2009 NCAA D1A Football Home Attendance War: Michigan vs Penn State

Submitted by 98xj on

Week 1 got off to a rousing start for Michigan, viz:

05 Sep 2009

Michigan vs WMU 109,019
Penn State vs Akron 104,968

This bodes well as we have NDp coming in next week, and PSU has Syracuse.

Upcoming home games:

Michigan

12 Sep NDp
19 Sep EMU
26 Sep Indiana
17 Oct Delaware St
24 Oct Penn St
07 Nov Purdue
21 Nov OSU

Penn State

12 Sep Syracuse
19 Sep Temple
26 Sep Iowa
10 Oct Eastern Illinois
17 Oct Minnesota
07 Nov OSU
14 Nov Indiana

Tater

September 7th, 2009 at 12:07 PM ^

When the day comes that they decide to add about 20,000 seats to the Big House, it will all be moot. I really miss the days when the Big House was the Big House and nobody else was even close. I sorta feel like I was spoiled.

sparkpsu

September 7th, 2009 at 12:46 PM ^

Michigan has a better schedule: one A game and three forgettable OOC games vs. one C- game (made marginally more interesting by the Paulus angle and the possibility of #45 sacking Duke's point guard) and three forgettable OOC games. So now that you're putting a compelling product on the field again, it wouldn't be surprising if UM posts more favorable numbers. PS AD Curley made the penny-wise pound-foolish decision to schedule such an indefensible slate of tomato cans. Although, Akron is actually fundamentally sound in most areas. In any case, the strategy (with which I disagree) of putting together a relatively weaker schedule in the interests of accruing more wins to secure a BCS slot is empowered by the perverse incentives that are part and parcel of the current system, a system largely kept in place because of the wishes of the B10 and PAC10 - the codependent parents in the dysfunctional college football family.
I'll predict that Penn State posts higher attendance for the one marquee match-up of the year, the homecoming of Prodigal Son Terrell Pryor. Although UM could possibly top that figure when hosting PSU due to strong traveling support from the visiting school and the fact that Michigan is the most attractive road venue to visit, apart from Pasadena.

sparkpsu

September 7th, 2009 at 1:15 PM ^

Take your point, KBLOW. I'm not sure backward-looking metrics like headcount are the best areas of focus for our respective programs when there's more pressing business, B10's national standing etc. Fan support isn't the challenge for Michigan and PSU, but opposing a play-off might be.

98xj

September 7th, 2009 at 1:07 PM ^

..do you still have any of those "Beaver Stadium: The Real Big House" t-shirts left? :)

Anyway, I agree that a) scheduling cupcakes for BCS purposes is a disgrace, and b) the BCS itself is a disgrace.

Re OSU on 07 Nov: Since Beaver's max seems to be 110K flat, you will need more than that for the highest single game attendance this year, since we "find" ways of getting well past 110K even at current capacity.