RaiderInTheZone said

ArkStFan brought up a point on BlueRaiderZone.com about the attendance requirements.

What every school reports and is posted on the NCAA website is not the same attendance numbers reported to the NCAA to meet compliance the 15,000 average.  According to ArkStFan (who is a very reliable source on these matters), those figures given to the NCAA for compliance purposes are never released to the public.

I didn't know that until ArkStFan cleared that up, but I think one of your fans said to me at one time that your adminstration said that you'd have no problem meeting the requirement.  It's because donors step up and buy tickets but those figures aren't released to the public or reported on the NCAA website.  They are never made public.  They are kept confidential to the NCAA and each school's compliance office.

It's funny because you'll see fans from AnyGivenSaturday constantly checking those numbers wondering which 1-A school will be the first to drop back down to 1-AA.  The truth is, it won't happen unless the school allows it to happen.

This is true.  As long as the requirement is "tickets sold", then no D-IA team will have any problem meeting the requirement.  That is why it was such a big deal when that rule was changed.  Besides, I remember hearing during the time when they were debating changing the rule, that they would have a hard time making a team drop down and it probably wouldn't hold up if it ever went to court.  If a team can offer the scholarships and can financially support a program, then attendance shouldn't be a requirement.  Now, obviously, it is to everyone's benefit that teams draw fans and 15K is a resonable number for any school hoping to build a major college football program.

What was encouraging yesterday was not just the amount of students that showed up(which was the 3rd most I've ever seen behind USF and the playoff game), but how into the game and how passionate they were.  We may have lost the game, but yesterday was hopefully a good day in terms of building a fan base.  I would like to think all those students who ran back and fourth between endzones will go back and tell everyone what a good time they had, despite the loss.

This might be a stupid question, but does the NCAA Division 1A get a portion of tickets sold? If so, then that would probably explain their 15,000 requirement. Which of course would also explain why they only care about tickets sold and not butts in the seats...

faudiehard said

This might be a stupid question, but does the NCAA Division 1A get a portion of tickets sold? If so, then that would probably explain their 15,000 requirement. Which of course would also explain why they only care about tickets sold and not butts in the seats…

No, but I think the reason why the NCAA went back to the original rule calling for 15,000 and allowing tickets sold to count toward the attendance instead of butts in seats is because many schools in danger of being dropped threatened litigation and so did a few conference's that would've been destroyed by losing members.

RaiderInTheZone said

faudiehard said

This might be a stupid question, but does the NCAA Division 1A get a portion of tickets sold? If so, then that would probably explain their 15,000 requirement. Which of course would also explain why they only care about tickets sold and not butts in the seats…

No, but I think the reason why the NCAA went back to the original rule calling for 15,000 and allowing tickets sold to count toward the attendance instead of butts in seats is because many schools in danger of being dropped threatened litigation and so did a few conference's that would've been destroyed by losing members.

I read that also, about 2 years ago if I remember correctly.

Jab979 said

16,902 that includes players and coaches on each team, Cheer leaders, dance team, the band all of the security guards and the guy selling beer. That should put it somewhere close to that # lol.

what about the guy with the cardboard sign that says "Parking $5" across the street??  :D

i really didn't know they count people from saturday's game PLUS attendance from the 2005 ULM home game… now i understand how they got 16,000+  :P

interesting….

Florida_Owl said

Jab979 said

16,902 that includes players and coaches on each team, Cheer leaders, dance team, the band all of the security guards and the guy selling beer. That should put it somewhere close to that # lol.

what about the guy with the cardboard sign that says "Parking $5" across the street??  :D

Seriously though, according to NCAA bylaws on attendance, anyone that is required to be at the game which is everyone that was named including the band and cheerleaders are NOT counted in the attendance numbers.