(10-13-2017 10:06 AM)kmst19a Wrote: Navy attendance has been hurt by being in the AAC. Being in the West division, means few fans from teams in that division travel to Navy. Previously, Navy would draw the biggest crowds playing teams like Pitt, West Virginia, Duke, Wake Forest, Delaware, and Temple. We still play Temple, but only every four years. With yearly OOC games with Air Force, ND, and Army, there is no room for a better drawing OOC team. I love Navy being in the AAC, but I also think that Navy played a toughed schedule as an independent.
This actually isn't true.
In 2015 Season attendance average was 31,669 and average attendance for our AAC games was 32324.
In 2016 Season attendance average was 31,571 and average attendance for AAC games was 32,237.
Those numbers both include the championship game which was anemic with one week's notice, week before Army game was played in Baltimore. I'm definitely not proud about it, and I'm not making excuses but it is explicable why our 30k+ numbers weren't there for it. So....take away that anomaly, and season was 33,322 and AAC 4 regular games averaged 34,593.
OUR FOUR SCHEDULED AAC GAMES LAST YEAR AVERAGED 101.7% of CAPACITY.
Now your points about regional teams traveling well is good, but...
Look at out top 10 attendance - 5 AF games appear, including last Saturday's at #1. Pitt appears twice, Rutgers appears twice ('06 and '08), and Wake Forest once. Rutgers 10th place spot was 36,918 - two AAC games have been within 1,000 tickets. Attendance in 2014, when Rutgers was a little removed from Schiano's great year in 2006, was 33,655; five AAC games have had better attendance in the two years since that game. You mentioned Delaware - three Delaware games in the Johnson Niumatalolo era averaged 35,277. Three of eight regular season AAC games have drawn better and another 2 are within 750 tickets. Those five schools were Houston, SMU, Memphis, Tulsa and (the only one that should be expected) East Carolina.
Let me circle back to AF - half of our top ten attended games at NMCMS. While last week was #1, 2015 AF was only 32,705 - essentially our AAC average for that year.