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I found this on the College Sports and Realignment board.

We know football attendance has been pitiful at Miami for many years but now we also know the only reason they can maintain being FBS is because the school buys the majority of their tickets.

"The Miami Student" reports an average of 10,000 tickets per football game were being bought by the school to keep it from falling out of the Football Bowl Subdivision (formerly called Division I-A). The NCAA requires each school in the FBS to average at least 15,000 in actual or paid attendance per game.

The word "paid" in the football game attendance requirement allows the school the opportunity to buy up the tickets and not be required to have actual attendance, "The Miami Student" reports. So, it's legal.

In 2016 and 2017, there was a large difference between the number of scanned (actual attendance) versus announced tickets (actual attendance plus paid but unused).

• In 2016, Miami of Ohio had an average of 12,531 tickets bought by the athletic department per game
• In 2017, Miami of Ohio had an average of 10,514 tickets bought by the athletic department per game
• In 2018, that number was 11,772 per game
Source: The Miami Student

Miami's athletic department bought nearly 59,000 of the tickets to five home games at Yager Stadium in the 2018 season, The Miami Student reports.

https://www.news5cleveland.com/news/nati...-divisions

This is something everyone with eye balls kne was going on. Outside of the games against UC and Ohio, nobody goes to Miami games

Funny how Miami games at Cincinnati, Nippert or PBS, actually draw great crowds. But our now rare trips to Oxford mean a de facto home game for UC.

The ticket situation up there is downright laughable. It would be even funnier if UC had any other "rivalry" game each year. It's been surprising to me how far that program has fallen in the past two decades. They would seem to have competitive advantages over most of their MAC peers yet their proud tradition is as distant as an object in the rear view mirror.

Miami also appears to have a pretty good recruiting class coming in. That's kind of surprising too--choosing a program that plays in an empty stadium and earned bowl eligibility last year only to be passed over. So I guess their new recruiting pitch will be, "Come to Miami and play for a bowl eligible team".

The rise of UC football has killed the Miami program. The BCS/Power 5 power consolidation has hurt the MAC more than any other conference as they have been forced to play game on weeknights to get whatever TV revenue is out there.

There was a time when Miami was a top 40 program and there wasn't a whole lot of difference between the top of the MAC and the non-Michigan and Ohio State schools in the Big Ten.