jedclampett
All American

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RE: Revised TV deal coming
(01-05-2020 02:35 PM)Attackcoog Wrote: This is a list of the bottom 20 FBS teams in average attendance based on their last 4 years of attendance (credit to Bullet for posting the list to the Realignment Board). It’s amazing how many of these bottom 20 teams keep getting mentioned as legit options to replace UConn. It’s just moronic.
Bottom 20 schools (Note Idaho was 11,566 their last 4 years in FBS, better than 3 schools on this list)
Texas State 16,456 SB
Buffalo 16,410 MAC
Miami, OH 16,400 MAC
Eastern Michigan 16,343 MAC
Georgia State 16,184 SB
Florida Atlantic 15,920 CUSA
Western Kentucky 15,708 CUSA
MTSU 15,673 CUSA
Bowling Green 15,340 MAC
Florida International 15,159 CUSA
New Mexico State 14,849 IND
San Jose State 14,819 MWC
Central Michigan 14,329 MAC
Louisiana-Monroe 13,569 SB
Coastal Carolina 13,538 SB
UNC Charlotte 12,531 CUSA
Kent State 12,506 MAC
Massachusetts 11,275 IND
Northern Illinois 10,308 MAC
Ball State 9,475 MAC
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Prior to 2013, when Temple was playing in the MAC, and especially before their current home field (Lincoln Financial Field) was built, Temple's FB attendance was often below 20,000, and could be comparable to the better MAC teams' attendance levels, except when Temple occasionally hosted Penn State with 60,000 in attendance.
Temple's attendance began to rise when Al Golden became HC and got the program back on track, but I don't think their average attendance climbed up to 21,000 or 22,000 until Temple re-joined the Big East for its final pre-AAC season in 2013.
The point is that a lot of schools with an average attendance around 15,000 per game might well experience a doubling of attendance, as Temple has, if they were to join the AAC.
However, the point would be moot for nearly every school on this list, with the possible exception of Buffalo, which itself is probably less likely than the MWC schools to receive an AAC invitation.
Caveat: Buffalo, if they ever join the AAC, might need to build a new stadium to double their attendance, unless they could work out an arrangement to play in the Bills' stadium.
Since I'm using Temple's history in the MAC as an example, it might be worthwhile to point out that Temple's attendance could continue to increase in the years ahead - - if and only if the Owl FB can remain in the upper half of the AAC with regular bowl games. So it's hard to say how much an AAC membership could have on longer-term attendance.
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