, and uses the NCAA's own per-game average attendance. Taking the current BCS top 25, here are the top attendance/enrollment schools in the nation:
1. Notre Dame's average game attendance is 708% of its enrollment.
2. TCU: 392%.
3. Alabama: 319%.
4. Miami: 317%.
5. Oklahoma: 313%.
6. Oregon: 310%.
7. LSU: 295%.
8. Georgia Tech: 295%.
9. Penn State: 261%.
10. USC: 253%.
11. Iowa: 243%.
12. Virgina Tech: 237%.
13. Boone Pickens: 232%.
14. Ohio State: 208%.
15. Texas: 204%.
16. Wisconsin: 193%.
17. Pittsburgh: 187%.
18. Cal enrolls: 184%.
19. Florida: 182%.
20. Boise State: 172%.
21. Utah: 156%.
22. Arizona: 140%.
23. South Florida: 117%.
24. Cincinnati: 90%.
25. Houston: 72%.
But Division 1 college football is not played in small stadiums-- even if the host school is quite small. The perfect case in point is: TCU, with an enrollment under 9,000 (a stat that invariably surprises fans unfamiliar with the Horned Frogs). So the Wimple offers here a better way to rank attendance figures: by percentage of enrollment. This ordering of attendance stats gives a much better view of those schools that have fan support outside of their boistrous (and bored) student populations.
The Wimple trusts CBSsports.com's listing of each school's enrollment, and uses the NCAA's own per-game average attendance. Taking the current BCS top 25, here are the top attendance/enrollment schools in the nation:
1. Notre Dame's average game attendance is 708% of its enrollment.
2. TCU: 392%.
3. Alabama: 319%.
4. Miami: 317%.
5. Oklahoma: 313%.
6. Oregon: 310%.
7. LSU: 295%.
8. Georgia Tech: 295%.
9. Penn State: 261%.
10. USC: 253%.
11. Iowa: 243%.
12. Virgina Tech: 237%.
13. Boone Pickens: 232%.
14. Ohio State: 208%.
15. Texas: 204%.
16. Wisconsin: 193%.
17. Pittsburgh: 187%.
18. Cal enrolls: 184%.
19. Florida: 182%.
20. Boise State: 172%.
21. Utah: 156%.
22. Arizona: 140%.
23. South Florida: 117%.
24. Cincinnati: 90%.
25. Houston: 72%.
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