Attendance and Body-Bag Games

[IdaGriz01]

The Sports Network made an interesting observation:

There were 30,856 fans in attendance to watch Appalachian State defeat Montana, 35-27. Montana has now played in front of 55,982 spectators in the first two weeks of the season.

Since App State played in front of over 49 thousand at Eastern Carolina (FBS) the previous week, they have played in front of 79,879 in the first two week -- pretty damned impressive. That got me to wondering about the rest of the Big Sky … many of whom played in front of one or two FBS crowds. Here’s the list, in total-attendance order, with their opponent-levels in parentheses:

Weber State – 87,977 (two FBS)
So. Utah – 74,754 (two FBS)
No. Arizona – 63,915 (two FBS)
Sac State – 58,961 (two FBS)
The Griz – 55,982 (two FCS)
No. Colorado – 50,409 (FBS, D-II)
Eastern Washington – 44,734 (two FBS)
Idaho State – 41,510 (FBS, D-II)
Montana State – 24,325 (D-II, FCS)
No. Dakota – 18,057 (two FCS)
Portland State – 16,055 (NAIA, FCS)
UC-Davis – 13,365 (D-II, FBS)
Cal Poly – 6,022 (one FCS only)

So the Griz have played two FCS opponents -- one, admittedly an attendance monster -- and the teams that out-drew them all had to play two FBS body-bag (supposedly) games to do it. It it especially sweet that Sac State and NAU pulled off their upsets in front of some pretty decent home crowds. :thumb:

Of course, EWU played two FBS opponents and came up comparatively short on attendance -- but, of course, one of those was the Idaho Van-dulls. :lol:

 

[GrizMusician]

The Sports Network made an interesting observation:

There were 30,856 fans in attendance to watch Appalachian State defeat Montana, 35-27. Montana has now played in front of 55,982 spectators in the first two weeks of the season.

Since App State played in front of over 49 thousand at Eastern Carolina (FBS) the previous week, they have played in front of 79,879 in the first two week -- pretty damned impressive. That got me to wondering about the rest of the Big Sky … many of whom played in front of one or two FBS crowds. Here’s the list, in total-attendance order, with their opponent-levels in parentheses:

Weber State – 87,977 (two FBS)
So. Utah – 74,754 (two FBS)
No. Arizona – 63,915 (two FBS)
Sac State – 58,961 (two FBS)
The Griz – 55,982 (two FCS)
No. Colorado – 50,409 (FBS, D-II)
Eastern Washington – 44,734 (two FBS)
Idaho State – 41,510 (FBS, D-II)
Montana State – 24,325 (D-II, FCS)
No. Dakota – 18,057 (two FCS)
Portland State – 16,055 (NAIA, FCS)
UC-Davis – 13,365 (D-II, FBS)
Cal Poly – 6,022 (one FCS only)

So the Griz have played two FCS opponents -- one, admittedly an attendance monster -- and the teams that out-drew them all had to play two FBS body-bag (supposedly) games to do it. It it especially sweet that Sac State and NAU pulled off their upsets in front of some pretty decent home crowds. :thumb:

Of course, EWU played two FBS opponents and came up comparatively short on attendance -- but, of course, one of those was the Idaho Van-dulls. :lol:

That's really interesting. Thank you for sharing!

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk 2

 

[MrTitleist]

I read something yesterday.. Montana/AppSt outdrew Wake Forest/North Carolina on the same day.

 

[Ursa Major]

Does anyone know how much money Montana received for playing App St.? Seems like that is the key for these type of games to happen in the future. The home and home makes this more financially attractive but that said we would fill the stadium next Aug. 31st even if we had Dixie State as an opponent. I hope these cross-country FCS games become the norm.

 

[Yukon]

Does anyone know how much money Montana received for playing App St.? Seems like that is the key for these type of games to happen in the future. The home and home makes this more financially attractive but that said we would fill the stadium next Aug. 31st even if we had Dixie State as an opponent. I hope these cross-country FCS games become the norm.

:thumb:

 

[StrikeAngel]

Both the Appy and the McNeese St. home and home arrangements were for the home schools to pay the visitors $100K per game - everybody pays the same to the visiting team so it's a wash over time but it addresses fiscal year balance sheet issues for each school in the fiscal year in which the game takes place.

 

[GrizBacker04]

Does anyone know how much money Montana received for playing App St.? Seems like that is the key for these type of games to happen in the future. The home and home makes this more financially attractive but that said we would fill the stadium next Aug. 31st even if we had Dixie State as an opponent. I hope these cross-country FCS games become the norm.

I am pretty sure Montana did not get paid anything extra for the game, since it is a home-and-home and the costs that UM paid to go to Boone will probably be the same that Appy State pays to go to Missoula next year. If the game was not being returned, UM would have been paid something to come down.

And where UM will make more money on the Appy State game as opposed to bring in Dixie State, is that the Appy State game will be a premium game. Ticket prices will be more, sponsorship opportunities will cost more, etc.

 

[StrikeAngel]

In other words since the home school is paying the visitor out of home game profits (while most NCAA AD's do not show a profit many FCS football programs still post home game day profits event by event) it helps cover visitor travel costs etc... in that fiscal year.

This is basically a cost covering balance sheet arrangement between the three schools in the three home and home deals worked out by O'Day, Cobb and McClelland unlike the "money" games with FBS hosts like Tennessee last year who paid us about $500K which after travel expenses left us with a net for that game of about out "profit" or positive cash flow from a home game of around $350K give or take.

These home and home's against quality cross country out of division schools are awesome and are one more reason O'Day's leadership and high DI visibility will be so very badly missed. Pray that somehow God zaps some sense into Engstrom's head and Kent Haslam gets the nod so we at least have a modicum of continuity. Engstrom's current favorite of King would be a disaster since he is AD at a DII school that doesn't even play football. Engstrom of course has those dreams typical of young boys because King is a "compliance" guy - a post he held at Bama and interestingly - Liberty - who we see Staurday.

 

[StrikeAngel]

pardon me I should have said "out of conference". mea culpa

 

[grizindabox]

I read something yesterday.. Montana/AppSt outdrew Wake Forest/North Carolina on the same day.

Not sure what is more surprising, that UM/App outdrew WF/UNC or that MrTitleist can read! :thumb:

 

[MrTitleist]

I read something yesterday.. Montana/AppSt outdrew Wake Forest/North Carolina on the same day.

Not sure what is more surprising, that UM/App outdrew WF/UNC or that MrTitleist can read! :thumb:

Call it a draw?

 

[WILDCATFAN]

Gah Weber was SOOOOOO close to beating Wyoming last year and Colorado State in 09 :x