(01-05-2019 12:53 AM)Stugray2 Wrote: After the poor showing at the Fiesta, to see fans again not turn out for the NCG is another sign of how poorly southerners travel.
Alabama is closer to California than Wisconsin or Northwestern or Ohio State of Penn State. But look at how they travel to the West, the South and Texas. This is a total BS complaint. Southerners are the worst traveling outside of region. This is one thing that says Texas is not South, their fans travel.
For the West the best comparisons are large public schools like Arizona State, UCLA or Cal. To compare Stanford is like comparing Vandy or Duke. It's just a very small school.
Football is a religion to southerners, so you'd expect them to travel for a Championship. UCF is a commuter school, so no shock they didn't travel. But Alabama is a flagship. No excuses for this.
EDIT: my original response as posted had incorrect data. Mea culpa and I'll start over...
Regarding the bolded, yeah that was not impressive.
Non semifinal Fiesta Bowl attendance in the CFP era:
January 1, 2016 #7 Ohio State 44 #8 Notre Dame 28 71,123
December 31, 2014 #21 Boise State 38 #12 Arizona 30 66,896
December 30, 2017 #9 Penn State 35 #12 Washington 28 61,842
January 1, 2019 #11 LSU 40 #7 UCF 32 57,246
92.6% of the next lowest. 80.5% of the best of that small sample.
Outside of the CFP era, there are not really any earlier "two southeast schools to the Fiesta" for comparison: the most recent was Tennessee Florida State for the BCS championship 20 years ago.
Id submit that attendance is down across the board, and I would blame the CFP eclipsing others and the HD vs stadium factor. Datapoint there is OSU-ND being 5,000 fewer than ten years earlier. But yeah, less than impressive, and taken with lagging Bama Clemson sales (ennui or not) your major point stands.
Original gaffe below
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Regarding the bolded, did I miss something?
Non semifinal Fiesta Bowl attendance in the CFP era:
January 1, 2016 #7 Ohio State 44 #8 Notre Dame 28 71,123
January 1, 2019 #11 LSU 40 #7 UCF 32 69,927
December 31, 2014 #21 Boise State 38 #12 Arizona 30 66,896
December 30, 2017 #9 Penn State 35 #12 Washington 28 61,842
And if the intent is to crow about the ND-OSU attendance, THAT number is 5,000 less than the same matchup ten years earlier.