fanofzoo said:
Have any of you move up fans bothered to look at the stands in some of these famous "bowels" we might go to, pathetic, looks like UNC on a BAD day.
This conversation comes up every year and every year if people actually look at the attendance of the bowl games they'd see that it's way beyond what the FCS playoffs draw.
Have you checked the official attendance numbers of those bowls? Keep in mind some of them are being played in very large stadiums so a crowd of 20,000+ would look not that impressive.
There have been only 2 bowl games that had an attendance of less than 20,000. Know how many FCS playoff games so far this year drew more than 20,000?
Zero. In fact only 1 bowl game drew less than the TOP FCS Playoff game so far this year.
We probably shouldn't be making fun of the bowls too much when the majority of the FCS playoff games didn't even draw 8,000. Even the shitty bowl games that no one cares about are drawing more fans by far than the FCS playoff games. The FCS Championship Game will draw probably around the same amount as the Raycom Media Camellia Bowl which featured 6-6 powerhouse South Alabama vs 7-6 juggernaut Bowling Green.
Here are the attendance numbers for the Bowl games so far:
Mississippi State vs Georgia Tech (Not listed yet)
Arkansas vs Texas
71,115
Boise State vs Arizona
66,896
Ole Miss vs TCU
65,706
Notre Dame vs LSU
60,149
Nebraska vs USC
55,789
Texas A&M vs West Virginia
51,282
Boston College vs Penn State
49,012
Arizona State vs Duke
47,809
Georgia vs Louisville
45,671
Oklahoma vs Clemson
40,071
Miami vs South Carolina
38,242
Maryland vs Stanford
34,780
Cincinnati vs Virginia Tech
34,277
Nevada vs Louisiana-Lafayette
34,014
Navy vs San Diego State
33,077
Utah vs Colorado State
33,067
Illinois vs Louisiana Tech
31,297
Marshall vs Northern Illinois
29,419
Utah State vs UTEP
28,725
North Carolina State vs Central Florida
26,675
Fresno State vs Rice
25,365
Rutgers vs North Carolina
23,876
BYU vs Memphis
20,761
South Alabama vs Bowling Green
20,256
Western Michigan vs Air Force
18,223
Central Michigan vs Western Kentucky
13,667
Lets compare that to the FCS playoffs...
South Dakota State @ NDSU
18,113
Coastal Carolina @ NDSU
18,049
Sam Houston State @ NDSU
18,025
San Diego @ Montana
14,018
Liberty @ James Madison
13,040
Sam Houston State @ Jacksonville State
10,832
Stephen F. Austin @ Northern Iowa
10,307
Illinois State @ New Hampshire
9,497
Indiana State @ Chattanooga
8,419
Montana @ Eastern Washington
7,919
South Dakota State @ Montana State
7,747
Chattanooga @ New Hampshire
6,380
Illinois State @ Eastern Washington
6,239
Richmond @ Coastal Carolina
5,601
Northern Iowa @ Illinois State
5,575
Southeastern Louisiana @ Sam Houston
4,758
Morgan State @ Richmond
4,126
Fordham @ New Hampshire
4,021
Liberty @ Villanova
3,113
Sacred Heart @ Fordham
2,442
Sam Houston State @ Villanova
2,333
Indiana State @ Eastern Kentucky
1,941
So tell me, which bowl game looks like UNC on a bad day? Because I see none... I do however see FCS playoff games that look like UNC on a bad day
I should also point out that UNC's average attendance this year (4,207) is better than over 27% of the FCS playoff games so far this year.