Big Ten Attendance - not a sellout

Week 2 of the season saw all the big stadiums in the conference in use (save Wisconsin which has yet to play at home).  But just having a big building and a rabid fan base doesn't always guarantee a full house.  More on that later.

Looking inward

The crowd for the Wazzou game was good.  Not great.  Not what we should aspire to as a P5 school.  But of more concern to me is a downward trend for the opening of the football season.  Consider the last three years and the opening two games each year.

PSU last year is the outlier.  But for the other five games to open the season, the trend is downward.  Not by thousands, but down. That isn't a good sign for a program that wants to be on the rise.

Of course, there may be a reason for the lower attendance this year....could outside distractions be a cause?

The Big Ten

Losing to Temple - pretty convincingly - and hosting Buffalo from the MAC didn't excite the fans in Happy Valley as the Nitts drew well under capacity at the erector set that is Beaver Stadium.  They nonetheless were the third largest crowd in the conference after the Fighting Harbaughs hosted their first home game under.....uhhh, the Fighting Harbaugh.

This week we're listing the numbers based on actual attendance, not percent of capacity.  Rutgers still holds its own against the lesser teams of the conference.  Worth noting that four of the top six attendance figures from last weekend were in the Eastern Division.

Old friends.....and schadenfreude.

At least I've learned how to spell schadenfreude without looking it up.

I'm guessing the Cuse is happier in the ACC than in the Big East for football.  Maybe.  Their conference opener at home - after winning their season opener - drew 22, 592 empty seats.

Traveling to East Hartford, the Huskies played Army.  I'm guessing the Cadets showed up, being a short bus ride away.  The numbers, though, at PAWS ARF were not impressive, not even equaling Northwestern's gate.